Stop the Internet Blacklist

[Stoic]

The Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA) was introduced just one week ago, but it's greased and ready to move, with a hearing in front of the Judiciary Committee this Thursday. If people don't speak out, US citizens could soon find themselves joining Iranians and Chinese in being blocked from accessing broad chunks of the public Internet

COICA creates two blacklists of Internet domain names. Courts could add sites to the first list; the Attorney General would have control over the second. Internet service providers and others (everyone from Comcast to PayPal to Google AdSense) would be required to block any domains on the first list. They would also receive immunity (and presumably the good favor of the government) if they block domains on the second list.

The lists are for sites "dedicated to infringing activity," but that's defined very broadly -- any domain name where counterfeit goods or copyrighted material are "central to the activity of the Internet site" could be blocked.

From:
http://anonym.to/?http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-segal/stop-the-internet-blackli_b_739836.html

:thinking:

 

[XMan101]

Some of the comments posted underneath this article are interesting.

I tend to suspect it'll all come to nothing, there have always been these scare stories about censoring the net but in the end it just gets too difficult.

I doubt the US will effectively cut themselves off from the rest of the world, as one comment said , what about stuff posted on Facebook? Will that site be blacklisted too, I somehow doubt it

We had something similar here in the Uk about possibly cutting off internet access for file sharers, it's come to nothing and anything going through now would be so watered down it'll hardly be noticed!

The European Court of Human Rights can be a pain in the ass at times, but on the other hand it's a great control against extreme measures

Another interesting thing about this proposed bill is that it seems to be more in favour by the Democrats (not that there is ever really much difference between the two parties from my perspective).

 

[Sander]

It all comes down to control and the fact the people whom have it, want more