Free Republic

Bloggers, like me, are voicing their views and commentary on the news (and falsehoods, etc) of the day as is our right under the constitution.  When a corporation tries to tell me I cannot comment, criticize (and more often correct) their lousy product I lose all interest in being reasonable.  There are lines you do not cross because they cannot be uncrossed. The-news-source-that-shall-not-be-named, which went after bloggers for excerpting and linking their biased and error prone ‘news’ articles, crossed that line - in full hypocrisy it seems: 1. The AP is essentially arguing that anyone who excerpts 33 to 79...

This is our Boston tea Party. The Associated Press wants to levy a $12.50 and up license fee (aka extortion fee) on any blogger who quotes more than 4 words from one of their propaganda pieces. This is an outrageous attempt to control the blogosphere and free speech itself. To hell with their license fee and to hell with the AP. Any AP article that gets posted to FR will be jettisoned into the harbor posthaste. Please do not post any AP material to FR excerpted or not.

Below is the latest revision of my profile page which lays out the guidelines for the Religion Forum. Based on a fruitful discussion this morning with another moderator, it has been revised again to simplify and clarify what we are after with the new thread tag “ecumenic.” Please review it and let me know if anything is unclear. Also, if you have complaints about me, air them on this thread. RELIGION MODERATOR’S PROFILE PAGE I am the current Religion Moderator and have general responsibility for this Religion Forum on Free Republic. However, all moderators have authority on the RF as...

Statement by the founder of Free Republic: In our continuing fight for freedom, for America and our constitution and against totalitarianism, socialism, tyranny, terrorism, etc., Free Republic stands firmly on the side of right, i.e., the conservative side. Believing that the best defense is a strong offense, we (myself and those whom I'm trying to attract to FR) support the strategy of taking the fight to the enemy as opposed to allowing the enemy the luxury of conducting their attacks on us at home on their terms and on their schedule. Therefore, we wholeheartedly support the Bush Doctrine of pre-emptive...

<p>OK folks, where should we go from here? Do we continue to post the YouTube video and articles about the YouTube video on Free Republic?</p> <p>We've had to pull some articles about this, all sourced to the YouTube video. Some were pulled because they were from porn sites. One site was blocked tonight because of other disgusting content.</p>

Threads posted prior to 9/4/01 are temporarily locked. These threads use older technology which has yet to be fully integrated with the new system. In the meantime, to carry-over such threads into the new system, posters will be required to repost the article. Sorry for the inconvenience.

We received a copyright infringement notice today from Forbes.com. They requested that we either remove a thread that contained a full text posting of one of their articles or reduce it to a brief one paragraph excerpt with a link back to their source article. We have complied with their request and have added Forbes.com to the excerpt and link only list. My understanding of fair use is that we can quote small amounts of copyrighted works for critiquing and discussion purposes as long as we're not adversely impacting the publisher's market for his works. Our excerpt and link list...

<p>I was told earlier this evening that it's impossible for a conservative to win the general election against Hillary Clinton. That the socially liberal Rudy Giuliani is the ONLY Republican who can (a) beat Hillary and (b) win the war.</p>

Is Free Republic a commercial operation or a charity? Well, here's the way I see it. Free Republic is neither a charity or a commercial operation. It is simply a website. A public political bulletin board, just like thousands upon thousands of other non-commercial, not for profit, public political bulletin boards, only larger. Our participants post and discuss political topics, government topics, constitutional issues, current events and other miscellaneous topics. I operate it as an avocation (a hobby). I was sued by a couple major media players, so I filed as an LLC to gain at least a small ...

We've received many requests from freepers requesting that other freepers not post to them. There are several problems with this. 1. It's impossible for us to enforce.2. We don't have the time to enforce these requests.3. We don't have the software to keep track of these requests.4. Thick skin helps.5. Ignore the poster, if you don't reply, they won't reply. Free Republic does not need a bozo filter, bozo filters are for wimps. Final note: Trolls, troublemakers, disruptors, forum pests, malcontents, RINOs, liberals, stalkers, et al, would continue posting to (harassing) someone after being asked to stop. Conservative FReepers would...

