WebProNews

Tag: CISPA

  • Saving the Internet From the United States?

    Earlier this year, when discussing her son, Richard O’Dwyer, and his upcoming extradition to the United States, Julia O’Dwyer blasted the country’s attempt to take control of the Internet in name of “stopping piracy” or whatever other reason they hide behind. From Julia’s perspective, the U.S. does not own the Internet and therefore, should stop trying to get the rest of the world to follow suit with the desires of the American entertainment industry.

    Her quote was quite compelling, and to be honest, it’s surprising more European citizens–and leaders–haven’t spoken out against the United States and the attempt of its government, led in large part by entertainment industry dollars, dictating to the rest of the world how the Internet should be controlled. O’Dwyer’s quote, courtesy of WSWS.org:

    I don’t know the detail of these laws, but I can see that it’s about America trying to control and police the Internet. Well, it doesn’t belong to them, does it? It’s wrong that America should lay laws down on the Internet for other countries. I don’t think America should rule the world.

    It appears as if Julia’s perspective is, in fact, being adopted thanks to the efforts of AVAAZ.org. Their latest cause is titled “Save the Internet from the US,” and its goals are clear: Stop CISPA, aka, SOPA’s New Clothes, from passing:

    Right now, the US Congress is sneaking in a new law that gives them big brother spy powers over the entire web — and they’re hoping the world won’t notice. We helped stop their Net attack last time, let’s do it again.

    Over 100 Members of Congress are backing a bill (CISPA) that would give private companies and the US government the right to spy on any of us at any time for as long as they want without a warrant. This is the third time the US Congress has tried to attack our Internet freedom. But we helped beat SOPA, and PIPA — and now we can beat this new Big Brother law.

    Our global outcry has played a leading role in protecting the Internet from governments eager to monitor and control what we do online. Let’s stand together once again — and beat this law for good. Sign the petition then forward to everyone who uses the Internet!

    To facilitate their goals, AVAAZ’ petition page sends a message to members of Congress, explaining the threat CISPA poses to the rest of the world. The petition’s goal is to reach 250,000 signatures, of which, well over 200,000 have been recorded.

    Petition

    All things considered, does AVAAZ and O’Dwyer’s mom have a point? Should the rest of the world take stand against a government that allows some of its members to be led around by the money the entertainment industry provides them? Or does piracy actually pose enough of a threat to turn control of the Internet over the United States government, which, again, has the whispers of Chris Dodd resonating in its collective ear?

    Let us know what you think.

  • Spanish ‘SOPA’ Gives Look Into A Future Of Internet Control

    Spanish ‘SOPA’ Gives Look Into A Future Of Internet Control

    It seems like forever ago when the Internet beat back the forces of IP holders and politicians in January for trying to pass SOPA and PIPA. While we have seen some instances of what these bills could do with the shutdown of MegaUpload, we haven’t seen any real examples yet of what a SOPA enabled country would look like. Unfortunately, Spain has given us the first field study.

    Spain passed a SOPA like bill that went into effect on March 1. TorrentFreak is reporting that the site take down requests are already coming in. Since its introduction as national law, it’s reported that the Spanish copyright commission has received 300 official complaints.

    Now, these complaints are not all site takedown requests. They are broken down into two categories – copyright complaints and closure requests. As of yesterday, there were 213 copyright complaints and 79 closure requests.

    The commission has all the power in these proceedings. They can either dismiss the complaint or start the process of censoring links or entire Web sites for that matter. TorrentFreak says that these complaints can be processed in about a month, but there has been no action taken on the complaints yet.

    While it’s sad to see Spain under this draconian Web site censorship law, it does give us a look into how these laws would work elsewhere. While SOPA and PIPA may be dead in the U.S., their brothers-in-arms are not.

    We reported earlier this week on CISPA, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act. It’s just the latest bill from Lamar Smith that tries to censor the Web under a guise of protecting U.S. intellectual property.

    We also can’t forget these bills’ international cohorts – ACTA and TPP. As we reported on Monday, ACTA could be ratified within the next 10 weeks as the European Parliament has foregone a decision from the European Court of Justice to pass this particular treaty. As for TPP, it’s still brewing out there even though it’s not in the spotlight as much.

    Of course, even if ACTA, TPP and CISPA all die a horrible fiery death, we in the U.S. still have cause for concern. Starting this summer, ISPs around the country will be working in cahoots with the copyright industry to start punishing those who share copyrighted material with a graduated response system that could end up with users having their access to the net suspended.

    While Spain’s current law is a cause for concern for everybody who cares about Internet freedom, it should give us invaluable insight into how we can fight said bills if they are ever passed in countries like our own. It will become increasingly important to watch how Spain’s and the recently passed SOPA bill in Ireland affect their Internet.

  • SOPA Gets a New Name, Still Terrible

    SOPA Gets a New Name, Still Terrible

    So long, SOPA. It’s been real, and it’s been fun, but it hasn’t been really fun. It’s time to celebrate because SOPA’s dead, right? But wait, what’s this CISPA thing RT.com is talking about? Well, if your answer includes something along the lines of “SOPA’s new name” or the “SOPA’s new clothes,” you’re on the right track.

    Simply put, CISPA–the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (H.R. 3523)–is yet another attempt from a largely clueless U.S. Government to take control of the Internet. Sure, it’s wrapped in a pretty bow of anti-piracy and the prevention of theft, but you might want to take a closer look at who’s backing these attempts. Yes, elected officials bring these bills and acts into being, but not without the monetary influence of the entertainment industry.

    Again, take a look at Lamar Smith’s list of financial benefactors, and start connecting the dots. This is, and has always been about control. The entertainment industry is deathly afraid of the Internet, if, for nothing else, the forced adaptation of a new method of content delivery. Unlike physical media, the entertainment industry’s control over the distribution of electronic media is not the same. And so, like always, the industry is fighting to get some of that control back.

    Apparently, the best way to go about that is to finance corruptible government officials, who will be more than willing to support your cause even though they don’t understand anything about the technology their being asked to regulate. For a perfect example of this, the following video features a segment of Rick Santorum discussing Internet regulation (at the 3:49 mark). If, after that, you think Santorum’s equipped to even discuss Internet regulation, let alone enact the necessary legislation, then you deserve what you get:


    While Santorum’s segment stands out for obvious reasons, the information offered by both Lis Wahl and Kendall Burman is awfully revealing. Furthermore, as the Burman effectively points out, the laws for effective Internet regulation are already in place. If you doubt that, ask Kim Dotcom how the past couple of months have treated him, while keeping in mind his takedown occurred without SOPA or PIPA even surviving the hearings stage.

    As for the new CISPA version of Internet regulation, the video’s YouTube page features an important nugget of information, something that should confirm your opposition to these kinds of bills:

    The SOPA-like bill would give companies the power to collect information on their subscribers and hand it over to the government and all they have to do is request it.

    Isn’t your privacy worth more to you than that?