"Protecting IP" act now TITLE I—COMBATING ONLINE PARASITES act!

[cufflinks]

As the internet is integral to most folks lives here thought this might be of interest:

http://www.webpronews.com/protect-ip-gets-name-change-promises-to-censor-the-internet-2011-10

TITLE I—COMBATING ONLINE PARASITES
5
SEC. 101. SHORT TITLE.
6
This title may be cited as the ‘‘Enforcing and Pro-
7
tecting American Rights Against Sites Intent on Theft
8
and Exploitation Act of 2011’’ or the ‘‘E-PARASITE
9
 Act’’.

As always there is the public intended purpose and the background corporate agenda so will be interesting to follow and see what the law of unintended consequences delivers

[andrewfi]

At a first glance this is very bad indeed and gives power to censor and remove from sight pretty much anything deemed 'unhelpful' by the PTB whoever they may be.

Yes, reading this does rather tend to remind one of the situation in China.

This seems to go much further than protection of IP.

[calmissile]

Looks like the typical knee-jerk reaction by the politicians to address a specific problem with huge overkill that removes more of our freedoms!

If only they would address the more narrow issues and solve them without using a sledgehammer instead of a scalpel.  You notice that all of our eroding freedoms in the US have been slowly taken away by legislation that had nice sounding names and the outward appearance of solving some legitimate issue.

[Manny]

This is the thin end of the wedge. Don't imagine it will stop here. This will be Google forced to remove links to "unapproved" sites by the US government.

Yup - just like China. The US government will control the internet in the US. No more free flow of information. No more Pirate Bay. No more free MP3's. 

Even we could be subject to this in theory. The US government (and I include individual states in that term) is already poised against the international dating industry. They introduced several silly laws already documented elsewhere here. All it takes is one pro-feminist politician to make a fuss and sites that "help US citizens traffic foreign women" and/or those that host advice they don't approve of and RUA and any similar site vanishes from Google in the US.

Later they will force the ISP's to block access to huge lists of sites.

Thin end of the wedge. Tell your politician: http://fightforthefuture.org/pipa/

[Manny]

Here is a video:

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/WAtSfNh9B0c" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/WAtSfNh9B0c</a>

[cufflinks]

+1 Manny... Great Video and email action links thanks.

[Muzh_1]

As the internet is integral to most folks lives here thought this might be of interest:

http://www.webpronews.com/protect-ip-gets-name-change-promises-to-censor-the-internet-2011-10

TITLE I—COMBATING ONLINE PARASITES
5
SEC. 101. SHORT TITLE.
6
This title may be cited as the ‘‘Enforcing and Pro-
7
tecting American Rights Against Sites Intent on Theft
8
and Exploitation Act of 2011’’ or the ‘‘E-PARASITE
9
 Act’’.

As always there is the public intended purpose and the background corporate agenda so will be interesting to follow and see what the law of unintended consequences delivers

What the F**K happened to "people taking responsibilities for their own actions"? Huh?

[calmissile]

"What the F**K happened to "people taking responsibilities for their own actions"? Huh?"

Muzh_1,
I think it started dissaprearing about 40 years ago
We did not have stickers on ladders that said "This is not a step"
Also the F**King tort lawyers had not yet accepted responsibility for our actions.

[calmissile]

It just occurred to me, could this be a covert way for the jackasses in Washington to enforce a tax on internet purchases?  That topic has been pretty quiet for a while.

[Muzh_1]

It just occurred to me, could this be a covert way for the jackasses in Washington to enforce a tax on internet purchases?  That topic has been pretty quiet for a while.

There has to be an angle somewhere. I don't buy this "for your own good" BS.

[cufflinks]

It just occurred to me, could this be a covert way for the jackasses in Washington to enforce a tax on internet purchases?  That topic has been pretty quiet for a while.

There has to be an angle somewhere. I don't buy this "for your own good" BS.

Ironically the feds will be in a race with the states to tax internet transactions and Amazon will eventually lose than one - two many local bricks and mortars see it as a way to level the playing field with Amazon, Ebay, Apple's various iStores, Microsoft and Google not to forget.. Yahoo-Alibaba babalouiewhoooie?

I can remember in 2000 at a hot tech company one of the PCs in the engineers domain was sucking up half the bandwidth for the entire company during the nightime - turns out a WPI (Worcester Poly Tech) intern had installed kazaa and downloaded 5 Billion bytes worth of music and the thing was a kazaa super node or some such peer 2 peer node - Kazaa was written by the same Nordic (Estonia Finland?) team that wrote the infamous Peer to Peer app Skype we have all come to know and love. 