Hi everyone, Olive here, it's been awhile since we had a refresher course on the posting guidelines. Santa says hi, and we're all looking forward to a great new year!We've had a lot of newbies sign up! Welcome Aboard! The more the merrier! And it doesn't hurt you longtimes to re-read this. As always, we're here to help. Ask questions, we'll do our best to answer. Let's talk about profanity, your f**k and s**t and other posts will be pulled. We are not a gutter site, so don't treat us as such. We all get what you're saying, same as...

<p>Thanks. Now let's make Pelosi's worse nightmare come true! GO VOTE!</p>

<p>The Free Republic keyword feature serves a valuable purpose, it alerts posters to topics that they are interested in and supplements those topics which aren't already listed as available topics.</p> <p>1. Please do not add words like "and" and "the" to the keywords. And PLEASE do not add every word from your title to the keywords, that's just plain annoying.</p>

Here are the scanned images of our Settlement with the LAT/WP: Page 1 through 3 is the Stipulation for entry of Amended Final Judgment Page 4 is blank Page 5 through 11 is the Amended Final Judgment. Page 12 is blank Page 13 through 16 is the LA Times/Chicago Tribune and affiliates Page 17 is blank Page 18 through 20 is the Washington Post/Newsweek and affiliates Page 21 blank Page 22 through 62 is the original Final Order for Partial Summary Judgment Page 1: Page 1 Click below for the remaining pages: Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4...

Hello everyone. Pleased to meet you. I am your Religion Moderator. I have been asked by several posters to let you know any special guidelines which apply to posting in the Religion Forum on Free Republic. Here goes… First, you should know that all moderators have authority on the Religion Forum and we are individuals and therefore what is tolerable to one may not be tolerable to another. However, I have general responsibility for this particular forum and spend most of my time reading your posts and moderating the conversations. And I do hold Religion Forum posts to a higher...

Just a reminder: Free Republic is a conservative site. We fight for conservative principles, values and causes. We defend the Constitution. We defend our borders. We defend our God-given rights. We are opposed to the liberal/socialist/Marxist agenda for America. We do not willingly give up ground to the Marxists. It's true that the illegal immigration issue is very discouraging, and I don't know if anyone has a solution that will appeal to conservatives and yet manage to get by Democrat obstructionism, ie, a filibuster, but I don't see that as any reason to give up everything. We should not allow...

Hi everyone, it's been awhile since we had a refresher course on the posting guidelines. We've had a lot of newbies sign up. Welcome Aboard! The more the merrier! And it doesn't hurt you longtimes to re-read this. As always, we're here to help. Ask questions, we'll do our best to answer. Are you ready maggot? SEARCH If it's a breaking news topic, check breaking news first, it's probably already posted. Check the breaking news sidebar first. Don't try to be the first one with the story, you've already been beaten by about eight threads. To avoid duplicate posts, please...

<p>For the next couple of weeks, the Olympics will be held in Turin, Italy.</p> <p>But because of the time delay in televising various events, it poses a problem for some of the good folks here at Free Republic.</p> <p>Some people want to know immediately when the USA wins a medal or some other significant event happens. Others would prefer to find out first while they are watching the tape-delayed television broadcast and would prefer not to know the results before the broadcast.</p>

<p>Hi everyone, Olive here, it's been awhile since we had a refresher course on the posting guidelines. We've had a lot of newbies sign up! Welcome Aboard! The more the merrier! And it doesn't hurt you longtimes to re-read this. As always, we're here to help. Ask questions, we'll do our best to answer.</p>

