Congress wants to take away your internet.

[ladyofleithian]

Originally posted by dynamicsymmetry at Congress wants to take away your internet.

Folks, I know you're tired of me yelling at you, but you should be aware that there's a hearing this morning being held by the US House Judiciary Committee on a "copyright" bill that will essentially break the entire internet.

You like the internet, right? I mean, you're here.

From the link above:

As drafted, the legislation would grant the government and private parties unprecedented power to interfere with the Internet's domain name system (DNS). The government would be able to force ISPs and search engines to redirect or dump users' attempts to reach certain websites' URLs. In response, third parties will woo average users to alternative servers that offer access to the entire Internet (not just the newly censored U.S. version), which will create new computer security vulnerabilities as the reliability and universality of the DNS evaporates.

It gets worse: Under SOPA's provisions, service providers (including hosting services) would be under new pressure to monitor and police their users’ activities. While PROTECT-IP targeted sites “dedicated to infringing activities,” SOPA targets websites that simply don’t do enough to track and police infringement (and it is not at all clear what would be enough). And it creates new powers to shut down folks who provide tools to help users get access to the Internet the rest of the world sees (not just the “U.S. authorized version”).

This is being framed as an attempt to fight hackers and pirates. Don't buy it. And don't think for a minute that it's going to stop there. This is bad. And at the hearing today, only one opponent of the bill is being allowed to testify.

Please do whatever you can to fight this. Email congresspeople. Sign petitions. Yell about it in every venue you can.

And/or

Comments

[forcewatcher.livejournal.com]

I do so love to see people stand up for their rights!

Ben Franklin once said, one who sacrifices freedoms in the name of security deserves neither. And yet, that's precisely what we've been doing, a little at a time, since the 1930s and especially since 9-11, all driven by fear.

When it comes to this sort of thing, trust in the hackers, the pirates, and (from all places) the money from the porn industry. Like the lady said, "the more you tighten your grip, the more star systems will slip through your fingers."

[ladyhadhafang.livejournal.com]

This, seriously!

[pronker]

To be a freedomfighter is not a bad thing to be in this life. Here's hoping the issue is resolve in the internet's favor. It would be tough to go back to snail mail for commenting!

[ladyhadhafang.livejournal.com]

This, seriously.

[kinofsimon.livejournal.com]

Keep up the good fight. Hopefully enough people will speak out that this shit won't happen.

Oh. And Poison. Awesome song.

[ladyhadhafang.livejournal.com]

Thanks, man! :D

And yep, pretty much this. :)