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


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.

I'm in favor of it. The law DOES apply to everyone and "big content" brought this on themselves. Any rights lost should be blamed on an industry that behaved like heathens, raping and plundering customers and property holders.

Other countries like China sure censor Internet more than USA.

sorry, but this will be overly abused. think about a site that speaks out about the govt or govt officials. that site would be blacklisted in a minute.

govt involved in anything good is always a bad idea.. :2 cents:





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The article says websites in general, not limiting it to copyright infringing ones as far as I understood. I'm both hands FOR blocking the illegal sites however not in the form of the Chinese firewall as such a high censorship level just gives a huge hummer in the hands of the government which can be used for other purposes hidden behind the "pivous hope".

Maybe I am being a little too idealistic/naive .........


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Google is broken concerning adult related searches, It would be a very good thing for that to happen. More search engines could come out it, and probably even better ones.

along with protecting content, I am all for it.

Agreed 100%. :thumbsup :thumbsup

Simply open up a history book and see how laws like these are abused time and again by law enforcement or alike for any number of different thinks outside of the original 'scope' of the law. However, the only way to argue that is in court. It is simply a form of extortion.

When will people learn that having the 'government' up in your business is not in your best interest. No matter which side of the law you are on. I guess some of the sheep in this country will not be happy until they have a microchip under the skin in their hand, or are bar coded with every move they make and dollar spent tracked.

:disgust

I am sorry, where did this say it had anything to do with adult?

me thinks so :winkwink:

people who bet on the free won.

people who hoped for this kind of shit would turn back the clock lost.

it was just a matter of time before the tentacles of corporations seize control of web.

Fucking :thumbsup

Since California is deeply in debt, and copyright infringement hugely and directly affects the USA and especially California, isn't putting the Internet above your home - unpatriotic?

Uh, they don't get a free reign to block sites. Only sites that engage in theft.

I am for it. I'd love to see them turn off tubes in the SERPs