Congress Wants to Censor the Internet

[Lefty RC]

I couldn't see that this was posted, but I found it very interesting. Do you think this should happen? what are your views on the subject?

Full article here: http://www.opencongress.org/articles/view/2430-Congress-Wants-to-Censor-the-Internet-Tell-Them-No-

The fight over openness on the internet is a fundamental struggle about who has power in society. Today in the United States, the House of Representatives is taking a major step towards creating the first ever U.S. internet censorship system, using the same DNS technology that China uses for censorship. The bill is called the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and it would allow the government to demand ISPs and search engines to block websites and give private companies power to cut off access to sites without taking legal action. It’s receiving a hearing in the House Judiciary Committee today and is expected to get a vote in the full House soon.

The bill threatens every site that allows users to post content by undermining long-standing DMCA safeharbors that currently protect sites that operate in good faith to remove copyright-infringing content. Under the language of the bill, a single infringing link posted by a user to would be enough to allow the government or a corporation to shut down the entire site. What makes the bill an especially powerful tool for censorship is that it gives legal immunity to companies that cut off sites as long as they have a “reasonable belief” that the site contains infringing material, or even if they believe the site is not doing enough to fight infringement.

 

[madhacker14]

I have a strong feeling it won't make it past the house. If all comes to worse it can be appealed through the supreme court for being Unconstitutional and a violation of our rights. I obviously do not agree with censoring the internet, or this Bill.

 

[99 Thievery]

We have the right to freedom of speech.

Fuck the Government, and Fuck Congress, come at me bro.

 

[Snatchmasta]

I have a strong feeling it won't make it past the house. If all comes to worse it can be appealed through the supreme court for being Unconstitutional and a violation of our rights. I obviously do not agree with censoring the internet, or this Bill.

Well, the patriot act is thoroughly unconstitutional, yet it wasn't struck down. You forgot to mention the "Protect IP" act. I'm calling my congressman, and writing letters. I'd advice my fellow sythers to do all they can to have both bills struck down.

 

[SuF]

Nancy Pelosi has decided to speak out against it. It is very unlikely to pass now unless there voting is not along party lines (which it rarely is now) and if Obama supports it (which I do not know if he does).

 

[Pockets]

Nancy Pelosi has decided to speak out against it. It is very unlikely to pass now unless there voting is not along party lines (which it rarely is now) and if Obama supports it (which I do not know if he does).

Thanks
Made my evening.

 

[kill dank]

You gotta remember, the only thing these 50 year old + politicians hear is "gore, child porn, drugs, weapons, and sex slave trafficking." They don't have any idea what the internet really is and only know about the "bad" things that get brought to attention. It's foolish, but if they don't take the general public's opinion into consideration or at least have some younger, more internet savvy people taking part in the voting, it just may pass.

But there's a way around everything and this would be no exception to that rule. It would not affect me, except by slowing my speed down a bit due to routing all my traffic through another country.

 

[Bubba Fuzz]

It doesn't look like it'll be passed now. While I live in germany and it wouldn't really affect me, I'm still glad it didn't go through. It would be a step towards less and less freedom.

 

[dangelo]

I am a little bit confused by this bill. They would only have access to US sites if I am correct right? Which is only a small percentage of websites?

What's wrong with them censoring some search engines to ban explicit or dangerous content though? It has to be a step in the right direction. The internet and collective forums around the world are causing major problems for others.

Hypothetically, if your child logged onto the internet and searched "man getting head chopped off," would you want that image to haunt them for the next few weeks or would you like no results to show up?

If your child wanted to watch pornographic material, would you want that?

If your child wanted to join an anti-semitic website, would you want that?

Although it all seems a little bit crazy, internet censorship is a step in the right direction BUT not to the extent this bill takes it. And lets be honest guys, if search engines get censored, how much is it really going to affect users of sythe? Most of us are internet savvy and could find a way around it in seconds.

 

[aznguy94]

I am a little bit confused by this bill. They would only have access to US sites if I am correct right? Which is only a small percentage of websites?

What's wrong with them censoring some search engines to ban explicit or dangerous content though? It has to be a step in the right direction. The internet and collective forums around the world are causing major problems for others.

Hypothetically, if your child logged onto the internet and searched "man getting head chopped off," would you want that image to haunt them for the next few weeks or would you like no results to show up?

If your child wanted to watch pornographic material, would you want that?

If your child wanted to join an anti-semitic website, would you want that?

