On This Internet Freedom Day, Download A Free Book: On Internet Freedom

from the enjoy dept

Fri, Jan 18th 2013 6:42am — Mike Masnick

Lawyer Marvin Ammori has had an uncanny knack for being deeply involved in a few key battles for internet freedom over the years, including the SOPA fight last year. As today is the one year anniversary of the big January 18th blackout that effectively killed SOPA/PIPA -- a day many are calling "Internet Freedom Day" -- Ammori has put together a fantastic Kindle Single (i.e., short ebook) entitled On Internet Freedom. Just for Internet Freedom Day, the book is available free. If you don't have a Kindle device, but do have a smartphone/tablet, you can still download it today for free and then read it whenever you get around to it. Ammori shared a draft copy with me, and it's a very worthwhile read. Not only does it discuss a variety of battles concerning internet freedom, it pulls them all together to look at why these battles are happening... and why they're going to continue. As such, it's an important book for people to read to understand some of the larger issues at play, and why we need to continue to be vigilant in making sure the internet remains free and open. If you don't pick up your free copy today -- or if you just want to support some good causes -- after today the ebook will still be available for $4.99, with all of the profits being donated to Demand Progress and Fight for the Future, two of the leading activist groups fighting on these issues.

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Filed Under: internet freedom, marvin ammori, net neutrality, pipa, sopa, threats

57 Comments

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Reader Comments

The First Word

“

There is no DRM on the file

Hi--I think I screwed up.
What I read about e-publishing made me think the Kindle and Kindle app would be convenient for most people.

And the Kindle program that allows you to make it free for a promotional day (5) also makes it available for free in the Lending Library. So I thought it would increase availability. The only downside: exclusivity in the Kindle Store. Didn't seem like a big deal if the Kindle App was free.

But I see other people prefer other formats. If the file is DRM free, can people just download it and convert the text of book (all text) to whatever format they prefer?

Again, sorry for the inconvenience.

—Marvin Ammori

”

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Ninja (profile), 18 Jan 2013 @ 6:16am

Hmmm. Kindle. Proprietary format. Thanks but no thanks. I'll wait a pdf or something free of Amazon hassle.
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Marcos, 18 Jan 2013 @ 6:49am

Indeed, I can't think of a better way to celebrate freedom than giving away a book I can only read on Kindle.
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Zakida Paul (profile), 18 Jan 2013 @ 6:51am

Re:
Download the book using Kindle for PC, strip the DRM using Calibre and plugin, convert using Calibre.

Job done in 2 mins.
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Zakida Paul (profile), 18 Jan 2013 @ 6:51am

I just downloaded and shared. Let's try and get this up the most downloaded list.
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Jan 2013 @ 7:03am

Re: Re:
Or read a different book instead that has no DRM at all. Done in 0.
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Algot Runeman, 18 Jan 2013 @ 7:11am

Re: Re: Kindle for PC...Linux?
No Windows = no PC - Kindle, not for us in Linux Land.
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Jan 2013 @ 7:11am

seems strange to have a book about Internet Freedom on a site that is totally in favour of Internet Freedom but lock the book to Amazon, taking away freedom. duh!!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it

Anonymous Coward, 18 Jan 2013 @ 7:12am

Really creepy that Google is trying to invent a propagandistic holiday for themselves; one that celebrates the day they manipulated and lied to internet users...
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This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it

Anonymous Coward, 18 Jan 2013 @ 7:15am

Mike-speak: Internet freedom = getting away with it.

Remind me again of why it's so bad that a website dedicated to infringement, i.e., a site with the primary purpose of intentionally violating other people's rights, should have its advertising revenue cut off and its listing in search engines removed.

To me, freedom on the internet means the freedom to not have people's rights violated on a massive scale.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Jan 2013 @ 7:18am

Re:
Really creepy that Google is trying to invent a propagandistic holiday for themselves; one that celebrates the day they manipulated and lied to internet users...