<p>Thread URLs will change.</p> <p>Old links will be redirected to maintain bookmark compatibility. The new links will be more descriptive, offering the date of the article and perhaps a meaningful filename.</p> <p>The timestamps on threads will change to your computer's local time zone, but only if you have JavaScript enabled. Otherwise they will be in US/Eastern. Your FR preference will be ignored (and will be phased out in favor of browser-side time zone handling.) The beauty of this arrangement is that as long as your computer displays the time in your time zone, FR will "Do The Right Thing"(tm).</p>

<p>There is a problem with the database and it's causing the posting program to crash before the entire record is written. We hope to have it fixed soon.</p>

DO NOT POST ANY MILITARY INFORMATION YOU HAVEIt is imperative during this time period that no one and I mean no one post any information they have about our military. There have been several postings tonight giving information about bases near where they live -- please do not discuss your local bases on the open forum. Our men and women of the Armed Forces are in harm's way enough without our telling people what is going on in our areas. Please think before you post. Keep your mouths shut about military activities in your area that are not already ...

<p>We've had many new folks join up recently. Welcome aboard, this thread is a gentle reminder of some basic posting guidelines. (And for some of you old timers as well) Please read the follow, and ask any questions. We will all try to help you out. Anyone who has a link that might be useful, feel free to post it.</p>

We've had a lot of new folks join up recently. Welcome aboard, this thread is a gentle reminder of some basic posting guidelines. (And for some of you old timers as well) Please read the follow, and ask any questions. We will all try to help you out. SEARCH If it's a breaking news topic, check breaking news first, it's probably already posted. To avoid duplicate posts, please search before posting. Use the published article title to prevent duplicates. The best method to search is to pick a key word or two from the title. If the article you are...

<p>We've had a lot of new folks join up recently. Welcome aboard, this thread is a gentle reminder of some basic posting guidelines. (And for some of you old timers as well) Please read the follow, and ask any questions. We will all try to help you out.</p>

Free Republic and Jim Robinson's Finances Miscellaneous Free Republic Source: Free Republic Published: 07/15/99 Author: Jim Robinson Posted on 07/15/1999 01:02:53 PDT by Jim Robinson Just trying to set the record straight. Even though it's boring, I'll have to go back a few years to lay the groundwork for the story. Warning: it's boring so you might just want to skip this whole thing and go on to a real article... but for those of you who are spreading the gruesome rumors of Jim Robinson ripping off the FReepers, here's the real accounting of Free Republic. During the 70's and...

Hello. Over the past hour or so, there have been individuals who have hit abuse dozens upon dozens of times, sometimes for the very same thing they had previously hit abuse on.Please do not do this. It is highly annoying.I am aware that there are about 10 threads on Arafat dying. I made the decision that I was not going to pull all of them. I did not want to lose the first few comments made on them, and besides, the explosion of threads on FR when something big happens is somewhat of a tradition. I'll be pulling new threads,...

<p>We've had a lot of new folks join up recently. Welcome aboard, this thread is a gentle reminder of some basic posting guidelines. (And for some of you old timers as well) Please read the follow, and ask any questions. We will all try to help you out.</p>

We are asking that you all follow these simple posting rules, search before posting, use links and sources when possible, and excerpt as required. Please take a moment to read. We need your cooperation. Only one of these topics will show up in a sidebar, posting to multiple topics will still only show one topic. Activism/Chapters - Activism, protests, news and business of Free Republic Chapters. Freep this poll should be placed in vanity. General news stories about activism should be place in news. After action reports from Freeps are allowed here. Announcements – Notifications of Activism events, FR business...

I've introduced a new feature. If it works without killing us all I'll extend it to keywords.

It's time again for another posting refresher course. Please take a moment to read. Thanks for your cooperation. Only one of these topics will show up in a sidebar, posting to multiple topics will still only show one topic. Activism/Chapters - Activism, protests, news and business of Free Republic Chapters. Freep this poll should be placed in vanity. General news stories about activism should be place in news. After action reports from Freeps are allowed here. Announcements – Notifications of Activism events, FR business Breaking News - Not every story is breaking news. Breaking news should be news that affects...

