Protect IP Act, Internet censorship?

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.

Link for text.

Just wanted to bring this to the boards attention. It looks like this bill, if passed would allow the govt. to essentially blacklist any website it deemed unfit. This is alone is rather horrifying, but the free speech issue aside this would also threaten net security.

How long are we going to take this crap before we stand up and fight? Get the word out to family and friends, write some representatives or one day ATS may be blackballed from the net. I for one do not want to see such a thing happen. Watching our govt. bow down to interests in Hollywood is sickening. To me it's seems like movie big wigs have more rights than the rest of the American population!



In case my youtube imbeds don't work (the preview page isn't showing them)

Youtube Video #1

Youtube Video #2

and this is what we fight against

we are Anonymous

reply to post by tamenie

Originally posted by Domo1
reply to post by tamenie

 

dont worry we are doing everything we can to make shure this bill dose not pass u2u me if you like for more info

The more I read about it,
The more opinion observed,
The more I seen, it is in fact Internet censorship.

reply to post by dreamingawake


It certainly does seem to be. It seems the more news coverage various groups get, the more our leaders want to trample our rights. It makes me furious

reply to post by Domo1


I just had this story shared with me on Facebook.

This is important- you should know about it -of the day

Below are a couple of online petitions to sign. If you are against this type of internet censorship

americancensorship.org...

act.demandprogress.org...

Don't Censor Censorship Opponents: Let Us Testify!

Irony Alert: The House is holding hearings on sweeping Internet censorship legislation this week -- and it's censoring the opposition! The bill is backed by Hollywood, Big Pharma, and the Chamber of Commerce, and all of them are going to get to testify at the hearing.

But the bill's opponents -- tech companies, free speech and human rights activists, and hundreds of thousands of Internet users -- won't have a voice.

As if you need a reminder: This is the most offensive Internet legislation we've seen in years. It will give the government and corporations new powers to block Americans' access to sites that are accused of copyright infringement, force sites like YouTube to go to new lengths to police users' contributions, and put people in prison for streaming certain content online.

This sham of a hearing represents everything that's broken about our political system. Will you sign the petition at right, demanding that opponents of the Blacklist Bill be allowed to testify this week? (It'll generate an email to them too.)

PETITION TO JUDICIARY CHAIRMAN LAMAR SMITH AND RANKING MEMBER JOHN CONYERS: The so-called "Stop Online Piracy Act" will kill innovation and undermine free speech rights. You need to give the hundreds of thousands of Americans who've spoken out against it a chance to make our case at this week's hearings.