All I remember from last year was how Mike went on a hate-fueled rampage, spreading lies and manipulating his readers while refusing to have a productive, substantive discussion with anyone who didn't share his extremist views.

Need someone to rally the masses with lies? Mike's your man. He proved that for sure.
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Cyber Killer, 18 Jan 2013 @ 7:24am

lol?
Freedom? With Amazon DRM? No thanks, not today, not ever.
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Adam, 18 Jan 2013 @ 7:27am

I'm not interested in renting a book even if it's free. I agree entirely with the first comment. Marvin Ammori blew it.
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Jan 2013 @ 7:29am

Uh, not all books from Amazon come with DRM. I've bought more than 400 books from Amazon, and only a small fraction come with DRM, and then only at the publisher's insistence.

/easy to strip the DRM anyway
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Jan 2013 @ 7:33am

Re:
To still believe one year on that the SOPA/ACTA protests are anything that Google engineered, I can only assume that you are wilfully ignorant, or lying... or both.

Yeah, must be both.
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Jan 2013 @ 7:34am

Re:
seems strange to have a book about Internet Freedom on a site that is totally in favour of Internet Freedom but lock the book to Amazon, taking away freedom. duh!!

Not if you consider that Ammori is Google's boy in Washington
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Jan 2013 @ 7:35am

Re:
To you freedom means freedom to exploit people and increase your profits at the expense of society.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it

Anonymous Coward, 18 Jan 2013 @ 7:37am

Re: Re:
The tip of the spear was Ammori, who was on Google's payroll at the time and probably still is..... not unlike a certain chubby shill I know.
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Colin, 18 Jan 2013 @ 7:38am

Re: Re:
What lies? I'll wait.

And really, that's the only thing you remember? Thousands of sites protesting does ring any bells? (Although that's not surprising...)
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Zakida Paul (profile), 18 Jan 2013 @ 7:39am

Re: Re: Re: Kindle for PC...Linux?
WINE? It works well.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Mystic5523 (profile), 18 Jan 2013 @ 7:44am

You can also read it through Amazon's Cloud Reader on your browser if you don't have a Kindle.
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Jan 2013 @ 7:48am

Re: Re: Re:
You'll be waiting a while. These shills can't understand the fact it's hard to pass judgement on the perceived bias of one while holding a bias of your own.
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Aaron Wolf (profile), 18 Jan 2013 @ 7:57am

Re:
What nonsense completely divorced from reality. I myself was a fully active participant in fighting these awful bills. I blacked out my site, signed petitions, made calls, and spread the word to others. I also am a critic of Google, do not like their business model, and nothing I did was in any way directed or influenced by Google.

Now go troll somewhere else.
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Jan 2013 @ 8:00am

Its a little annoying that amazon won't let you buy the file, for any reason, until you register a kindle device or app with the store.

That would be a little like best buy refusing to sell you blurays or DVDs until they confirmed you had a registered best buy brand player.

I've clicked "buy", and you're guaranteed to get paid amazon, just give me the file.
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Anonymous Anonymous Coward, 18 Jan 2013 @ 8:02am

Re: Re: Re: Kindle for PC...Linux?
Calibre has a linux version. The form of your final conversion is related to your reading device, not your conversion platform, or for that matter the starting format.
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Shmerl, 18 Jan 2013 @ 8:18am

> If you don't have a Kindle device, but do have a smartphone/tablet, you can still download it today for free and then read it whenever you get around to it.

Where exactly? I don't have Kindle and would prefer some sane format like ePUB, PDF and etc.
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Lowestofthekeys (profile), 18 Jan 2013 @ 8:19am

Re:
Remind me again of why it's good that any website that has commenters link to potentially infringing content be liable to be shutdown completely by the government?

Maybe if the SOPA/PIPA hadn't had a massive amount of overreach, it wouldn't have been such an issue.
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Jan 2013 @ 8:21am

Re: Re: Re: Re:
All they had to do was lie and say your Facebook, etc. was going to be taken down, and people responded.

