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.
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109 Comments on US Senate Holds Hearings on Great Firewall Of America

#101
fullinfusion
Vanguard Beta Tester
No offense to the Americans but Im sure the fu#k glad I live where I live. Which isn't much better :toast: but still..
Posted on Reply
#102
Steven B
You know the US government has much greater power than this when it comes to the internet, they can shut down sites becuase they feel like it. In every major hub of the internet, ther are hubs around the US, such as the one at Georgia Tech, there is a small office and to get into that small office you have to have extremely high level security clearance. Within phone companies as well small rooms like this exist, same as other forms of technology. Of course you never hear about these rooms, and they never both you. They are to control the medium at the basic level, no need to call up the phone company to tap a line, why not just call the US government already there.

This bill is almost just a way to give the US government and its affiliates proper authorization to do such things, and use it for things other than counter-terrorism.

Now move to some bill like this, this is lobbyists pushing congress to pass a bill for them, while there are other more important bills. If this crap about the economy wasn't going on right now, this still wouldn't make it into the news, but it might make it onto smaller media outsources, which aren't bought by the big media corporations. Instead they are all talking about congress and the economy, we all know whats going to happen, so focus on other shit, its really annoying.

Anyways this bill will pass, no matter what you do about it, they have a lot of support with their money. It will only die in the house before it reaches the senate, and don't count on Obama vetoing this bill. You see there is bipartisan support, actually a lot, those kinds of bills at this time works.

The only way to fix the US government is to get rid of every one currently running it.

The average income of a house of representatives is 750K
The average income of a senator is 1.2-1.5million

unless your income is in line with theirs, they have different values than yours, no matter how much they say otherwise. Like look at Obama, he acts like a poor man, hes not poor, and to make matters worse hes a wimp.

We need to get rid of all of them, replace them, but not all at once. keep some from both sides, at least the big names.

but what it is important to note is that we should NOT be taking the easy way out, don't ever vote to make it easier to get rid of people you don't like or policies you don't like, or else you will do what democracies before us did, and that is what lead to the demise of their governments by their own actions. LIke don't vote for a guy because you hated the other guy, happened in 2008 and will happen in 2012.
Posted on Reply
#103
Peter1986C
Steven BLIke don't vote for a guy because you hated the other guy, happened in 2008 and will happen in 2012.
IMHO that will always happen in a two-party system. Like "OMG the Democrats really screwed it this time, let's vote for the Republicans now". Only to change into a situation with the roles reversed, sooner or later. American Federal politics seems like a game of Pong to me. | . |
Posted on Reply
#104
FordGT90Concept
"I go fast!1!11!1!"
Senator Wyden is going to attempt to filibuster the legislation in the Senate by reading the names of those who oppose it submitted here:
www.stopcensorship.org/ (operated by DemandProgress.org)

Over 50,000 have already signed up and they're hoping for 100,000 by Monday. Spread it around to US citiznes who strongly feels internet censorship is wrong.
Posted on Reply
#105
FordGT90Concept
"I go fast!1!11!1!"
They got their 100,000 signatures. Unfortunately, the bill may come to a vote this week. Hopefully the filibuster will be be enough to stop it.

Senator Wyden still wants more signatures though so if you haven't signed the link above, go for it.
Senator Wyden to Demand ProgressThe filibuster affords senators an opportunity to stand up for what they believe in and there are few things I believe in more than ensuring that every American has a voice and an opportunity to get ahead.

Right now, the Internet gives every American that voice while making it possible for every entrepreneur, thinker and innovator to compete alongside the biggest and most moneyed interests.

It is my hope that -- with your help – my colleagues in Congress will realize that a free and open Internet is something that we as Americans should celebrate and not allow those special moneyed interests to quash.

It is my hope that – with your help – my colleagues in Congress will realize that PIPA/SOPA are the wrong way to protect intellectual property because the price they exact on the Internet is too high.

With your help, I believe we can get that word out and prevent these misguided bills from every reaching the House and Senate floor, but if they do reach the floor you can count on me to stand up and make our voices heard.
Posted on Reply
#106
trickson
OH, I have such a headache
This says it all !
Posted on Reply
#107
Unregistered
Sites are already being blocked....Even though the law that allows the US Govt to do this hasn't been passed yet.....Welcome to the Corporate States of America!

Here's an Article torrentfreak.com/feds-seize-130-domain-names-in-mass-crackdown-111125/
torrentfreak.com/dns-seizure-takes-out-megaupload-111129/

and here's the fix-as an example MegaUpload
First try using the IP address not the http...

174.140.154.12/

If that doesn't work, try this...

1.Click the Start Orb, then select Control Panel.
2.Click on Network and Sharing Center.
3.Click on your primary connection or Local Area Connection under Active Networks.
4.Click the Properties button.
Windows 7 may prompt you for permission to make network setting changes.
5.Highlight 'Internet Protocol Version 4' and click Properties.
6.Click the radio button 'Use the following DNS server addresses:' and type 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220 in the Preferred DNS server and Alternate DNS server fields.
7.Click OK button, then the Close button, then Close again. Finally, close the Network and Sharing Center window.
At this point, we highly suggest that you flush your DNS resolver cache and web browser caches to ensure that your new configuration settings take effect.

FOR MAC: go to system prefs, click NETWORK, click your connection, click "advanced", click DNS, click +, type 8.8.8.8, click OK, click APPLY... and ENJOY!

For Linux: (another cut and paste I have NO linux experience)

Under Linux / UNIX / BSD operating system, you need to edit the /etc/resolv.conf file and add the line:

nameserver {IP-OF-THE-DNS-1}
nameserver {IP-OF-THEISP-DNS-SERVER-2}

Login as the root, enter:
# vi /etc/resolv.conf
OR
$ sudo vi /etc/resolv.conf
Modify or enter nameserver as follows:
nameserver 208.67.222.222
nameserver 208.67.220.220

Save and close the file. To test DNS configuration type any one of the following command:
$ host google.com
$ dig google.com
$ ping google.com
$ nslookup your-domain.com
Output:

google.com has address 72.14.207.99
google.com has address 64.233.187.99
google.com has address 64.233.167.99
google.com mail is handled by 10 smtp4.google.com.
google.com mail is handled by 10 smtp1.google.com.
google.com mail is handled by 10 smtp2.google.com.
google.com mail is handled by 10 smtp3.google.com.
Posted on Edit | Reply
#108
Fx
this really pisses me off. the whole point of passing a law is to make it allowable to do whatever proposed action you are trying to do according to law

I am even more pissed off cause I feel like I am going to remain in the minority of people that even give a shit. people dont care about politics until it slaps them in the face with violations that directly impact their life in some major way
Posted on Reply
#109
Unregistered
Fxthis really pisses me off. the whole point of passing a law is to make it allowable to do whatever proposed action you are trying to do according to law

I am even more pissed off cause I feel like I am going to remain in the minority of people that even give a shit. people dont care about politics until it slaps them in the face with violations that directly impact their life in some major way
It's because nobody is hearing about this....The news isn't reporting it because they are owned by the very Corps that are pushing for this...

I don't think it's a matter of not caring, I think it's a matter of ignorance.
Posted on Edit | Reply
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