Jeremy Kauffman, Founder Of The Decentralized Blockchain-Based Free Speech Platform LBRY
I’ve spent a lot of time thinking since my arrival at Fort Devens to serve my 18 months of government-mandated vacation, and one of my favorite things to remember is that final week of Porcfest, where I spent time with my liberty family a mere two days before starting my prison sentence. I have, of course, been aware of certain issues that developed after that year’s final Porcfest day–notably, after the Soapbox Idol event. After all, I was there as a judge, and I saw it all first-hand, with better-than-front-row seats, and I really only have one question:
Is this how we treat heroes of the liberty movement?
To call Jeremy Kauffman divisive is as much of an understatement as calling me controversial, but on one point there can be no division or dispute. Jeremy built LBRY, a real-life tool that is immune to government censorship as no other platform has ever been, and from that spawned Odysee, a web-based front-end to the protocol that brought much of this unrestricted content to the masses. What Ross Ulbricht did to make drug use safter, Jeremy did to help protect information from overbearing states (and what state isn’t overbearing?). If this was his only contribution to bettering the world for liberty, I would argue that it is more than enough, but he has not been content to merely hand over a widely used censorship-resistant video and file sharing protocol and platform, has he?
You won’t believe this. Even I can’t believe it. I had to stop investigating this story because the rabbit hole of corruption was so deep that I lost sight of where it began. So let’s start at the end and work backwards…
This Friday was an eventful night. First, a man was arrested for honking his horn in support of activists. Then, my friends and I are threatened with arrest while trying to bail him out. He’s now sitting in jail for the weekend, and his car was impounded. The tow truck man accepted an offer by an activist to pay to tow the guy’s car to his home, but the police threatened to revoke the tow truck man’s contract with the city if he did.
The whole idea about police is that “society” gives up some rights and freedoms to a small group of people in order to gain some safety. The problem is that the people who are willing to give up their freedoms are already well behaved, and the people who behave badly are attracted to power. This arrangement turns a populations of good people into easy prey for tyrants, knowingly or unknowingly. Illustrated here:
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This Wednesday at 1pm I’ll walk into district court in Manchester, New Hampshire so a judge can decide when I’ll go to jail. Why? Well the start of all this was June 4th, 2011 when I used children’s chalk on a police station. Since then I have been found guilty at a trial by judge. Wanting to speak to a jury, I appealed.
1. Derrick J Freeman brutally arrested by Keene Police Officer Fintan Moore
2. Ladies in Keene Blog post
3. Adrian Schoolcraft and the NYPD tapes
4. Glik decision and how it pertains to video recording public officials