Only later did everyone realize that they had been lied to and used.

Never again.
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Jan 2013 @ 8:22am

Re: Re:
Not to mention that Google was hesitant to join the action in the first place.

The protest started with very critical academia and human rights groups, followed by coverage in less objective media (techdirt included) and spread to more mainstream media. Reddit/Wikipedia and the rest of the FOSS-gang took the torch on "doing something". That the event got some parts of Google and several others on their side is more of a scoop than anything else.

If you research the events and the data on what happened, you will see that Google was very cautious and didn't participate fully 'till the very end.
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Shmerl, 18 Jan 2013 @ 8:24am

Re: Re:
I'll probably do that, but it's really annoying that Amazon can't offer direct download of ePUB/PDF for books of authors who don't require DRM.
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Jan 2013 @ 8:25am

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
"Only later did everyone realize that they had been lied to and used."

Are you telling me Hollywood doesn't employ the same tactics?

It's hard to feel bad for them when they can't even show themselves to be better than the big evil tech companies.
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Jan 2013 @ 8:27am

Re: Re:
That's exactly what he just said, yes; the multi-billion dollar advertising corporation Google and their hourly exploitation of artists.
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Jan 2013 @ 8:37am

Re: Re: Re:
Hilariously misleading

http://torrentfreak.com/music-sales-are-just-6-of-average-musicians-income-130114/

Looks artists make better income without the labels running interference.
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Vic, 18 Jan 2013 @ 8:37am

OK, I decided to try it. Go to Amazon, one-click to buy... "You do not have Kindle account!" OK, went through the hassles, downloaded/installed Kindle for Android, registered with Kindle. One-click to buy for $0.00... "Please provide your billing address and phone number!" What? for a $0.00 purchase? So they can send me a $0.00 bill?
Well, OK, made up some phony address in Canada... "Please provide a valid Province/State" OK, did that... "Your ZIP code does not match your Province" OK, looked it up. "This book is not available for your region. Go to YOUR Kindle store to shop" Click the link, came to the Canadian site. Searched for the book - there it is, but now for Canadian $0.00; one-click to purchase - SUCCESS!

And there was almost no headaches...
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Zakida Paul (profile), 18 Jan 2013 @ 8:40am

Re: Re: Re:
You really are a moron. Putting aside the fact that Google has a service that allows people to BUY music, Google is a SEARCH ENGINE. It returns results based on what the USER TYPES IN.

Big shock, if I were to type 'free Led Zeppelin downloads' it will bring up websites offering free Led Zeppelin downloads.

If I type in 'buy Led Zeppelin songs' (as I just did) the first result is Amazon.
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Rikuo (profile), 18 Jan 2013 @ 8:48am

Re: Re: Re:
Again with the ad homs? What age are you, five? Is mentioning Mike's weight the only thing you can say about him? What does his weight have to do with anything?
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Rikuo (profile), 18 Jan 2013 @ 8:50am

Re:
"To me, freedom on the internet means the freedom to not have people's rights violated on a massive scale."

I completely agree with you. I'd love it if governments respected the internet and respected everyone's right to copy, instead of violating that right on a massive scale.
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Marvin Ammori, 18 Jan 2013 @ 8:51am

There is no DRM on the file
Hi--I think I screwed up.
What I read about e-publishing made me think the Kindle and Kindle app would be convenient for most people.

And the Kindle program that allows you to make it free for a promotional day (5) also makes it available for free in the Lending Library. So I thought it would increase availability. The only downside: exclusivity in the Kindle Store. Didn't seem like a big deal if the Kindle App was free.

But I see other people prefer other formats. If the file is DRM free, can people just download it and convert the text of book (all text) to whatever format they prefer?

Again, sorry for the inconvenience.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it

Anonymous Coward, 18 Jan 2013 @ 8:57am

Re: Re: Re:
If you research the events and the data on what happened, you will see that Google was very cautious and didn't participate fully 'till the very end.

