Well, I guess it was only too long before another one of these things would come along.
Several papers are in discussion right now to grant broad powers to the government to stop leaking "copyright" information in the USA. It comes under the names SOPA and PIPA and OPEN Act (Online Protection & ENforcement of Digital Trade Act) and they are broad-reaching anti-freedom measures against the free sharing of information.
Votes are happening this month.
SOPA, PIPA, OPEN internet censorship in USA
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Re: SOPA, PIPA, OPEN internet censorship in USA
Update - some slight back peddling (hopefully accelerating):
http://www.opencongress.org/articles/vi ... ancel-Vote
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news ... n-sopa.ars
http://www.opencongress.org/articles/vi ... ancel-Vote
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news ... n-sopa.ars
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Re: SOPA, PIPA, OPEN internet censorship in USA
I find an interesting summary of the bill and its potential consequences here: http://www.hackerfactor.com/blog/index. ... y-Act.html
and also on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_Online_Piracy_Act
We don't deal in piracy so it apparently is not our direct problem -- but the truth is that "copyright concern" is a vague concept that could apply to any website, simply because it links to unlawful sources or hosts certain pictures or other material -- so it concerns everyone.
If used for ideological and political purposes, this bill could give power to the US to basically try to exercise censorship within the US the same way China or Saudi Arabia can. A bad example for the rest of us, undoubtedly.
Paradoxically, a measure like the one proposed by SOPA is already present in many western "liberal" countries, including Italy. In Italy the police is authorized to obscure certain websites for copyright infringement or for criminal reasons. For example, thepiratebay.org is unreachable in italy. They don't do it by simply deleting the DNS records though, but by enforcing a sort of nation-wide firewall around that website, sort of like China or other countries do. Of course, there are ways around that, such as using TOR, but it is borderline illegal at that point, and the damage is done.
One more thought. It is possible that the US congress is trying to pass this legislation not only to help the corporate world to discourage the sharing of material that goes down on the internet, but also to prepare for the ciberwars that will be fought with China or Russia in the next future. It is possible that the reasoning, such as in a cold war, is to have a deterrent.
If those countries have this "lawful" weapon to ban and censor websites on demand, and they can use it to damage US interests within their borders, then the US must have the same weapon. It is that old insanity again...
and also on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_Online_Piracy_Act
We don't deal in piracy so it apparently is not our direct problem -- but the truth is that "copyright concern" is a vague concept that could apply to any website, simply because it links to unlawful sources or hosts certain pictures or other material -- so it concerns everyone.
If used for ideological and political purposes, this bill could give power to the US to basically try to exercise censorship within the US the same way China or Saudi Arabia can. A bad example for the rest of us, undoubtedly.
The way i understand it, the measure could affect even a website like ours, that is not hosted in the US, because it enforces restrictions on the DNS, domain name servers, inside the united states. If an address like cluesforum.info is removed from the DNS records for US users, the only way to reach our website for them would by via ip number (if we had our own dedicated machine, which we don't) or via ip number + a given path, if our hosting service allows it (I have just sent them an email to figure this out), or, I guess, by using a proxy server based abroad.Section 103 (page 25) identifies "sites dedicated to theft of U.S. Property". The bill defines the scope as "an Internet site, or a portion thereof, that is a U.S.-directed site and is used by users within the United States". Since the United States doesn't have any official language, this means that any site anywhere in the world is as a potential violator. (...) With SOPA, Ralph Lauren can have the domain "boingboing.net" taken offline or made inaccessible to people in the United States.
Paradoxically, a measure like the one proposed by SOPA is already present in many western "liberal" countries, including Italy. In Italy the police is authorized to obscure certain websites for copyright infringement or for criminal reasons. For example, thepiratebay.org is unreachable in italy. They don't do it by simply deleting the DNS records though, but by enforcing a sort of nation-wide firewall around that website, sort of like China or other countries do. Of course, there are ways around that, such as using TOR, but it is borderline illegal at that point, and the damage is done.
One more thought. It is possible that the US congress is trying to pass this legislation not only to help the corporate world to discourage the sharing of material that goes down on the internet, but also to prepare for the ciberwars that will be fought with China or Russia in the next future. It is possible that the reasoning, such as in a cold war, is to have a deterrent.
If those countries have this "lawful" weapon to ban and censor websites on demand, and they can use it to damage US interests within their borders, then the US must have the same weapon. It is that old insanity again...
