It Is Time for Something Serious: CISPA!

[Neurovore]

Remember all of that nonsense a few months ago about the SOPA bill that they were trying to pass in the US? It would have affected the internet in ways too horrible to contemplate because of how it would attempt to censor the internet. Now a different bill is making its way through congress called CISPA, or the Cyber Internet Sharing and Protection Act.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjZ8-xO2pMM

If this passes, the ramifications could even be worse than what SOPA would have done.

[BTYM]

*Intelligence

[Argumentable]

Oh no the 50th one of these surely it spells the end of the world.

[Aposke]

To be honest I'd rather have people riled up about stuff like that (and hopefully informing themselves on the topic in the process) than everyone just shrugging it off and just taking "government decisions" up their asses.

In fact, I'd like to see stuff like that happen in the U.S. alot more.
Not just about Internet Privacy, but even more important stuff, like:

1. Patents on genes

2. Frontier/Border Security policies

3. The "War on Terrorism" (although this point HAS been brought up alot more in the recent months by the media at least)

Also, bills like these are WAY easier to take down in their early state of being debated in the commitee of intelligence than when they're actually lying in front of the congress.

And just to make this clear again: This bill is right now only being proposed, it is not destined to be voted on by the congress yet.

[limepie20]

Our top priority is to abolish pennies.

[Neurovore]

To be honest I'd rather have people riled up about stuff like that (and hopefully informing themselves on the topic in the process) than everyone just shrugging it off and just taking "government decisions" up their asses.

In fact, I'd like to see stuff like that happen in the U.S. alot more.
Not just about Internet Privacy, but even more important stuff, like:

1. Patents on genes

2. Frontier/Border Security policies

3. The "War on Terrorism" (although this point HAS been brought up alot more in the recent months by the media at least)

Also, bills like these are WAY easier to take down in their early state of being debated in the commitee of intelligence than when they're actually lying in front of the congress.

And just to make this clear again: This bill is right now only being proposed, it is not destined to be voted on by the congress yet.

Yes, this bill looks like it is idea of the NSA, and is supposed to help catch "cyberterrorists". The problem is that the provisions of this bill are so broad that even things like romhacking and translation projects could be affected because it could be classified as a form of "terrorism". My point is that there have been a whole flurry of these bills that have been proposed in the US lately, as when one of them gets defeated another one that is virtually identical gets proposed. The fact that certain key members in the US government are so determined to try and regulate the internet in this fashion should be a cause for concern. The Sinde Law that recently went into effect in Spain was similar to SOPA in terms of its implementation and it already seems to be causing problems.

There should be a real concern that the internet should not be allowed to turn into what cable and satellite companies did with television stations. While this is an extreme example, imagine having to pay a subscription fee to access a bundle of websites as part of your internet service package and having to pay extra for going to websites that are not part of your service.

[Bean]

Oh no the 50th one of these surely it spells the end of the world.

All it takes is for one of these idiotic laws to pass to screw things up. My thoughts on seeing the video were "Not again..." but I'll still take it seriously because politicians just don't get it. In fact, a couple of them have bragged about not getting it in the past.

[Neurovore]

Here is more on the issue.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6BKU9mC ... AAAAAAAAAA

Tell your pals online about this because these destructive measures need to be exposed for what they really are. I hate standing on my soapbox like this, but nobody should have the right to mess around with the internet. Fight for the sake of raocow and Talkhaus!

[Sutin]

They're pretty adamant about this aren't they?
I rather doubt they will ever loose steam and will probably, eventually get their way. But I suppose it's worth resisting while we still can.

However CISPA just sounds evil... it's got that kind of ring to it.

SOPA sounded like a new washing machine product.

[BTYM]

It's pretty interesting to think of how politics are going to change when this generation replaces the old farts clinging on right now... This kind of bill would be unthinkable

[Bean]

It's pretty interesting to think of how politics are going to change when this generation replaces the old farts clinging on right now... This kind of bill would be unthinkable

I don't know about that. Politics, like almost any type of activity of the sort, tends to bring out the nutcases in droves. There is a site you can sign into to add your name to a petition, but I don't know how much that will do. I still did it, though.

http://www.avaaz.org/en/stop_cispa/?fp

[Neurovore]

It's pretty interesting to think of how politics are going to change when this generation replaces the old farts clinging on right now... This kind of bill would be unthinkable

I do not know...I think that many people are so used to the internet that the longer it continues in its present state, the more people have a tendency to take it for granted. Combined with the fact that most people are rather apathetic about politics regardless of age, they do not take such political measures seriously even when they have the potential to affect everyone. The sad thing is that we no longer have the luxury of relegating political issues to some sort of esoteric discussion now that they are after the very thing that has given people the ability to let their ideas spread freely. If more people actually paid attention then perhaps we would not have even elected these douchebags in the first place.

[BTYM]

The people running the country right now didn't grow up with a massive, world-wide network of freely shared information at their fingertips, that's going to change

[kilon]

They told me I had to share it.

I think 'they' are the good guys here.

[Neurovore]

So, it looks like the House of Representatives will be vote on CISPA on the 23rd of April. If you live in the US, contact your state's representatives and tell them to vote against it. You can look up your representatives here.

https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml

It is a long shot, but if enough people start harassing their elected officials it might actually come to something.