Oh please. Ammori personally wrote almost every last one of the 75 amendments offered at the SOPA markup. He was on Google's payroll well before the markup.
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John Fenderson (profile), 18 Jan 2013 @ 9:16am

Re:
Remind me again of why it's so bad that a website dedicated to infringement

If you'll remember, the primary objection over these efforts was not that they'd impact pirate sites. It's that they'd impact non-pirate websites and non-web services.
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Jan 2013 @ 9:28am

Re: There is no DRM on the file
Of course Kindle is convenient for most people, kind of like Facebook is. But it's still just a walled garden for Amazon customers.

Apology accepted though.
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Jan 2013 @ 9:30am

Re: Re: Re: Re:
That article is retarded and makes no sense at all. First of all, of course labels make most of their money from record sales, IT'S WHAT THEY SELL. And musicians no longer make as much from record sales BECAUSE YOU'RE RIPPING THEM OFF, BONEHEAD.
If record labels are so evil, why do the vast majority of musicians, both successful and unknown, seek them out and wish to work with them, hmm?

You people aren't fooling anyone with your silly piracy rationalization nonsense.
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Jan 2013 @ 9:36am

Re:
I am so looking forward to Arby's Freedom day, where I can just walk into any Arby's and stuff my face for nothing. Oh, and then Free Beer day. God bless the Internet and it's valiant warriors.
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Colin, 18 Jan 2013 @ 10:00am

Re: Re:
You're cute when you don't make any sense.
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Jan 2013 @ 10:05am

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
"First of all, of course labels make most of their money from record sales, IT'S WHAT THEY SELL."

No duh, but then you must be familiar with royalty rates, right?

9% from mechanical royalties. Originally this was justified because of the overhead, which is nearly non-existent with digital files since they cost nothing to reproduce or ship, so they must be making bank off of those sales considering that Spotify and Itunes are the top revenue providers for the record labels.

Also, with this in mind and your mentality that the record labels are so good to the artists, why would James Taylor and several other artists be suing them for unfair royalty rates? (http://www.examiner.com/article/james-taylor-sues-warner-bros)

"And musicians no longer make as much from record sales BECAUSE YOU'RE RIPPING THEM OFF, BONEHEAD."

Ripping them off? Actually, sales have gone down because I no longer have to pay for a 12 track CD with only one song I want from it. On top of that, if you're not familiar with the times most new music is crap nowadays anyway. So now I have the alternative to listen to Spotify and avoid wasting my money on a song I'll listen to one or two times.

"If record labels are so evil, why do the vast majority of musicians, both successful and unknown, seek them out and wish to work with them, hmm?"

HAHAHAHAHAHA...oh the naivety is so sweet.

It's easier to go through a label than do it on your own because you have someone managing everything for you. It's like having your parents pay your way, except in this case you end up owing so much back to them you end up barely being able to turn a profit.

"You people aren't fooling anyone with your silly piracy rationalization nonsense."

And this is the worst. You're so dumb you can't even see that the majority of people here DO NOT support piracy.
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G Thompson (profile), 18 Jan 2013 @ 10:11am

Re: Re:
I'm looking forward to a Troll Free day, but I see by the idiocy of the troll posts multiplying exponentially that that's just Crazy talk!!!!
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dennis deems, 18 Jan 2013 @ 10:15am

Re: Re:
went on a hate-fueled rampage
I know, right? What was up with all that stomping all over Tokyo and blowing his atomic breath everywhere?? Wait -- that was Mike, right? Or was it Godzilla?
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Not an Electronic Rodent (profile), 18 Jan 2013 @ 10:28am

Re:
Remind me again of why it's so bad that a website dedicated to infringement, [snip]should have its [snip]
Well I have no idea what site you're referring to, but I'm guessing Mike's problem with it is the same as mine and is the bit that you missed out, probably deliberately.
Unless you're speaking of a prosecution I haven't heard about, you missed out the word allegedly. You know? That pesky thing that's supposed to be the basis of most western law called "innocent until proven guilty"?