Although it all seems a little bit crazy, internet censorship is a step in the right direction BUT not to the extent this bill takes it. And lets be honest guys, if search engines get censored, how much is it really going to affect users of sythe? Most of us are internet savvy and could find a way around it in seconds.

Okay...

If your kid is looking up a head being chopped off or anti-antisemitism then that's clearly the child's and parents' problem. Your kids' looking up porn is completely normal, so that point is invalid. Having the government point a gun at someone somewhere so that those results wont show up on the internet doesn't solve the problem at all. If you raise your kids correctly then obviously they wont be looking up violent, sadistic things on the internet.

VIOLENCE WILL NOT FIX YOUR PROBLEMS

 

[wackywamba]

anti-antisemitism

This was quite funny.

As for OP: it would never work, no question.

 

[SuF]

I am a little bit confused by this bill. They would only have access to US sites if I am correct right? Which is only a small percentage of websites?

What's wrong with them censoring some search engines to ban explicit or dangerous content though? It has to be a step in the right direction. The internet and collective forums around the world are causing major problems for others.

Hypothetically, if your child logged onto the internet and searched "man getting head chopped off," would you want that image to haunt them for the next few weeks or would you like no results to show up?

If your child wanted to watch pornographic material, would you want that?

If your child wanted to join an anti-semitic website, would you want that?

Although it all seems a little bit crazy, internet censorship is a step in the right direction BUT not to the extent this bill takes it. And lets be honest guys, if search engines get censored, how much is it really going to affect users of sythe? Most of us are internet savvy and could find a way around it in seconds.

Censorship of the internet is not feasible without giving the government too much power to snoop in the lives of their citizens. There are better ways to stop copyright infringement such as making movies available online like through Netflix. That's what people want and the media companies need to figure that out and adapt to the new business environment instead of paying the government to invade our privacy to help them keep the status quo to keep making shit tons of money off of us.

 

[dangelo]

I understand that the bill would make things a bit "1984" but the internet needs to be censored in some way.

@bad parenting - If a friend of your child watched something and passed on the link, the child is going to watch it. It's not bad parenting, its a persons natural curisoity.

The internet is killing music, games and movies. By sites illegally offering them for free, it is driving up prices for people who still buy these legit. With some sort of censorship, prices will eventually fall (to be in line with inflation of course.) The bill giving companies the right to close down websites is complete bull though, there needs to be an international body that controls the content of the internet.

@porn - Its degrading and disgusting but people watch it. If it was not avaliable for free it would lead to less people watching it. Thus in turn would lead to people activly searching for a member of the opposite/same sex to spend "special" moments with. Apparently porn sites are being encouraged to use .xxx as their domains now so people will not accidently go to these sites.

 

[Ferret of Doom]

We have the right to freedom of speech.

Fuck the Government, and Fuck Congress, come at me bro.

We have a right to freedom of speech, the internet is not speech.

I believe this is the worst thing to happen to America since the 13th Amendment (jk) and that it will not pass (not jk)

If it does, it is sure to be appealed

OR

People will sue.

 

[mtn dew]

Lol people like to talk about rights when it's their own being threatened(actually considering this to be a right), but there are plenty of places in the world where people aren't given any rights.

Kind of amazing how we, as most people, feel such a sense of entitlement just because we are human and/or born in a certain country. I won't lie, I do enjoy having these "rights" as much as the next person, it's just kind of funny to see how our human race has this giant rolloer coaster of BS we make up ourselves.

 

[Havoc Network]

We have the right to freedom of speech.

Fuck the Government, and Fuck Congress, come at me bro.

I wish we had the right to freedom of speech..

 

[aznguy94]

I wish we had the right to freedom of speech..

Yeah...some writing on a piece of paper somewhere does not grant freedom of speech.

 

[Decoda117]

Does this go for america or as the whole globe?

 

[Noam]

BTW, just so everybody knows, search engines censor suggestions and results. No deep web is displayed on a search engine this is often done on purpose so the engine is not associated w/ Child porn or whatever.
In addition, the engine does not suggest words like porn. Type in por in google and see what comes up in the suggest box

 

[Delta Squad]

i agree on some parts, but i think it would get abused, i have the fealing if you post a youtube vid of a recordlabels band, they'll try to hammer that site, and claim it was meant for youtube only etc, somestuff should be censored and i'm fairly sure we all know what it is, and the FBI already monitors it.