[governance] Stop the Internet Blacklist Legislation

[Fouad Bajwa]

This is happening in the US where Censorship may get out of hands in
the name of IP and Copyright but we are concerned that direct far
reaching implications across the world where other governments might
use this as an excuse for implementing strict Internet censorship
regimes. Should IGC also respond to this as we have many members from
the US and this also impacts Internet Governance?

............

"We all use the web now for all kinds of parts our lives, some
trivial, some critical to our life as part of a social world," says
Tim Berners-Lee, creator of the Web. "In the spirit going back to
Magna Carta, we require a principle that: No person or organization
shall be deprived of their ability to connect to others at will
without due process of law, with the presumption of innocence until
found guilty. Neither governments nor corporations should be allowed
to use disconnection from the Internet as a way of arbitrarily
furthering their own aims."

COICA fact sheet: http://demandprogress.org/blacklist/coica

............

Stop the Internet Blacklist Legislation

The Internet Blacklist Legislation - known as PROTECT IP Act in the
Senate and Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House - is a
threatening sequel to last year's COICA Internet censorship bill. Like
its predecessor, this legislation invites Internet security risks,
threatens online speech, and hampers Internet innovation. Urge
your members of Congress to reject this Internet blacklist campaign in
both its forms!

Big media and its allies in Congress are billing the Internet
Blacklist Legislation as a new way to prevent online infringement. But
innovation and free speech advocates know that this initiative is
nothing more than a dangerous wish list that will compromise Internet
security while doing little or nothing to encourage creative
expression.

As drafted, the legislation would grant the government and private
parties unprecedented power to interfere with the Internet's domain
name system (DNS). The government would be able to force ISPs and
search engines to redirect or dump users' attempts to reach certain
websites' URLs. In response, third parties will woo average users to
alternative servers that offer access to the entire Internet (not just
the newly censored U.S. version), which will create new computer
security vulnerabilities as the reliability and universality of the
DNS evaporates.

It gets worse: Under SOPA's provisions, service providers (including
hosting services) would be under new pressure to monitor and police
their users’ activities.  While PROTECT-IP targeted sites “dedicated
to infringing activities,” SOPA targets websites that simply don’t do
enough to track and police infringement (and it is not at all clear
what would be enough).  And it creates new powers to shut down folks
who provide tools to help users get access to the Internet the rest of
the world sees (not just the “U.S. authorized version”).

-- 
Regards.
--------------------------
Fouad
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