Does this look like a grassroots organization to you?  Pie chart from Fight For The Future’s 2015  financial documents. 

At every turn “grassroots” Fight For The Future has been there to undermine artists’ copyright protections in ways that benefit major technology companies.

They famously organized a scripted automated dial-in that overwhelmed the US Congress phone systems during SOPA deliberations creating the impression that thousands of Americans were spontaneously calling in opposition to copyright protections for artists and rights holders. I’ve never understood why this scripted robotic dial in campaign was never investigated.  (Read Chris Ruen’s excellent book Freeloading for more on the “spontaneous” corporate lobbyist led anti-SOPA uprising.)

Similarly they organized an automated dial in against the TPP apparently because it doesn’t weaken copyright enough!  That’s right, FFTF thinks TPP doesn’t do enough to undermine US  cultural exports!  So while pretending to protect american jobs the “progressive” FFTF are actually hurting workers in the largely unionized cultural industries while benefiting anti-union libertarian leaning technology company!  As Lenin might have called them they are “useful idiots.”  But that’s not all Fight For The Future targeted eight Democratic Senators,  and promised to oppose them in their next election.   “Oh and just one last question… about that ‘no’ at  Part IV item 3  on your federal 990 tax return…”

Before it was deactivated the link above allowed sharing of illegally uploaded video of King’s I Have a Dream speech across all social media. 

On “Internet Freedom Day”  they organized the worlds first anti-civil rights  “civil disobedience” campaign directed at the Martin Luther King Estate by illegally copying and distributing Kings “I Have A Dream Speech” and encouraging thousands of others to “share” the video on digital platforms.   I’m not a lawyer, but isn’t this criminal willful infringement under 17 U.S.C. § 506?  Also how is it that a non-profit keeps it’s tax exempt status when it’s committing criminal acts?

And most recently they used an automated script to “comment bomb” the regulations.gov website in response to a request for comments from the copyright office in a  review of the “Whack-a-Mole” DMCA takedown provisions.  I believe their efforts were problematic, illegal or violated federal rules for non-profits. Possibly fraudulent as EXACTLY 86,000 of the responses are identical!  A detailed explanation is provided here:

https://thetrichordist.com/2016/04/19/exactly-86000-identical-comments-the-illegal-comment-bombing-of-dmca-notice-takedown-review-by-google-proxy-fight-for-the-future/

This is not a grassroots operation.  This is a cynical astroturf lobbying organization.