Google MPAA RIAA Skype and Kazaa - over 400 Million copies of kazaa - perhaps the most adware malware p.o.s. app ever written - loaded with porn promos and all sorts of crudware that would install at random - well 400 Million copies were downloaded just on CNET Download.com - imagine the ads bonanza cnet reaped - so if every kid "shared" 100 songs and 10 movies (probably a lot more in reality) it does not take too long to have a Massive impact in the production/publishing (think eBooks) companies in London, EU, NYC, Nashville, Branson, Vegas, Miami and LA.  They banded together and systematically tracked down and ]won huge damages claims with threatened prosecution for felony theft and copyright violations (Copyright laws actually protect our two greatest export industries - Entertainment and Software) - most Unis filtered and cout off campus wide "file sharing" programs so the Unis IT depts would not be the next deep pocketed industry targets - so a good thing - even the OZ company Chamberlain Networks that bought kazaa and distributed it as crudware is reported to have settled with MPAA and RIAA affiliate OZ claims against Kazaa for $100M dollars (OZ and or US?)  - so kazaa and its ilk as now very hard to find and most of the competitors like napster saw the light read the tea leaves and adopted a pay type model to download like Apple itunes which was empowered at the height of the Movie and Music industries cash flows going off the kazaa cliff to leverage the iTunes store and per song per movie pay model and saved their industries. 

MPAA and RIAA and SPA and BSA (Software Publishers Associations as well) now more powerful than ever (Kids get it that they can be fined massive amounts and or prosecuted and the their is a big difference in cutting a favorite CD mix for a friend versus global distribution of that "mix")and their industry Lawyers feeling their oats and now trying to enshrine their member producers interests into an e-pirate law that is so sweeping it will actually impact just about every new business model - ironically under this law iTunes when first created may have actually been illegal. 

Search engines will have to clean up their acts big time as well.  I know a company that has a brand of long standing in the internet public domain example ABCD and two asian companies (not known for their high regard for western intellectual property rights protection) have created an aBcd and ABBCD variants and when approached Google said bring us a copyright violations court order and then we will comply with the court order - in the mean time the USA brand is being swamped by the Asians SEO page stuffing of all sorts of T&A ads for the violators brands and getting hit in search results. 

So as much as I do not like the broad brushed implementation language - there is a need to protect copyrights which are far more beneficial to the creators and authors and their estates than mere patents.  Patents last for about 17 years while a copyright runs for the life of the creator author and 75 years past their death - go ask the author of Harry Potter how valuable that is to her and her kids...  The only real industries (Software, Video Games and Entertainment) we have a balance of payments surplus on a regular basis with and they do need to be protected. 

How to do that is the real question and the industry lawyers not waiting now that they have had some major international victories.

[dwfunk]

Even we could be subject to this in theory. The US government (and I include individual states in that term) is already poised against the international dating industry. They introduced several silly laws already documented elsewhere here.

 

And already proven to be a non-issue as well as bogus data . . .




-david

[Muzh_1]

Even we could be subject to this in theory. The US government (and I include individual states in that term) is already poised against the international dating industry. They introduced several silly laws already documented elsewhere here.

 

And already proven to be a non-issue as well as bogus data . . .




-david

David

I was going to make a comment along the "Ed" lines, but better not.

[mendeleyev]

Russia's version: http://windowstorussia.com/there-are-5-million-words-and-phrases-forbidden-in-russia.html

[WestCoast]

Russia's version: http://windowstorussia.com/there-are-5-million-words-and-phrases-forbidden-in-russia.html

Mendy according to this article there are only 3.7 millions of word-forms (variations of a word - example run, runs, running etc) in the entire Russian language.  Therefore it is impossible for there to be 5 million forbidden words and phrases in the Russian language.  Forbidding 5 million words and phrases would essentially mean banning the entire Russian language.   

http://www.spiiras.nw.ru/speech/intas/Papers/hlt.pdf

[mendeleyev]

WC, I enjoyed that paper! Makes good reading for a language buff. Will forward it along to Kyle and get his uptake on it.

[Manny]

Interesting website: http://americancensorship.org/

[cufflinks]

Interesting website: http://americancensorship.org/

Interesting - looks like they got the South Florida T.E.A. Party all riled up as well:

Help Stop the Government Takeover of the Internet

My Fellow Patriots,WE MUST STOP THE NET NEUTRALITY ACT - and we only have 3 WEEKS!

