Wednesday, November 16th 2011
US Senate Holds Hearings on Great Firewall Of America
Today, the United States Congress will hold hearings of an internet censorship system for America. That's right, "Land of the Free" gets a Great Firewall of its own, which is proposed to be practically as empowered as the one People's Republic of China uses, only that it threatens to have wider reaching consequences on areas such as freedom of speech, freedom of information (by that we're not endorsing piracy), and the integrity of the DNS system.
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The original idea behind this bill is to curb piracy of digital information, be it content or proprietary software, but is peppered with loopholes that allow the US government to practically censor any content it wants, and for bigger internet-enabled companies to cripple new startups. Social media sites that have traces of copyrighted content can be blocked overnight, if they are found to be serving as rally points for protestors in the future. Just think about it. Lets say a group sets up a social media site as a rally point for its protests. What will the detractors of that group have to do? Simple - post copyrighted content on that particular social media site, and make the copyright holders appeal for punitive action against that site. In the whole process, webmasters will be made policemen of social content on their site, because they will be made liable.
What does this mean for the rest of the world? It's simple - America is the gold standard for freedom and liberty. The moment the US passes such a legislation, other free societies around the world will be inclined to pass similar legislations, for the sheer amount of power it dispenses to the governments. Learn more here.
<iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/31100268?byline=0&portrait=0" width="400" height="225" frameborder="0" webkitAllowFullScreen allowFullScreen></iframe>
The original idea behind this bill is to curb piracy of digital information, be it content or proprietary software, but is peppered with loopholes that allow the US government to practically censor any content it wants, and for bigger internet-enabled companies to cripple new startups. Social media sites that have traces of copyrighted content can be blocked overnight, if they are found to be serving as rally points for protestors in the future. Just think about it. Lets say a group sets up a social media site as a rally point for its protests. What will the detractors of that group have to do? Simple - post copyrighted content on that particular social media site, and make the copyright holders appeal for punitive action against that site. In the whole process, webmasters will be made policemen of social content on their site, because they will be made liable.
What does this mean for the rest of the world? It's simple - America is the gold standard for freedom and liberty. The moment the US passes such a legislation, other free societies around the world will be inclined to pass similar legislations, for the sheer amount of power it dispenses to the governments. Learn more here.
109 Comments on US Senate Holds Hearings on Great Firewall Of America
This can only spell bad news for the U.S. on scales much larger than technology.
I sent letters to my Congressmen on this subject not too long ago. Unfortunately, neither were inclined to defend the 1st amendment but they didn't outright say they support it either. If they don't say no to this, they're oppsing the will of the American people. Instead, they step in line with the corporations they don't care about individual rights--only money.
Shame on america.
I just watched a commercial about "clean coal".
Double shame on america, where does or how does coal even become clean, and why the fuck is everything twisting so badly in the states.
I'm moving soon. :shadedshu
So I'll just say that if this passes and becomes Law and The Supreme Court upholds it then.....I can't post that either hmmm...Seems they may have already started censoring since if I do post what I want I'd likely go to jail...
So let me put it like this...
People
Streets
Guns
Rich
Death
Destruction
Congress
Senate
End
NEW Government
Frankly I am amazed it has been left alone this long. Public policy is set by control freaks that have an elite mindset. They know what's best for us. We are just mindless cattle-consumers.
Censorship is a slippery slope for any government. It starts with "morally objectionable content" and ends in everything that disagrees with the viewpoints of "the party".
Sponsor: Senator Patrick Leahy [D-VT]
Co-Sponsors:
- Lamar Alexander [R-TN]
- Evan Bayh [D-IN]
- Benjamin Cardin [D-MD]
- Thomas Coburn [R-OK]
- Richard Durbin [D-IL]
- Dianne Feinstein [D-CA]
- Kirsten Gillibrand [D-NY]
- Lindsey Graham [R-SC]
- Charles Grassley [R-IA]
- Orrin Hatch [R-UT]
- James Inhofe [R-OK]
- Amy Klobuchar [D-MN]
- Herbert Kohl [D-WI]
- Claire McCaskill [D-MO]
- Robert Menéndez [D-NJ]
- Charles Schumer [D-NY]
- Arlen Specter [D-PA]
- George Voinovich [R-OH]
- Sheldon Whitehouse [D-RI]
PROTECT IP ActSponsor: Senator Patrick Leahy [D-VT]
Co-Sponsors:
- Lamar Alexander [R-TN]
- Kelly Ayotte [R-NH]
- Michael Bennet [D-CO]
- Jeff Bingaman [D-NM]
- Richard Blumenthal [D-CT]
- Roy Blunt [R-MO]
- John Boozman [R-AR]
- Sherrod Brown [D-OH]
- Benjamin Cardin [D-MD]
- Robert Casey [D-PA]
- Saxby Chambliss [R-GA]
- Thad Cochran [R-MS]
- Chris Coons [D-DE]
- Bob Corker [R-TN]
- Richard Durbin [D-IL]
- Michael Enzi [R-WY]
- Dianne Feinstein [D-CA]
- Al Franken [D-MN]
- Kirsten Gillibrand [D-NY]
- Lindsey Graham [R-SC]
- Charles Grassley [R-IA]
- Kay Hagan [D-NC]
- Orrin Hatch [R-UT]
- John Isakson [R-GA]
- Tim Johnson [D-SD]
- Amy Klobuchar [D-MN]
- Herbert Kohl [D-WI]
- Mary Landrieu [D-LA]
- Joseph Lieberman [I-CT]
- John McCain [R-AZ]
- Robert Menéndez [D-NJ]
- Bill Nelson [D-FL]
- James Risch [R-ID]
- Marco Rubio [R-FL]
- Charles Schumer [D-NY]
- Jeanne Shaheen [D-NH]
- Tom Udall [D-NM]
- David Vitter [R-LA]
- Sheldon Whitehouse [D-RI]
- Jerry Moran [R-KS] (withdrawn)
I'm pretty sure I contacted Charles Grassley on this before. Looks like I'm going to have to do it again but this time, tell him clear and concise he will not be getting my vote, nor the vote of those I know, if he continues to support this anti-American, anti-1st Amendment law.Edit: If you want me to link up all those names so you can click on them to get to their official senator website where you can contact them, let me know.
I'm not an American, but that move will surely affect the rest of the world !Oh cheers mate ! Lemme give dear ol' Al Zwahiri a call..
LOL so why do you guys think there is opencl / webcl / webgl for you as a users convenience LMAO, it is for Gov. / hackers to trojan load and run crap in firefox or for the Gov. to spy on you using your own pc just like EA's origin.exe does.
That is why 2006 TLS1.1/1.2 is still missing from firefox, it f's up webcl spying.
Same as iTunes :respect: cloud does, scan your pc for music WTF for $25 service fee ??
If iTunes on the Apple/win pc does not already know what music you have then how would it know by scanning your pc ???
Thank god I was lucky enough to have escaped from the USA, not sure what others would do in the future to escape as Mexico will close the north border and Canada will do the same.
so, there's no way this sort of bs can pass here.
btw: www.croatiantimes.com/news/General_News/2011-11-16/23247/Hackers_announce_cyber_attack_on_HDZ
:laugh: if only they could hack those asswipes bank accounts and transfer funds equally to every croatian citizen we'd all be fucking rich!
How much potential for misuse does this actually have anyway? it would seem to me that it would generate quite a few problems for the politicians if someone were to misuse it
Edited