Fighting Censorship Online

[+Silverblue]

A group called EFF, (Electronic Frontier Foundation) fights for our online rights, there are other groups who do this too, like dotrights.org. I was just made aware there's a petition drive to stop a bill that would allow companies to block websites. This may be old news but they're not giving up. Those who trample on our rights are relentless, so we have to be, too. EFF has a newsletter that has lots of info about govt secrecy, spying on us, and such; how our privacy is being invaded, lawsuits to stop it, etc. the group does a lot to help protect those rights, it also includes blogging rights and other internet related activities, as well as info about phone companies spying on us. Eff listed the site that has the petition. I hope you'll all sign it. This is about FREEDOM of SPEECH.

 

petition about website blocking

 

Sincerely, Sb

[drtarzanmd]

Oppose PROTECT-IP Act: U.S. Government Wants To Censor Search Engines And Browsers

 

 

Tell Congress to Kill COICA 2.0, the Internet Censorship Bill

 

 

UPDATE: Great news. We don't always see eye-to-eye with Google, but we're on the same team this time. Google CEO Eric Schmidt just came out swinging against PROTECT IP, saying, "I would be very, very careful if I were a government about arbitrarily [implementing] simple solutions to complex problems." And then he went even further. From the LA Times:

 

 

"If there is a law that requires DNSs, to do X and it's passed by both houses of Congress and signed by the president of the United States and we disagree with it then we would still fight it," he said, according to the report. "If it's a request the answer is we wouldn't do it, if it's a discussion we wouldn't do it."

 

 

Big content is irate. The Motion Picture Association of America released a statement saying, "We’ve heard this ‘but the law doesn’t apply to me’ argument before – but usually, it comes from content thieves, not a Fortune 500 company. Google should know better."

 

 

ORIGINAL: 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.

 

 

Just sign on at right and we'll forward the petition to Congress.

 

Copy and Paste from :

 

http://act.demandprogress.org/sign/protectip_docs

 

Thanks Silverblue for the information ...

[Timmahh]

Singed. THANK YOU SB for bringing this to our attention!

[The Digital Nomad]

I write for a hacking forum, we preach white hat hacking ethics, while we play with black hat tools.

 

I agree, government censorship of the internet is a threat. The internet may very well be the last domain where people can speak freely, with some anonymity. (just because you can speak freely, it does not mean you can hurt or be mean to others, or pose a fake identity)

 

The recent uprising in several countries demonstrated the power of the internet, of social networking tools. They united many people to rally for rights. This threat is perhaps exactly why the US is trying to put in place means to 'shut down' the internet - just in case we use the internet for the SAME PURPOSE!

 

I can already attest that more and more, the information on the internet is being redacted, removed, erased. This is why suck-o.com and cryptome.org work to archive important stuff you should know. (see DNR's Suggested Readings - suck-o.com )

 

The internet is being dumbed down as we speak. The government wants a dumbed down society, its easier to incite Fear, Uncertainty, and despair when the masses are misinformed, lack information, and created to be docile and lazy.

 

-DN

[murdock]

SB , ? When they change your words on any site whats the difference ?? Freedom of speech ? Bull bunny muffin ! < See !!

[+EdwardGlen]

SB , ? When they change your words on any site whats the difference ?? Freedom of speech ? Bull bunny muffin ! < See !!

 

 

A filter is used clean up curse words here and I'm all for that.

 

It would be really difficult to come across as responsible mature adults with curse laden rants in the forums.