The Federal Communication Commission's (FCC) Net Neutrality Act, passed last December, gives President Obama and the FCC power over the Internet.

Every website you visit ... every server you access ... every blog you create ... every bit of information you read ... is about to come under the administration of the federal government.  And, they can shut down any website they want, without judicial review! (Think about what happened in Egypt during the uprisings!)

THIS WILL HAPPEN IN 3 WEEKS, JUST BEFORE THANKSGIVING
Unless we speak up in support of freedom. CLICK HERE TO STOP the Net Neutrality Act regulations from going into effect on November 20th Every Member of the U.S. Congress needs to hear from you, as we make sure they understand we will not allow an attack on our free speech rights here in America. Help defend our nation from an overreaching bureaucracy. SEND YOUR FREE FAXES TO THE HOUSE and SENATE today!

THE INTERNET is one of the most free mediums we have available; but, Barack Obama has a re-election campaign to think about, and your dissenting opinion is a threat. That is why Obama and his radical FCC are targeting the Internet.

House Energy and Commerce Communications and Technology Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR) and Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI) are working to STOP the FCC's Internet intrusion. Similar initiatives must be introduced in the Senate!

Walden and Rogers warned, "...implementation of the net neutrality rules could derail the investment and innovation that have been the hallmark of the information economy in the United States. The net neutrality rules at best create uncertainty in the technology sector and at worst hinder this vital economic engine from creating the jobs Americans need."
SEND YOUR FREE FAXES NOW and STOP the Net Neutrality Act!

Three federal judges warned the FCC before they passed the Net Neutrality Act. They said the FCC had no authority to pass it, and they agreed that the Internet has First Amendment protection, exactly the same as printed media.

So, what will Obama take control of next? Our newspapers? Magazines? Television networks?

Clearly, the FCC and the Obama Administration are openly hostile to our First Amendment rights.

The FCC Diversity Czar, Mark Lloyd, is AGAINST freedom of speech! He is on-record PRAISING Hugo Chavez for shutting down private media companies. Lloyd says, "At the very least blind references to freedom of speech or press serves as a distraction from the critical examination of other communication policies. The purpose of free speech is warped to protect global corporations and block rules [by the government], fines, and regulations that would promote democratic governance."

And earlier this year, former White House technology adviser Susan Crawford spoke at an anti-capitalistconference in Boston and said she didn't believe the FCC's rules went far enough! She said, "regulating these guys into an inch of their life is exactly what needs to happen."

The FCC does NOT have the authority from either Congress or the U.S. Constitution to assume control of the Internet!

The White House does not have the authority from either Congress or the U.S. Constitution to use a "kill-switch" like Mubarak's administration did in Egypt during the uprising!

SEND YOUR FREE FAXES NOW and STOP the Net Neutrality Act!

Without great patriots like you, we couldn't fight to take our country back. We remain humbled and honored by your continued support.

Sincerely,

Everett Wilkinson & Team
Founder & Chairman
South Florida Tea Party (Palm Beach, Broward, Miami/Dade)
Florida Tea Party
Tea Party In Space
Tea Party Chamber
P.S. Our strength is in numbers. Please help our efforts by forwarding to a friend.
     

[RG]

Thanks.

Here's a not directly political link that will locate your representatives and blast them with a canned but modifiable email for anyone wanting it:
https://wfc2.wiredforchange.com/o/9042/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=8173

[mendeleyev]

Thanks RG!  Done.

[cufflinks]

Well Some Heavy Hitters have woken up and smell the coffee!

http://www.webpronews.com/sopa-meets-massive-resistance-2011-11#more

The Stop Online Piracy Act, or any of its many variations, something WebProNews has discussed before, is finally meeting a great deal of resistance as various online movements, and the long-awaited push back from entities like Google, Facebook, and Mozilla have (finally?) decided to throw their own weight around.

It looks like the American public is also getting wise about the consequences of such a bill to pass, as the SOPA acronym is currently the top Google Trend. One hopes this isn’t a case of too little, too late. The resistance that’s getting the most coverage has to do with the rebellious responses of a consortium of well-known — and powerful — web companies, all of which banded together to create the following letter as their opening means of disagreement.

