The Internet Blacklist Bill - Second Barrage

[Madtsunami]

Alright, so here's how things are.

Senator Patrick Leahy has proposed a bill that will give the Attorney General the right to blacklist any domain name for a site that is seen as being "dedicated to infringing activities" that is being brought back to congress this Thursday.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/09/censorship-internet-takes-center-stage-online

COICA is a fairly short bill, but it could have a longstanding and dangerous impact on freedom of speech, current Internet architecture, copyright doctrine, foreign policy, and beyond. In 2010, if there's anything we've learned about efforts to re-write copyright law to target "piracy" online, it's that they are likely to have unintended consequences.

This is a censorship bill that runs roughshod over freedom of speech on the Internet. Free speech is vitally important to democracy, which is why the government is restricted from suppressing speech except in very specific, narrowly-tailored situations. But this bill is the polar opposite of narrow — not only in the broad way that it tries to define a site "dedicated to infringing activities," but also in the solution that it tries to impose — a block on a whole domain, and not just the infringing part of the site.

...

I think the above link sums it up pretty well, but if you want to look at this for yourself, you can find the Bill and a Summary here

If this sounds like something you feel should be stopped, there is a petition you can sign, and you can always contact your senator - especially if you live in California, Vermont, Wisconsin, New York, Minnesota, or Illinois, as these will be the senators who will most likely have the deciding votes.

EDIT: fixed
EDIT2: put a clip

 

[Seikend]

The first link doesn't work by the way.

 

[kimkim3074]

Yup that link doesn't work for sure.

 

[Claire Diviner]

↑ What they said.

Anyway, I've heard of that bill, and it's like I say to my friends, "if that bill passes, America will riot". To censor the internet is no better than pissing on our rights to freedoms we currently have, like freedom of the press, etc.. Sure it varies depending on what they blacklist, but to try to control a concept that was made here in America, that was meant to have all kinds of freedom, is just absolutely absurd! This is simply an attempt to control and monitor the citizens. That's my take on it.

 

[SkylerOcon]

I worry that America is too apathetic to riot - if they actually cared, people wouldn't be giving me confused faces when I mentioned this or other similar pieces of legislation, like ACTA.

 

[Luigitoilet]

Yeah, to expect mass rioting over this is having too much faith in us as a nation.

 

[Crimson King]

This was shot down in plenty countries that sites opposing it mention. I don't see it going far.

 

[Lurker guy]

This was shot down in plenty countries that sites opposing it mention. I don't see it going far.

I agree wholeheartedly.

 

[Vinylic.]

This was shot down in plenty countries that sites opposing it mention. I don't see it going far.

True. I agree.

 

[Life]

^^No reason not to be enraged anyway. Countries with less of a free-speech tradition than the US have rejected it (and I applaud them), what makes the Powers That Be (tm) think America will take it lying down?

 

[Shadic]

^^No reason not to be enraged anyway. Countries with less of a free-speech tradition than the US have rejected it (and I applaud them), what makes the Powers That Be (tm) think America will take it lying down?

Because we're more corporatist. See our copyright and patent laws, for example.