SOPA, PIPA, Internet Squatters and Hackers: When the "WWW" Stands for Wild Wild Web!

This week in our Podcast of Optimism, we recap the ongoing DrRussBuss.com saga, and highlight two other Internet related news bytes: the Internet blackout response to the proposed SOPA and PIPA bills, and the attack of government websites by the hacker group Anonymous.

Where can the optimism be found in these situations? What is the meaning of all this? Dr. Russ reminds us that meaning should not be found in the events themselves, but in our reactions to the events that unfold around us.

Click on Optimism Now to listen in!

Act with Optimism and stand up to SOPA and PIPA!

Have you heard the buzz about SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PROTECT IP (PIPA, aka Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act)? Many websites and users are taking part in an "Internet blackout" today to show opposition to these two bills. 

Your Optimism Tip this week is to take action and be informed. This is important. Please take a few minutes to watch the video below. 

Click here to learn more and to send a letter to your representatives, asking them to oppose these bills!

Dr. Russ Buss Held Hostage and Squatted on Somewhere in the World

Where is the drrussbuss.com website?  We are not exactly sure.  What we do know is that as of January 2, 2012 any attempt to search for and access this website only takes you to a “Go Daddy” parked page which asks whether you own a website by that name.  Clicking through the prompts just brings you back to the parked page. 

We were able to access the Moment-to-Moment Optimism blog through its host site Squarespace.  The good news is that no content has been lost.  The bad news is that all of those who know us as drrussbus.com cannot access the inspirational material they have been seeking on a regular basis.

Where in the World is DrRussBuss

The best we can tell the “Buss” is being “squatted on” in Australia.  The actual hi tech term is “cybersquatting” or domain squatting which -

• “according to the United States federal law is registering, trafficking in, or using a domain name with bad faith intent to profit from the goodwill of a trademark belonging to someone else. The cybersquatter then offers to sell the domain to the person or company who owns a trademark contained within the name at an inflated price.”

We know for sure that a company in Australia has purchased our domain name.  What they plan to do with the name is unknown.  We can only hope that the “Buss” is not being abused while it is held hostage.  That domain name was special to us and we wouldn’t want anything untoward to happen to the “Buss.”  The “RussBuss” was a good vehicle from which to tour and explore optimism.

Unfortunately at this time we have no way of knowing when, if ever, we will be able to get the “Buss” back; at a minimum we estimate several months of concerted effort.  We still have questions about how the domain name was made available to sell.  And we will pursue reasonable channels to have it returned.  But we know you cannot wait that long to receive your next daily dose of optimism.  We know you need your “Optimism Now!”

Get Your “Optimism Now!”

This situation has certainly put our optimism stamina to the test.  How do we recover from this setback within a few moments and move forward towards our goal of teaching how to live optimistically in every moment of life?  If we allowed pessimism to rule the moment we would act like helpless victims and likely do one of the following:

1. Spend months trying to get the domain name back while losing over two years of effort building a stable audience platform.
2. Use a .org or .net domain name version of the site which we do happen to own.  While this solution is not necessarily pessimistic it is not optimistic either because it does not entertain the possibility of a grand new opportunity that might be out there as a solution to the problem.

We asked ourselves: “What is the grand new opportunity inherent in this negative situation?” A possible answer came to mind immediately.  We had recently purchased a new domain name that would support the new iPhone application we have developed and are about to release.  The domain name is: www.OptimismNow.com.  We realized that is was the perfect hosting name for the Moment-to-Moment Optimism blog and it could still support the App.  Because the new domain name has the word 'optimism' in it, it will likely make it much easier for individuals to be searching the net and stumble upon it.

Bookmark www.OptimismNow.com

For easy access to your daily dose of optimism, go ahead and bookmark the site with its new domain name.  Trying to access the site via the drrussbuss domain name will only take you to a dead end.  Meanwhile we will be trying to rescue the “RussBuss” from its Australian captors...

Egypt: The Contrast of Optimism and Pessimism in Cairo Protests

By Dr. Russ

The world is focused on Egypt and one million protesters in a central square in Cairo.  The events and protest movement provide an opportunity for me to expound on the contrast of optimism and pessimism inherent in this international crisis. 

The Egyptian protest movement is another chance to show how optimism is born of pessimism; how a pessimistic moment often precedes an optimistic one...or at least presents a problem that can be turned into an optimistic opportunity.

Nine Transitions of Pessimism into Optimism from the Egyptian Crisis

From Pessimism:

• All roads to Cairo have been shut down.

To Optimism:

• Thousands defied the transportation shutdown and found a way to travel to Cairo from the Nile Delta Region by foot, bike, rogue car or truck.

From Pessimism:

• A teacher after 22 years of teaching only makes $70 a month.

To Optimism:

• The teacher wants a better education system so she can teach in one that guarantees her students a good life after school.

From Pessimism:

• Older generations could never say no to Mubarak.

Optimism:

• Young people today are proving they CAN say no. 

From Pessimism:

• Thousands of protesters sleeping on the streets.

To Optimism:

• Protesters are sleeping in the square next to school teachers, farmers, unemployed university graduates, women in conservative heads carves and women in high heels, men in suits and working-class men in scuffed shoes.

 From Pessimism:

• High-handed police demand bribes from local business in order for them to stay open.

To Optimism:

• Small business owners have taken the risk to join the protest because they want their children to have a better life without humiliation from authorities and a chance to choose their president.

From Pessimism:

• Troops and Soviet-era and newer U.S.-made Abrams tanks stand at the roads leading into Tahrir Square in Cairo where hundreds of thousands, perhaps even a million will be protesting. 

To Optimism:

• Protests, by and large, have been peaceful, and troops and tanks have not fired upon the crowds. The military promised on state TV Monday night that it would not fire on protesters.

From Pessimism:

• An unprecedented shutdown of the Internet was is in its fifth day.  

To Optimism:

• Reporters from CNN and other international networks are giving live interviews from Tahrir Square and tweeting out about it.  Hackers have re-opened the internet channels out of Egypt.

From Pessimism:

• In response to the protest, President Mubarak tried to make a minor change to his government by simply dropping his interior minister who heads the police forces.

To Optimism:

• The protesters and President Obama rejected the plan immediately.  A Mubarak aid has announced on state TV an offer to have a dialogue with “political forces” for constitutional and legislative reforms.

From Pessimism: 

• The protest involves a range of social movements with conflicting agendas including students, online activists, grass root organizers, old school politicians, and fundamentalist Muslim groups.

To Optimism:

• Despite the potential for conflict between these subgroups, we hope they keep a single mindedness of purpose focused on the higher order common goal to establish a true democracy despite any secular differences.