The letter, found under the Protect Innovation TLD, is signed by the following entities:

Google
Facebook
Twitter
AOL
eBay
LinkedIn
Yahoo
Zynga
Mozilla

The stance of this group is one of disapproval concerning SOPA, and the crux of their position is here, with our own emphasis added:

We support the bills’ stated goals — providing additional enforcement tools to combat foreign “rogue” websites that are dedicated to copyright infringement or counterfeiting. Unfortunately, the bills as drafted would expose law-abiding U.S. Internet and technology companies to new uncertain liabilities, private rights of action, and technology mandates that would require monitoring of web sites. We are concerned that these measures pose a serious risk to our industry’s continued track record of innovation and job-creation, as well as to our Nation’s cybersecurity. We cannot support these bills as written and ask that you consider more targeted ways to combat foreign “rogue” websites dedicated to copyright infringement and trademark counterfeiting, while preserving the innovation and dynamism that has made the Internet such an important driver of economic growth and job creation.

Essentially, these companies would like to stop piracy as well, they just don’t want it to be under the guise of “The Great Firewall of America,” which is what some entities have started calling SOPA.

[cufflinks]

Save the Internet from Big Brother - Tell Congress To Vote Against SOPA (H.R. 3261 & S.968)

Internet censorship could become law in America sooner than you think. Congress will vote on a bill that would give a few corporations unprecedented power to blacklist websites. Congress could cast the deciding vote in coming weeks.  If your member votes for the House Bill H.R. 3261 SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) & Senate Companion Bill S.968 (PROTECT IP), these censorship bills will take away the rights of Americans!

 That’s why the Tea Party is standing strong with free speech proponents, small businesses, conservative and liberal advocates, video gamers, librarians, and hundreds of groups across the U.S. in a final push to kill SOPA & PROTECT IP. We’re asking millions of people to make sure the phones in Congress ring off the hook starting today. Lobbyists working for the powerful movie and recording industries are pushing Congress to vote for SOPA. Now he must hear the truth from ordinary Americans.

Send A Free Fax Today and tell them that SOPA & PROTECT IP must be stopped!

Please tell him that SOPA & PROTECT IP allows for the sort of heavy-handed tactics you’d expect to see in China. They have no place in the U.S. The bill gives government and corporations new powers to overhaul the Internet — and block access to any websites that the industry accuses of copyright infringement. This definition is so broad that we could see criminal penalties imposed against those who post a birthday party video where a copyrighted song is playing in the background.1

 SOPA & PROTECT IP would not only let companies silence websites but would also require all search engines to “de-list” any site in question — making it disappear from the Web altogether. The consequences for free speech on the Internet are grave. We must keep Internet free!


 Call Congress Toll Free 877-762-8710 and Send A Free Fax to Stop SOPA & PROTECT IP right now!


VISIT TeaPartyCommand.com - The National Tea Party Website To Find Members of Congress, Action Alerts & Tea Party Groups and Events

 Sincerely,

 Everett Wilkinson & Tea Party Command Team

Tea Party Command, 4521 PGA BLVD #115, Palm Beach Gardens, FL, 33418
info@teapartycommand.com - www.teapartycommand.com

[AvHdB]

I tried to see the results of this vote but can not find it - how did it end?

[cufflinks]

Tomorrow's scheduled committee vote on the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act has been postponed, with no apparent new date on the books so far. That's the second postponement in committee for SOPA, which would require ISPs and search engines to alter DNS records and search results to keep foreign sites "dedicated" to copyright infringement away from US citizens; the bill was the subject of two marathon hearings last week that ended abruptly after opponents voiced passionate opposition to the bill.

Representative Lamar Smith (R-Texas), who sponsored the bill and chairs the House Judiciary committee, vowed to open hearings again as soon as possible and set tomorrow as the new date, but it appears the upcoming Congressional break for the holidays simply got in his way. That should give SOPA's opposition additional time to gear up against the bill — a Committee spokesperson told The Washington Post a new date won't be set until early January.


...

http://www.opencongress.org/articles/view/2460-Jan-24th-Our-Best-Chance-to-Kill-SOPA

Jan. 24th: Our Best Chance to Kill SOPA
January 12, 2012 - by Donny Shaw

The internet censorship bills that have been winding their ways through Congress are about to reach a key, make-or-break moment. Senate Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid [D, NV] has scheduled a vote on a motion to begin debate of the Senate version, PIPA, for January 24th, the day after they return from recess, and defeating that motion is our best chance for stopping web censorship from becoming law. Let me explain why.

