Senators Unconcerned About Massive Consequences Of Criminalizing Embedding YouTube Videos

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Mike Masnick
TechDirt

This is really no surprise, but the same Senate Judiciary Committee that unanimously approvedthe PROTECT IP Act, despite worries from internet experts and major media about how it would break the internet, has now also unanimously approved the anti-internet streaming bill that makes it a felony to stream certain videos online -- potentially putting people in jail for embedding YouTube videos or just putting up YouTube lip synching videos.

What's really troubling here is that the media and plenty of concerned citizens have directly raised the issues about the unintended consequences of this law. And while Senators Amy Klobuchar, John Cornyn and Christopher Coons continue to insist that (of course) the law is not intended to be used against such people, they have made no move to fix the bill. Even supporters of this bill, who insisted that we were wrong about what the bill allowed, eventually conceded that our argument was accurate and that this bill could be used to put people in jail for embedding a YouTube video or doing a lip synch video.

And that's a huge, huge problem. Of course, no one thinks the bill is for that purpose directly or that it's going to be widely used for such purposes. However, the bill, as written, clearly allows law enforcement to charge people with a felony for that, assuming it meets a few other conditions. But those conditions are pretty minimal (ads on your page? you're in trouble...). The risk here of abuse is a serious risk, and it's incredibly troubling that Klobuchar, Cornyn and Coons failed to change or adapt the bill, and worse that the rest of the Senate Judiciary Committee allowed the bill to move forward in such a broken state. They were clearly made aware of problems with the bill, but directly chose not to make any changes. How do you explain that other than incompetence or corruption?

Read More at TechDirt

OPPOSE the PROTECT IP Act HERE

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ACTION ALERT: Reject the PROTECT IP Act

Electronic Frontier Foundation

The PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) is a threatening sequel to last year's COICA Internet censorship bill that would—like its predecessor—invite Internet security risks, threaten online speech, and hamper Internet innovation. Urge your members of Congress to reject this dangerous bill!

Big media and its allies in Congress are billing the PROTECT IP Act as a new way to prevent online infringement. But innovation and free speech advocates know that PIPA is nothing more than a dangerous wish list that will compromise Internet security while doing little or nothing to encourage creative expression.

PROTECT IP = Private Rightsholders Opposed To Emerging Consumer Technologies, Innovation, and Progress

Back from the Dead: The Internet “Kill Switch”

The American author William Faulkner once wrote: “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” 

Tom Burghardt  
Dissident Voice

And like a horde of flesh-eating zombies shuffling out of a parking garage to feast on what’s left of our freedoms, the Obama administration has promised to revive a proposal thought dead by most: the internet “kill switch.”

On May 12, the White House released a 52-page document outlining administration plans governing cybersecurity. The bill designates the Department of Homeland Security as the “lead agency” with authority to initiate “countermeasures” to protect critical infrastructure from malicious attacks.
But as with other aspects of U.S. policy, from waging aggressive wars to conducting covert actions overseas, elite policy planners at the Pentagon and at nominally civilian agencies like DHS hide offensive plans and operations beneath layers of defensive rhetoric meant to hoodwink the public.

The term “countermeasure” is described by the White House as “automated actions with defensive intent to modify or block data packets associated with electronic or wire communications, internet traffic, program code, or other system traffic transiting to or from or stored on an information system for the purpose of protecting the information system from cybersecurity threats, conducted on an information system or information systems owned or operated by or on behalf of the party to be protected or operated by a private entity acting as a provider of electronic communication services, remote computing services, or cybersecurity services to the party to be protected.” (Section 1. Department of Homeland Security Cybersecurity Authority, May 12, 2011, p. 1)

In other words, the proposal would authorize DHS and presumably other federal partners like the National Security Agency, wide latitude to monitor, “modify or block” data packets (information and/or communications) deemed a threat to national security.

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Draconian Anti-Piracy Censorship Bill Passes Senate Committee

TorrentFreak

The controversial PROTECT IP Act unanimously passed the Senate Judiciary Committee today. When the PROTECT IP Act becomes law U.S. authorities and copyright holders will have the power to seize domains, block websites and censor search engines to prevent copyright infringements. Introduced just two weeks ago, the bill now heads over to the Senate for further consideration and another vote.

The U.S. Government continues to back legislation that opens the door to unprecedented Internet censorship.

Two weeks ago a group of U.S. senators proposed legislation to make it easier to crack down on so-called rogue websites, and today the Senate’s Judicial Committee unanimously approved the bill.