Anonymous - Message to the American People
Man this is so CIA how did I not see this before! haha
full link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrXyLrTRXso
Fear Monguering Brainwashing
[Admin notice: as we have threads already open about SOPA or anonymous, I moved this post here. ~nonhocapito]
full link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrXyLrTRXso
Fear Monguering Brainwashing
[Admin notice: as we have threads already open about SOPA or anonymous, I moved this post here. ~nonhocapito]
Re: SOPA, PIPA, OPEN internet censorship in USA
full link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lXau4TDt7M
y u no work?
[admin notice: use just the yutube code, not any other part of the web address. In this case, "_lXau4TDt7M" ~nonhocapito]
-ok thanks!
Last edited by daozen on Tue Jan 24, 2012 2:46 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: SOPA, PIPA, OPEN internet censorship in USA
"Anonymous taking down the FBI website" is obviously a case of self-inflicted cyber-terrorism... The enactment of a false war to justify the corporate takeover of the internets.. Well unless Anonymous is a chinese or russian operation, which I doubt... to add to the absurdity, SOPA was not necessary to take down Megaupload, so clearly it has been decided to artificially stage this conflict, before the discussion of the bill, to profit from the situation and publicly act on it (yet another a cyber-pearl-harbour, if you will).
The smug youngster representing Anonymous views in this video obviously does not even remotely take this possibility onto consideration: which would denounce a complete political naivety, if the whole thing wasn't fake.
What's most disgusting to me is the notion that, for these operations to succeed, it is necessary for the attackers to have at their disposals thousands of zombie machines, remotely controlled-- in other words to act as a mafia gang, using intimidation methods with other people's resources, risking other people's interests, always behind their fucking masks. All of which evidently do not create any ethical problem for these alleged grassroots movements. And the people are supposed to take this as a mass revolt against the system. Pretty shameful in my book.
The smug youngster representing Anonymous views in this video obviously does not even remotely take this possibility onto consideration: which would denounce a complete political naivety, if the whole thing wasn't fake.
What's most disgusting to me is the notion that, for these operations to succeed, it is necessary for the attackers to have at their disposals thousands of zombie machines, remotely controlled-- in other words to act as a mafia gang, using intimidation methods with other people's resources, risking other people's interests, always behind their fucking masks. All of which evidently do not create any ethical problem for these alleged grassroots movements. And the people are supposed to take this as a mass revolt against the system. Pretty shameful in my book.
Re: SOPA, PIPA, OPEN internet censorship in USA
I think they took down megaupload to say "see! this is all about going after piracy and that, not about controling the internet" at the same time Anonymous comes to the rescue and fights in the name of the identity-less, job-less and detached bunch of online surfers and gamers today's youth is. Everyone's on anonymous side now, but they are oblivious to the fact that they are taking part in supporting a false flag internet attack that could close our most important window to the world ever.
Re: SOPA, PIPA, OPEN internet censorship in USA
Unfortunately, in the end not the least bit surprising.
Obama's not a real persona - is Ron Paul?Rand and Ron Paul’s next project: Fracture the Internet freedom movement
In a manifesto obtained by BuzzFeed reporter Rosie Gray, which the Pauls’ Campaign for Liberty organization is expected to release later today, the Declaration is lambasted as “Internet collectivism,” a thing it calls “pernicious” in all forms. It also suggests that using the law to cement the freedom of Internet users to view and interact with any content they desire is, in and of itself, contrary to the cause of freedom. [FMB - WTF??????????]
...
It would also mean that Internet providers could slow down or completely block users, apps or whole websites engaging in activities they don’t like; permit voluntary, corporate-sponsored censorship; foster the continued rise of so-called “walled garden” networks blamed for increasingly fracturing the open Internet; allow increasingly tighter data “caps” being imposed on a growing number of Americans; and enable network providers to cable-ize their portions of the public Internet while dedicating vastly more developmental resources to costly, corporate-run “super tier” networks.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/07/05/r ... -movement/
Re: SOPA, PIPA, OPEN internet censorship in USA
I'd say he probably is.fbenario wrote:
Obama's not a real persona - is Ron Paul?
Re: SOPA, PIPA, OPEN internet censorship in USA
Then he's a coward and a moron, and has now sold his soul for campaign contributions.daozen wrote:I'd say he probably is.fbenario wrote:
Obama's not a real persona - is Ron Paul?