We just sent out an Action Alert to let you know about a proposed amendment to the stimulus package. This amendment, put forth by Sen. Feinstein, would allow ISPs to “deter” child pornography and copyright infringement through network management techniques. The amendment is very, very controversial for a couple of reasons:
Infringement can’t be found through “network management” techniques. There are legal uses for copyrighted works even without permission of the owner.
It would require Internet companies to examine every bit of information everyone puts on the Web in order to find those allegedly infringing works, without a hint of probable cause. That would be a massive invasion of privacy, done at the request of one industry, violating the rights of everyone who is online.
Please click here to fax or call five key Senators and tell them that this provision is a bad idea.
Although we have evidence that this was filed as an amendment, it is possible that the provision has already made its way into a the bill (we’re still checking). If it is not in the bill, it’s possible that it could be snuck-in in the closed-door non-transparent conference where the differences between the Senate and the House bills are hammered out.
So our work may not be done with this alert, we may need you to reach out again when the bill goes to conference. Stay tuned (and you can stay informed with our action alerts by signing up on our front page).
From what I can see (not so
From what I can see (not so familiar with navigating the Library of Congress), Feinstein’s amendment appears to be attached to an Inouye amendment 98, which has been withdrawn. Does this mean that it’s no longer being considered, or just gone for a rewrite?
mgardiner, You’re right,
mgardiner,
You’re right, it didn’t end up in the bill, but now the concern is that copyright filtering is kept out during the conference on the bill (when the differences between House and Senate bills are hammered out).
I’ll have an update real soon here.
Wow, pretty scary stuff man.
Wow, pretty scary stuff man. Looks like once again the Sheeple will end up with the short end of the stick.
We already have filtering
We already have filtering laws for our schools, as do most other countries. Many countries explicitly filter the Internet for adults as well.
You should know how to circumvent such restrictions. I helped write a book on the subject, http://en.flossmanuals.net/CircumventionTools, available to read online at no charge, to download at no charge, or to buy in printed form. You can also reuse and remix the content.
In addition to political action to prevent harmful legislation, we need more people to write Free Software to do the right thing, and more people to tell the world how to use them. Such as the people at One Laptop Per Child and their numerous partners, who aim to tell a billion children the truth in the next generation of educational software and interactive digital “textbooks”. http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Creating_textbooks. They would like to hear what you think about good government.