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
If you need a break come to rural WI and visit. I'll be happy to restore your faith in our ability to retain our freedom. ;)
In the US we are free because we have guns. A lot of guns. It's that simple.
WI just enacted a terrific concealed carry law so that law abiliding citizens are on an equal playing field with the criminals who do not care about laws.
When enough people get pissed off enough at the politicians, they will be gone (voted out).
In the mean time, we watch.
How will the firewall be implemented, does all US traffic get filtered though one firewall or do individual ISPs have to implement there own. If so I don't think many would be on board.
Also think about the number of attack that would happen to said firewall... Technically it really seems impossible to keep it running properly
thats right- they dont want to know... just show them the red carpet and kardashians and they are happy...
I am surrounded by morons...
If I lived close to WI I'd say we should go shoot sometime. But that's about a 400-500 mile drive depending where you are in the cheese state haha
If you're going to threaten revolution, do it over something worthwhile, like the government actually setting aside the Constitution and adopting something else as the law of the land. Instead, how about you talk to your friends and co-workers about this bill and encourage them to vote in the next election and exercise their Rights as Americans? That's a trigger I'd rather pull.
Occupy a Voting Booth. Absentee Ballots are also a super easy option that the fatties can use to vote these people out of office.
They have to understand that revolution doesn't necessarily require guns braindead crowds and explosions. It can be as silent as a mouse. Know your rights, educate yourself, help others and just be a good guy / gal. If only people thought not only about their own welfare the world wouldn't be in deep ass, where only power and money matter and nothing more.
I digress but I just thought about Deus Ex now. When JC found out that corporation invented the Gray Death and infected the entire population.
In the 1860s it lead to tenthousands dying or getting crippled in the Civil War, because grabbing muskets and Minié bullets seemed easier than letting the Congress do it's duty and actually create solutions to the political issues of the time. The rich made war, the poor and common men died.
In September 2001, the US Government became trolled, leading to innocent people dying (T towers related deaths). To make things worse, the governments of the US-of-A and Europe decided to feed the troll which led to even more deaths. The troll and trolled made war, the common and poor men (and women and children) died. Lured into the "join the legions, see the world" trap that used the Americans' gun fetish to lure men and women into the meat grinder that a soldier's life is.
you are getting the fundamentals of guns twisted
if guns werent important- our founding fathers wouldnt have placed them as our 2nd Ammendment in the United States Constitution
times may change but ill-intent & corruption never does...
In my humble, biased, American opionion, wars have become far too political. When we wage war, it should be fought with the full might of our military. We go in, blow all your shit up until you surrender and then we pull out and let you pick up the pieces. No nation building needed. If you go back to doing what it was you were doing in the first place that caused us to go to war, we come back, blow your shit up and pull out again.
Our military is compromised of volunteers. People who volunteered for the job, whatever their motives may be. They are very good at their jobs, when allowed to perform to the best of their abilities. Afghanistan and Iraq would have been over in months if the military were allowed to topple the regimes and pull out.
Also, I own several firearms. Including the evil ones the gun grabbers want to ban for no reason more than they look exactly like the weapons the military uses. I'm a gun loving American. I just don't like it when people say stupid stuff that makes every gun loving American look bat-shit crazy.
But this all is way off topic. Protecting the intellectual property of corporations is no reason to get violent. Your vote is your weapon, use it wisely.
after Act A and this...
welcome to promise land.... welcome to a big open jail :) USA...
so were will be the liberty of the free information... how free will be this free information... :) if this will be filtered :D
also this will limit and control the links between the people.
So if this will be done... any information that is not noted like "OK for the people to read" will be like it's not exist because the US say so... even this will be real :)
I hugely respect the soldiers' will to go there and risk their lives and good health to try to improve the situation. The problem is however that it changes generally in the opposite way: it makes it worse. Let the Middle East solve it's own problems, stay away from it as much as you can. Wars have always been a matter of politics.
Especially the one in Afghanistan, the Taliban has been steady on it's "throne" mainly because it saw an opportunity to seize power during a period of severe anarchy in the country. How on earth can you think that one can do without nation building, if your enemy abused a power vacuum in the region? You need to "normalise" its society if you wish to solve the problem. And doing a Vietnam-style "lets blow everyone and everything up" is doing no good either, because the bad (media) attention and the negative public opinion, plus the opportunity for the enemy's Anti-American propaganda creation will make it impossible to make it an easy victory. And additionally it's just wrong, and I bet you know that too.
Again, our discussion is way off topic for TPU and even this post. If you want to argue the point, start a thread at generalnonsense.net and I'll be happy to discuss it further.
It doesn't seem to matter who or what you vote for.....It sucks ass...
The Corps run everything.....we no longer have a Govt of the people for the people....We have a Govt of the Corps for the Money....