New Forum for Bloggers and posters with personal web sites! For all of you who have blogs or personal web sites or personal news or opinion or forum sites that you would like to discuss or promote on Free Republic, here's the place to do it. Our new Bloggers & Personal forum is for: Posting from your blog. Posting from other peoples blogs. Posting your from your personal web site. Posting from other peoples personal web sites. Promoting your blog. Promoting other peoples blogs. Promoting your personal web site. Promoting your favorite web sites. Posting from your favorite outside forums....

As most of you are aware, we've recently received several copyright complaints. In the last few weeks, we've received complaints from the SJ Mercury News, Independent (UK), SF Chronicle and The Boston Globe. Just a couple days ago the Post-Gazette send a cease and desist notice and yesterday I heard from the Tribune-Review. Tonight, I got a call from Amy and there were two more registered letters at our PO Box. The McClatchy News (Sacramento Bee) and USAToday are now added to the list of publications that have complained about copyright violations. Well, folks, the handwriting is on the wall....

Subject: Copyright violations in re: SF Chronicle Date: Fri, 2 Apr 2004 14:15:25 -0800 (PST) From: John Angelico To: jimrob@psnw.com Dear freerepublic.com, It has come to our attention that you have copyrighted SF Chronicle and SF Gate articles posted within your Message Board area. Here's an example: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1091396/posts Our policy is to allow other sites to link to our site, but not to host our material. This policy ensures that our traffic numbers will be sufficient enough to maintain our free archives, which benefits everyone. Please remove these full text posts (or replace them w/ abstracts and links to...

I posted the following statement to our front page in response to the criticism I'm receiving lately as to not being fair and balanced and perceived mistreatment of trolls and assorted malcontents. Got news for all, I'm NOT fair and balanced. I'm biased toward God, country, family, liberty and freedom and against liberalism, socialism, anarchism, wackoism, global balonyism and any other form of tyranny. Hope this helps. Statement by the founder of Free Republic: In our continuing fight for freedom, for America and our constitution and against totalitarianism, socialism, tyranny, terrorism, etc., Free Republic stands firmly on the side of...

<p>It's been a while since we had a thread along these lines.</p> <p>I can tell from comments I am seeing in threads, on abuse reports, and in Freepmail that some people are unhappy with various policies and their implementations by the staff here.</p>

This is just a reminder that before one posts an article, one should check to see if the article has been previously posted in order to avoid duplication. Duplication causes several problems. Just like the old Monty Python skit about spam, if the same thing is posted over and over, it can drown out other valid posts. It needlessly consumes system resources. It fragments discussion. In general, moderators will pull duplicate postings when we are alerted to them or when we notice them. This has the benefit of eliminating the "spam" effect and it helps keep discussion from being fragmented....

Due to the overwhelming interest, we thought one official review thread would be much better than hundreds of individual threads. This might even turn out to be the "Passion of the Christ" daily thread, which would provide a place for everyone to discuss the topic without fragmentation. If some freeper(s) would like take over the maintences of new threads, that would be perfect.

As part of our settlement with the LAT/WP, we have agreed to post only short excerpts and links from the following LAT/WP related publications. List of publications that must be excerpted. Scanned images of the LAT/WP vs Free Republic Settlement docs and Amended Final Judgment.Related Publications in the LAT/WP vs Free Republic Settlement AgreementCopyright infringement complaint from The OnionCopyright Infringement complaint from Vanity Fair/Condé Nast Copyright complaints from Ziff Davis, publishers of PC Magazine, eWeek and ExtremeTech, and from Independent.co.uk. Newspapers Los Angeles TimesChicago TribuneNewsday, New YorkThe Baltimore SunSouth Florida Sun-SentinelOrlando SentinelThe Hartford CourantThe Morning Call, Allentown, Pa.Daily Press, Newport...