U.S. Gov't Starts New Round of "Pirate" Domain Seizures

Torrent Freak

US authorities have resumed 'Operation In Our Sites' and have seized several domain names associated with copyright infringement or counterfeit related crimes. Among the new targets are two sites that linked to copyrighted films hosted on third party streaming sites such as megavideo.com and veoh.com. Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has yet to officially announce the new operation.

Over the past several months a series of domain name seizures by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) made headlines across the Internet.

US intelligence to set up cyber-focused office in Estonia

AFP File image

AFP

TALLINN (AFP) - US intelligence is to open an office in the Estonian capital Tallinn to help boost the fight against cyber-crime, the US embassy in the Baltic state announced Wednesday.

"Estonia was selected as the site for the new secret service office due to both the investigative nexus it provides in combating cyber and financial crimes, as well as the opportunity it provides the agency in the fulfillment of its protective duties within the region," embassy spokesman James Land told AFP.

The office, due to be opened Friday, will have a staff of four.

Worse Than China? U.S. Government Wants To Censor Search Engines And Browsers

ACTION ALERT: Tell Congress to Kill COICA 2.0, the Internet Censorship Bill

Demand Progress

We knew that members of Congress and their business allies were gearing up to pass a revised Internet Blacklist Bill -- which more than 325,000 Demand Progress members helped block last winter -- but we never expected it to be this atrocious.  Last year's bill has been renamed the "PROTECT IP" Act and it is far worse than its predecessor.  A summary of it is posted below.

Senators Leahy and Hatch pretended to weigh free speech concerns as they revised the bill.  Instead, the new legislation would institute a China-like censorship regime in the United States, whereby the Department of Justice could force search engines, browsers, and service providers to block users' access to websites, and scrub the American Internet clean of any trace of their existence.

Furthermore, it wouldn't just be the Attorney General who could add sites to the blacklist, but the new bill would allow any copyright holder to get sites blacklisted -- sure to result in an explosion of dubious and confused orders.

Will you urge Congress to oppose the PROTECT IP Act?  Just add your name at right.

PETITION TO CONGRESS:  The PROTECT IP Act demonstrates an astounding lack of respect for Internet freedom and free speech rights.  I urge you to oppose it.

Click HERE to read summary of the bill and sign petition

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US lawmakers plan 'Do Not Track' bills

© AFP/File Frederic J. Brown

AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US lawmakers announced plans on Friday to introduce "Do Not Track" legislation that would let Internet users block companies from gathering information about their online activities.

Senator Jay Rockefeller, a Democrat from West Virginia, said his "Do Not Track Online Act of 2011" will offer a "simple, straightforward way for people to stop companies from tracking their every move on the Internet."

"Consumers have a right to know when and how their personal and sensitive information is being used online -- and most importantly to be able to say 'no thanks' when companies seek to gather that information without their approval," Rockefeller said in a statement.

5 Ways DHS Violates the Constitution with Website Domain Seizures

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Globalists Can Win Cyber War, But Not Information War

Myce image

Eric Blair
Activist Post

The establishment has been desperately trying to implement legal control over the Internet. They're attacking freedom of speech and the open Internet from all angles; through government tools, corporate methods, and even the courts. All three of these methods are converging in the WikiLeaks case, but that's not the only battle being waged in the so-called "all-out cyber war."

The government, through the DHS, has already shut down over 80 websites for copyright infringement without due process, in addition to floating the idea to tax information websites. Corporations like Google, Verizon, and others are making deals to tip the Internet in favor of major players.  Finally, in the courts, ambulance-chasing copyright infringement lawyers are bullying blogs to pay settlements despite Fair Use rights -- while their ultimate goal is to set a golden precedent with which to attack all news aggregating websites.

Don't you see what's happening here as the media continues to hype this cyber war?  Because of the fierce resistance to all proposed changes to the Internet, they need an Internet "Pearl Harbor" to usher in these draconian laws. As the hacktivist army of WikiLeaks defenders are now reportedly turning their focus on UK government websites, we can expect that after the first major Web interruption, governments will convene urgent meetings to demand better enforcement and more control over the Internet. 


Therefore this cyber war would seem to be playing right into their hands -- as already, mainstream polling on the sheeple ranch called the United States shows that 70% believe Julian Assange and WikiLeaks is doing harm and should be prosecuted.  It won't be difficult to convince the masses to shut down dissent if essential infrastructure is "attacked" in this all-out war.  Especially if that infrastructure is the Web itself.

