U.S. contemplates internet censorship bill

TheWitchDoctor · November 2011

In the event you haven’t heard, our geniuses in Congress are currently considering passage of a laws — the PROTECT-IP Act and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) — that would flat-out endanger the internet as well all know it. If passed, they would officially bring Iran and China-style Internet censorship to the US as a matter of law — except the power to censor would be placed in the hands of corporations, naturally, because corporations pulling the strings behind the curtain in the United States has become as American as obesity and reality television.

http://www.uproxx.com/webculture/2011/11/tumblr-goes-all-in-to-try-to-stop-awful-internet-censorship-bill/

No, really, how bad is it? It threatens, Twitter, Facebook, and Youtube, three critical tools used by conservatives and Republicans against this administration, and this House bill would arm this administration against them. It’s insane. It’s just so poorly thought out. PROTECT IP also removes safe harbor concepts critical to the DMCA that gave ISPs reason to be fair to the little guy when pounded on by the big guy. No more, should this pass.

http://www.redstate.com/neil_stevens/2011/10/27/tech-at-night-dangerous-internet-censorship-bill-in-the-house-spectrum-crunch-ideas-fcc-subsidies-advancing/

Surprise! After months in the oven, the soon-to-be-released new version of a major US Internet censorship bill didn't shrink in scope—it got much broader. Under the new proposal, search engines, Internet providers, credit card companies, and ad networks would all have cut off access to foreign "rogue sites"—and such court orders would not be limited to the government. Private rightsholders could go to court and target foreign domains, too.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/05/revised-net-censorship-bill-requires-search-engines-to-block-sites-too.ars

Internet entrepreneurs are in a panic over a Senate bill they say will censor the Web, stifle Silicon Valley startups, damage the United States' credibility on free speech and ultimately trigger the creation of an alternate-universe Internet.

The bill would give the attorney general new powers to shut down websites deemed dedicated to counterfeit material -- by going through the courts and by encouraging service providers to go after sites the Justice Department puts on a public blacklist.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/09/29/engineers-slam-internet-censorship-ahead-key-vote/

FUCK this shit. There WILL be riots if this passes.

jugg · November 2011

Good catch witch doctor. Maybe this will be the spark that will get the college age people to vote.

TheWitchDoctor · November 2011

Also no more watching videos of people playing video games:

If a pair of bills on Capitol Hill, called the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and PROTECT IP, pass, you could be fined and thrown in jail for streaming (i.e., "performing") your video game speed runs or game play. Just as people post cute pictures and videos of themselves, their pets and their kids singing and dancing to copyrighted works, gamers of all ages routinely post pics and stream video of themselves during game play. All of these things have, for the most part, been considered "fair use" under the law. Tens of thousands of videos currently available online featuring game play from popular games like Call of Duty, Halo, Starcraft and others could be made illegal under these laws.

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111115/15040016780/sopaprotect-ip-would-be-hideously-bad-video-gamers.shtml

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protect_IP_Act

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_Online_Piracy_Act

Coincidence that they're trying to shut down websites used to support Occupy Wall Street like tumblr and facebook?

RemadE · November 2011

Fucking hell, I never realised the extent of this. Now I don't mind a basic life with no electronics, but if we have them, why can't we use them while we can?
Does this not just scream Fascism? Seriously?

On second thoughts, Tumblr and Facebook can fuck off to the dustbin of Internet History.

UPDATE

CITNET stands for CITizen's NETwork. It is a planned self-governed network run by the citizens who use it and not controlled by the governments of the world.

It was thought up over a period of several years as China's censorship of the Internet has gotten stronger. Recently the United States government is trying to pass legislation to censor the Internet by restricting DNS availability and money flow to websites that do not comply with a set of poorly written rules that in their current form can easily be abused. The fact that the United States legislators are proposing such a bill proves their inability to fully understand the workings of the Internet. The ability of the government to shut off DNS is like having their hands around the neck of the Internet and having the ability to choke the life out of the Internet any time they wish.

It's a good cause, and is gaining strenth as the hours tick by. Not many forum posts, but plenty of non-TOR chatter.
Check it out.
http://4akwqy73o7ctb4lu.onion/

Arkansan · November 2011

:facepalm: Seriously, fuck this. I would think that there would be several big name internet business that would be willing to throw around quite a bit of money to make this go away. If this passes it sounds as if corporations would have the ability to go after any website that slightly irritates them, as well as giving what ever administration is in office the ability to stifle criticism. God bless Amerika.