When It Comes to Cybersecurity, Scare Tactics Aren't Convincing Americans to Sacrifice Privacy

Dees Illustration

Rainey Reitman
EFF

This week, comments from Democratic Senators, a panel of witnessses, and the director of the National Security Agency (NSA) called on the Senate to enact cybersecurity legislation. But a new poll shows that Americans don't want to sacrifice civil liberties by allowing unfettered data exchanges between corporations and the government. Discussions this week were part of an effort to break the partisan stalemate over the Cybersecurity Act, a bill that would allow Internet companies to monitor the sensitive communications of users and pass that data to the government without any judicial oversight. The Cybersecurity Act would also give companies the right to "modify or block data packets" if they do it with "defensive intent," while offering little in the way of liability for companies that overstep their authority.

In response to ongoing delays in passing the bill, backers of the Cybersecurity Act have been attempting to drum up fears about catastrophic cyberattacks. Yesterday, Senators Sheldon Whitehouse and Richard Blumenthal called on the Senate to enact cybersecurity legislation despite the ongoing civil liberties concerns with the proposed legislation. Speaking to the Senate, Senator Blumenthal warned of doomsday scenarios, saying: "The consequences of a debilitating attack will be catastrophic for our nation."

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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White House Wants It To Be A Felony To Stream Infringing Materials

Wikimedia Commons Image

David Makarewicz, Contributing Writer
Activist Post

One aspect of the White Paper that has grabbed headlines is the Obama Administration's recommendation that Congress clarify that felony copyright infringement includes infringement by streaming.  The current legal definition of felony copyright infringement only references "distribution" and "reproduction," which does not clearly include streaming.

There is some room to debate whether felony-level penalties (up to 10 years imprisonment) are too harsh for any intellectual property offense such as this or whether there are legitimate reasons to treat streaming different than other methods of distribution and reproduction.  However, asking Congress to clarify an unclear law is generally a reasonable request.