Free Republic is a family oriented forum, or at least we try to be classier than your normal everyday run of the mill, slap 'em together forum. We have seen a significant increase in the amount of risqué comments and graphics being posted lately. Please tone it back a notch or two. The 'aw not this **** again' graphic and bared breasts are inappropriate. Let’s remember, we’re Free Republic, not some wanna be site, and certainly, we’re not some liberal chat site. Let’s keep our standards high. Strive for excellence. For the most part, we are educated, responsible adults. A...

I have some announcements and observations pertinent to everyone who frequents the Religion Forum. First, I have registered the screen name "Religion Mod" in order to make it easier to contact me via FReepmail. This should satisfy some your concerns regarding just who, exactly, is reading and responding to your messages directed to me. Like all good clouds, however, this one has more than a silver lining. As you know, I simply cannot be here 24/7; therefore, if you send me a FReepmail during a time I'm not present on the forum, it will take time for me to read...

It's no secret. They don't like you and they will ban you whenever they catch you posting to their forums. Who cares? We ban them anytime they register here. It's a fact. Very few people here are interested in reading the DU style spin and regurgitated propaganda. Those of you who want to rattle their cages are welcome to it, but please do not drag any of their garbage back to FR and please do not bother posting vanities about your experiences with them. It's not wanted here and will be deleted. Thanks, Jim

Way too many vanity threads lately. And way too much trash being posted. Please try to stay on topic (politics). Also, please do a search on a significant word from the title of your article before posting. This will reduce the number of duplicates. And, along these same lines, please use the original titles on your article posts. Do NOT edit the titles. Do NOT use "My Title" titles. This will also help to reduce the number of duplicates. And, whatever else you do, please DO NOT post from DEMOCRATS UNDERGROUND (or any other such trashy un-American socialist hangout). Free ...

Way too many vanity threads lately. And way too much trash being posted. Please try to stay on topic (politics). Also, please do a search on a significant word from the title of your article before posting. This will reduce the number of duplicates. And, along these same lines, please use the original titles on your article posts. Do NOT edit the titles. Do NOT use &quot;My Title&quot; titles. This will also help to reduce the number of duplicates. And, whatever else you do, please DO NOT post from DEMOCRATS UNDERGROUND (or any other such trashy un-American socialist hangout). Free ...

GOOD NEWS - BAD NEWS (Don't Say You Weren't Warned) The bad news is that I am the newly designated moderator of Free Republic's Religion Forum. The good news is that I am the newly designated moderator of Free Republic's Religion Forum. First, let's discuss why this is bad news. I have no doubt that everyone who participates in this forum is aware of the general posting guidelines of Free Republic; they've been in effect as long as Free Republic has been in existence. Just for clarity, here they are again: "NO profanity, NO personal attacks, NO racism or violence...

Hello everyone. I hope your New Year is going well so far. It has been a while since we had a reminder about what the Smokey Backroom is all about, and we have been getting a sense that some don't really know what it is about. As you all know, we have guidelines against personal attacks and flamewars. We try to keep things within those guidelines, but face it, sometimes discussions get tempers up and things get heated. Sometimes, the cure (pulling comments, suspending, and banning) can be worse than the problem. Sometimes an alternative cure is better-- letting those...

Hello everyone. I hope your New Year is going well so far.It has been a while since we had a reminder about what the Smokey Backroom is all about, and we have been getting a sense that some don't really know what it is about.As you all know, we have guidelines against personal attacks and flamewars. We try to keep things within those guidelines, but face it, sometimes discussions get tempers up and things get heated. Sometimes, the cure (pulling comments, suspending, and banning) can be worse than the problem. Sometimes an alternative cure is better-- letting those who are...

<p>It's time again for another posting refresher course. Thanks for your cooperation.</p> <p>FYI: The New York Times is not part of the lawsuit.</p> <p>Only one these topics will show up in the sidebars, posting to multiple topics will still only show one topic.</p>