Lawyers : Protect IP act would align US with repressive regimes

Well DUUUUUUUUUH.

Lawyers: Protect IP Act would align U.S. Internet policy with ‘repressive regimes’

A group of Internet and intellectual property law professors have penned a letter to congressional lawmakers in opposition to the Protect IP Act, which would give the government sweeping new powers to take websites offline, censor search engines and sue Internet publishers accused of infringing activities.

In the letter, they warn that the act would "undermine" U.S. leadership on freedom of speech issues, cautioning that provisions within the legislation are more closely aligned with "repressive regimes" than the traditional American stance on Internet freedom.

They also predict that the Protect IP Act would threaten the security of the Internet at large, as it would give U.S. officials the authority to literally break the Internet's domain name system (DNS), which links servers to web domains for easy access to pages around the world.

The bill, sponsored and heavily promoted by the entertainment industries, would require Internet service providers and search engines to de-list whole domains on the basis of a copyright claim by a content provider. The claim does not have to be proven to an independent body for a site to be taken offline.

Sites that link to domains accused of hosting infringing activities could also be targeted for domain take-downs or other criminal penalties, and servers outside the U.S. are not exempt from the powers the Protect IP Act seeks to cement into law.

Because of the Internet's highly interwoven archetecture, the bill's broad language would "make it extraordinarily difficult for advertisers and credit card companies to do business on the Internet," the laywers warned.

And look at the epic lie :

That point was echoed by Google Chairman Eric Schmidt, who said in May that the search giant would fight any order to break the Internet's addressing system over copyright claims.

Yeah sure Schmidt... YOU WERE AT BILDERBERG. We know you're a sellout. You're acting against this in public when in fact, you are for it.

Australia is already ``aligned`` with repressive regimes on internet... But America would be worse since the biggest servers are in the US...

It pains me to say that most of the law firms I work with here in Canada are supportive of this bill and are already in it deep trying to get a Canadian version written up. Until people speak up things like this cannot be stopped.

-Lightrule

here's a related piece on this topic, that is a pretty decent read..

Law professors want to kick PROTECT-IP to the curb

...PIPA, Big Brother's nickname for PROTECT-IP, would give the government the power to vaporize sites that it determines are guilty of infringing activities. ISPs would block access to blacklisted "rogue sites" by removing their registration with the Domain Name System (DNS), meaning if you entered the URL in your browser, all that would come up for that site would be a blank page.

For a nation that is pushing to help other nations battle against censorship and devising ways to protect activists like the "panic button app", PIPA legislation is all about giving the U.S. government the power to censor search engines and sites. Even if you managed to straighten out the mess to prove you were not engaging in copyright or trademark infringement, irreparable harm would have been done like when Homeland Security and ICE wrongfully labeled businesses as being connected to child porn....

reply to post by Vitchilo


I already have thread on here about the bill Vitchilo but your source is a bit better, the bill isnt called Protect IP act its real name is in tiled as S.978 i think thats the one your link is talking off.

Wait never mind the bill in this article is S 968?

Great two more bills threaten our rights and freedom.

I love the names they come up with for this crap. The "Protect IP" Act. The "Patriot" Act. Next it'll be the "Anti-NWO" Act, but it'll promote a NWO.

The UN Treaty on Net Neutrality allows each nation to sort out its own internet issues while keeping the channels of communication open. It is up to America to decide its own implementation issues, this bill is another step deeper into oppression.

Websites can still be accessed by their IP Address if the DNS records are erased. It does make it a little harder to move around the internet but is not impossible. For those concerned about being targeted for censorship I recommend 'The handbook for bloggers and cyber dissidents' en.rsf.org... . The structure of the internet makes it impossible for any one to absolutely control, but it does become very technical as different systems are put in place. The biggest concern is with the ISP and getting connected in the first place.

Most people are not capable of the skills required and other social mechanisms can be used to limit access so it is important that the government protect the freedom and access to information of its citizens. I know there are truly offensive and disturbing things out there that I would not want any kids exposed too. But this same level of disturbance can bee seen within governance and other related power structures. Without proper oversight, accountability and recourse, the crimes of industry and the state will continue.

Here's one more piece on the topic matter from a different source:

arstechnica.com...

An ideologically diverse group of 90 law professors has signed a letter opposing the PROTECT IP Act, the Hollywood-backed copyright enforcement/Internet blacklist legislation now working its way through Congress. The letter argues that its domain-blocking provisions amount to Internet censorship that is barred by the First Amendment.

Jointly authored by Mark Lemley, David Levine, and David Post, the letter is signed not only by prominent liberals like Larry Lessig and Yochai Benkler, but also by libertarians like Post and Glenn "Instapundit" Reynolds.

"The Act would allow courts to order any Internet service to stop recognizing [a] site even on a temporary restraining order... issued the same day the complaint is filed," they write. Such a restraining order, which they describe as "the equivalent of an Internet death penalty," raises serious constitutional questions.

The Supreme Court has held that it's unconstitutional to suppress speech without an "adversary proceeding." That is, a speaker must, at a minimum, be given the opportunity to tell his side of the story to a judge before his speech can be suppressed.

Yet under PIPA, a judge decides whether to block a domain after hearing only from the government....

(last sentence emphasis mine...)

The Italians have already passed a law like that, according to an article on the forums for MyP2P

www.myp2pforum.eu...

Originally posted by Lightrule
It pains me to say that most of the law firms I work with here in Canada are supportive of this bill and are already in it deep trying to get a Canadian version written up. Until people speak up things like this cannot be stopped.

-Lightrule

The Canadian version of the law will undoubtely have the same problems with the American and Italian versions of the law will have. The blocking can be circumvented using an offshore VPN. VPN traffic cannot be analysed, monitored, cracked, or sniffed.

Really now? Since when is a bill to protect the individual user suddenly got someone equated with the likes of The USSR or Communist China?

Well, if anonymous have ANY kind of credibillty
heres the time to show it...

THIS is the kind of material they shold oppose...

Go get them...Sick em boys....oh and girls too....

So Hollyood is angry that people on wellfare get free movies. Big surprise there. People who do have money buy expensive home theatre equipment, blu-rays and go to the cinema. If all they come out with is tranformers, shrecks and happy feets, then its no wonder that interest in movies diminishes and then there is competition from the video game industry. Dont blame it all on piracy.

Originally posted by Chilly8
The Italians have already passed a law like that, according to an article on the forums for MyP2P

www.myp2pforum.eu...

Yeah and they already found ways to circumvent this nusance.

Originally posted by Chilly8
The Italians have already passed a law like that, according to an article on the forums for MyP2P

www.myp2pforum.eu...

The EU has just rules that the ISPs arent allowed to block websites unless they are illegal, not just because they link to copyrighted content.

I expect the Italian law to be repealed and at the same time, the UK proposals are now illegal.

For once the EU does something right!