I don't have any problem with infringing websites being taken down, and judging by the way he writes neither does Mike, but I do have a problem with a business being destroyed on an accusation.
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art guerrilla (profile), 18 Jan 2013 @ 10:44am

Re: Re:
except the hot amazonians are not allowing that for me !
it says something like 'upload to kindle cloud storage or other reader format' or something like that, but then the ONLY choice under the dropdown is 'upload to kindle cloud'...

did it anyway, but have no idea what it takes to 'hey, you get off of my cloud...'

(don't have a kindle, wife has a color nook that i set up to dual boot to jellybean, and i have a nexus 7... guess i can get a kindle app for the nexus, but still not sure it will allow me into kindleland to download/copy...)

gee, ain't a million walled gardens great ! ! !
we're building the tower of babel all over again, only this time, its digital ! ! !

(i've got a digit for the PTB who ruin all this shit for us...)

art guerrilla
aka ann archy
eof
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Jan 2013 @ 11:56am

Re: There is no DRM on the file - Calibre
I agree with Zakida Paul above.

Download to the Kindle PC app. Use Calibre to add it to your library, removing the DRM. About 2 minutes.

I highly recommend Calibre.

To quote Dr. Pournelle - You'd have to pry it from my cold, dead fingers.

Dave
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FormerAC (profile), 18 Jan 2013 @ 12:11pm

Re: Re:
Download and install a 30+ mb app to read a 187 kb book? THIS is why I don't own a Kindle. Fortunately, Calibre converted it for me ... I'd gladly share.
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Dreddsnik, 18 Jan 2013 @ 12:19pm

Re: There is no DRM on the file
Thanks for the response, Marvin. I WOULD download it but I have no desire to sign up for a Kindle Account ( I already have a BN account and that's quite enough). The conversion is easy,signing up for yet ANOTHER account is the only issue for me.
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Rikuo (profile), 18 Jan 2013 @ 1:37pm

Re: There is no DRM on the file
Simply for apologizing and agreeing to work to a solution to everyone's benefit (and meaning it, no corporate speak here), I'm gonna throw some money your way. Do you have a Paypal account I can donate to? I would pay for the book via Amazon, but after reading the stories about Amazon remote deleting books from Kindles, I'm never paying for an e-book from them. Any other method of processing payments would be fine too.
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Jan 2013 @ 1:40pm

Re: Re:
Sarcasm only works when you're referring to something correctly.
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art guerrilla (profile), 18 Jan 2013 @ 1:50pm

Re: There is no DRM on the file
is this guy a lawyer ? ? ?
...*AND* he's being unbelievably human *AND* admitting a mistake ? ? ?

norman, this does not compute, please explain...

seriously, MUCHO macho props to you for both doing what you did, and realizing a better distribution might have been called for, AND apologizing...

you, sir, have just made yourself a sale...
will actually buy it, if i can get it onto my 'droid without jumping through too many hoops... (yes, i've read the advice above amazon->pc->calibre->epub/whatever, but can't look into it until tonight)
(guess it isn't on google play ? still have some credit there i could use up...)

art guerrilla
aka ann archy
eof
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Sheogorath (profile), 18 Jan 2013 @ 11:22pm

It's simple even on an Android
Hmmm. Kindle. Proprietary
format with the extension .mobi. Not to worry, I'll just upload the book to www.online-convert.com and change it to .epub so I can read it in Cool Reader. At least I would if fucking Amazon didn't require you to have a credit or debit card to do anything on their website! *facepalm*
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Jan 2013 @ 9:28am

Re:
I logged into my kindle app (had an account already for the 1 book I purchased), and it keeps trying to charge me $4.99.

:(
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Jan 2013 @ 10:00am

Re: Re:
Never mind. It's Saturday. haha
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