We're anticipating that a version of PROTECT IP will be introduced in the House of Representatives in coming weeks, so we've pulled together this video to remind the world about what makes it so awful. Please check it out and pass it on.
PROTECT IP would give the government the power to force Internet service providers, search engines, and other "information location tools" to block users' access to sites that have been accused of copyright infringement -- the initiation of a China-style censorship regime here in the United States.
And Blessed Are The Ones Who Care For Their Fellow Men!
ASSAULT ON INTERNET USERS "A direct assault on Internet users" is what the ACLU is calling it.
Yesterday a U.S. House committee approved HR 1981, a broad new Internet snoopingbill. They want to force Internet service providers to keep track of and store their customers' information -- including your name, address, phone number, credit card numbers, bank account numbers, and temporarily-assigned IP addresses.
The American Civil Liberties Union, the American Library Association, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Demand Progress, and 25 other civil liberties and privacy groups have expressed our opposition to this legislation.
They've shamelessly dubbed it the "Protecting Children From Internet Pornographers Act," but our staunchest allies in Congress are calling it what it is: an all-encompassing Internet snooping bill.
CNet Reports: Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California, who led Democratic opposition to the bill said, "'It represents a data bank of every digital act by every American' that would 'let us find out where every single American visited Web sites.'"
"The bill is mislabeled," said Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, the senior Democrat on the panel. "This is not protecting children from Internet pornography. It's creating a database for everybody in this country for a lot of other purposes."
On Tuesday, July 19th, former Demand Progress Executive Director Aaron Swartz was indicted by the US government. The government contends that downloading too many journal articles constitutes felony computer hacking and should be punished with time in prison.
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