Under Senate rules, any one senator can object to beginning debate on a measure, thereby placing a “hold” on it and preventing it from being called up under unanimous consent. In order for the Majority Leader to bypass the a “hold” and bring a bill to the floor, they have to win a vote “cloture” motion, which takes a 3/5ths majority (60 votes) to pass and basically declares that the Senate overwhelmingly disagrees with the senator with the hold and wants to move forward with voting on the bill.

In the case of PIPA, Sen. Ron Wyden [D, OR] has placed a hold on the bill, and the vote that is scheduled for Jan. 24th is a vote on Reid’s cloture motion to bypass Wyden’s hold. Because cloture motions require 3/5ths majorities, they can be blocked by a group of opposed senators even if they don’t have a majority. All it takes is 2/5ths +1 of the Senate (i.e. 41 senators) to vote against cloture to win, and, in this case, block the Majority Leader from bypassing Wyden’s hold.

If Reid wins the cloture vote on Jan. 24th the bill will almost certainly win final passage, which only requires a simple majority of 51 senators. Wyden and his allies may be able to slow down the process for a few days, but ultimately they will be powerless to stop it.

If PIPA passes the Senate, it can be pinged to the GOP-led House of Representatives and brought to an up-or-down vote straight away — with no amendments, no further committee action, virtually no debate, and, most importantly, no ability for an opposed minority to stop the bill or even slow it down. Unlike the Senate, the House does not operate by unanimous consent, and that means there is very little opportunity for individual members to influence the proceedings. Their is no choke point for a willful minority to stop things from moving forward in the House.

Basically it comes down to this: on Jan. 24th, web censorship opponents have a chance to stop the bill with the support of just 41% of those voting. After that every opportunity for opponents to stop the bill will take more than 50%. For PIPA and SOPA opponents, it’s all hands on deck right now. The best opportunity for stopping internet censorship from becoming law in the U.S. will happen just 12 days from now …the clock is ticking.

In case you’re confused, PIPA is the Senate version of the more often discussed House bill, SOPA. They have some minor differences, but they are largely the same bill. Experts agree that both versions of the bill violate the First Amendment, compromise internet security, and threaten U.S. tech innovation. For a refresher on what’s in PIPA, watch this video.

[cufflinks]

Amazing oxymoron if ever there was one - this is what happens when industry lobbyists (MPAA & RIAA) are allowed to write and cram through laws without expert industry and technical review:

http://gcn.com/articles/2012/01/12/open-act-sopa-dns-security.aspx?s=gcndaily_130112

SOPA undercuts Internet security, experts say; lawmakers float alternative

A bipartisan alternative to controversial anti-piracy bills now before Congress is being floated online by a handful of senators and representatives.

The Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade (OPEN) Act would treat online piracy or counterfeiting by foreign websites as an unfair trade practice under the Tariff Act of 1930 and would give enforcement authority to the U.S. International Trade Commission.

Absent from the draft act are DNS blocking provisions included in the House’s Stop Online Piracy Act and the Senate's Protect IP Act.

Opponents in the Internet community say those provisions are incompatible with DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC), a set of cryptographic protocols intended to secure the Domain Name System.

SOPA and PIPA would require Internet service providers and search engines either to redirect traffic away from offending sites or to block it.

“Both of these remedies involve modifying DNS responses, and that is exactly what DNSSEC is designed to prevent, no matter who is doing it,” said Cricket Liu, general manager of the Infoblox IPv6 Center of Excellence. “The bill seeks to codify something that we in the DNS community have been working to prevent for 15 years.”

The Domain Name System maps Internet domain names such as gcn.com to numerical IP addresses and underlies nearly all Internet activities. DNSSEC enables the use of digital signatures that can be used to authenticate DNS data that is returned to query responses. This will help to combat attacks such as pharming, cache poisoning and DNS redirection that are used to misdirect traffic to malicious sites for fraud and the distribution of malware.

There has been a push to deploy DNSSEC throughout the Internet for the past four years. The Office of Management and Budget in 2008 ordered deployment of DNSSEC in all federal systems by the end of 2009, a deadline which has not been met. The .gov Top Level Domain was signed in early 2009, and DNSSEC was fully deployed by operators of the Internet’s authoritative root zone in July 2010, providing a trust anchor that now can tie together “islands of trust” that have been created by the deployment of DNSSEC in other top level and secondary domains.

Requirements to interfere with DNS responses would either be impossible to comply with, or would require undoing DNSSEC, Liu said. He said the assessment is widely held by experts who understand the operation of DNSSEC.