Indeed, even the aware among us would suffer greatly if the Internet was down for multiple days.  It is our heroin, our entertainment, our news, our communication medium,  our livelihood . . . in essence, our freedom.  I think most of us would beg for at least limited access after less than a week of being blacked out.  We'd be on our hands and knees saying, "We don't need all of it; just give us enough access to get our fix.  Please, I'll even register for an Internet tracking ID number."

Incidentally, it would seem the elite know the power they have over this technical opiate of the masses simply by shutting it down when the offensive anarchy gets too chaotic.  They will simply switch the Fortune 1000 over to Internet 2 and let us vermin swim in the virus-ridden battle-torn Internet 1.  Don't worry, though, they'll let us buy controlled access to their network where they will openly track, trace, and database our every keystroke and mouse click.

However, this war is not about technology, it is about the freedom of information and ability to view it in privacy.  Anyone who is fundamentally against WikiLeaks is the enemy of free speech, because WikiLeaks has become the poster child for the people's right to information.  The stronger a critic expresses their disdain for WikiLeaks, the more tyrannical we can expect the response to be.  In other words, the more dangerous they can make WikiLeaks out to be, calling them "high-tech terrorist" and the like, the further the compromise bar is pushed in the establishment's direction.

Because the establishment is already in control of the technical gears of the Internet, they can and will win a technical cyber war -- even if they have to go nuclear and pull the plug to do it.  The hacktivists fighting for Internet free speech have truth and principle on their side, yet they may be falling into the King's trap quite effectively.  Just as the establishment needs violent street protests to justify their armored police state, they also need offensive protests by these hacktivists to justify policing the Internet.

Victor Hugo famously said, "All the forces in the world are not so powerful as an idea whose time has come."  The ideas of liberty, justice, peace, and the right to open-source knowledge has come of age; it is clear that the globalist machine is opposed to these ideals -- thus they're losing the information war.  Therefore, they must attack the battlefield of the infowar under the pretext of protecting cyberspace from those pesky freedom-of-speech bandits.

This so-called cyber war will likely fester into a Pearl Harbor-type event.  When it occurs, the mainstream media will incite fear in one hand and sell the solution out of the other.  We must be aware of their tactics and keep fighting for Internet freedom with heavy doses of the truth.

RECENTLY by Eric Blair:
Copyright Extortionist Sues Drudge, Backed by Globalists
WikiLeaks Being Used to Justify "Patriot Act" Legislation for Internet

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Internet was never free or open and never will be, media studies prof. says

Nathan Diebenow
Raw Story Exclusive

Author: If Americans want a truly free network, 'we've got to build it from scratch'

Secrets outlet WikiLeaks' continuing struggle to remain online in the face of corporate and government censorship is a striking example of something few truly realize: that the Internet is not and never has been democratically controlled, a media studies professor commented to Raw Story.

"[T]he stuff that goes on on the Internet does not go on because the authorties can't stop it," Douglas Rushkoff, author of Program or be Programmed: Ten Commands for a Digital Age and Life, Inc.: How Corporatism Conquered the World and How to Take it Back", said. "It goes on because the authorities are choosing what to stop and what not to stop."

Rushkoff told Raw Story that the authorities have the ability to quash cyber dissent due to the Internet's original design, as a top-down, authoritarian device with a centralized indexing system.

Essentially, all one needs to halt a rogue site is to delete its address from the domain name system registry.

Read Full Article

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FCC's pay-as-you-go Internet plan raises video, access questions

Cecilia Kang
Washington Post

As details emerge about the Federal Communications Commission's controversial proposal for regulating Internet providers, a provision that would allow companies to bill customers for how much they surf the Web is drawing special scrutiny.

Analysts say pay-as-you-go Internet access could put the brakes on the burgeoning online video industry, handing a victory to cable and satellite TV providers.

The practice is legal, but had been discouraged by the FCC and by protests from consumers and public interest groups. But wireless companies are moving rapidly in that direction - all major cellphone providers offer subscribers tiered data plans for Internet service. AT&T doesn't offer flat-rate wireless plans for new customers.

And although FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said last week that his so-called net-neutrality proposal would generally prohibit broadband service providers from tampering with Internet traffic, he added that he is open to new billing models that charge by how much data a user consumes.

Read Full Article

RELATED ARTICLE:
Age of Censorship and Internet Trade Wars
The Trust Crisis with Regulating Net Neutrality

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