Yes, it just never stops with this Congress. There has been a flurry of cyber-security bills that aim at national security, IP protection, and just about anything under the sun that is nefarious to them. Somehow, this Congress has a bulls-eye on the Internet, even after the global outcry on SOPA, PIPA, and ACTA (with TPP gaining steam). We’ve heard every excuse to support the creation of overly-broad legislation that can be used for the future into forcing the Internet to conform to physical laws that are actually stripping human rights that used to be protected by democracy. And now, we have another legislation that is seeing the light of day and making a lot of users worried (again): CISPA or the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act of 2011.
This bill is different from the others in that this one is about information sharing with the government – of our personal user data that these companies collect from us, willingly or otherwise. And what is scary about this one is that it’s tailored for companies (who already support it because it gets them off the hook), so there probably won’t be the same level of support from them (divide and conquer perhaps?) as there was during the SOPA blackout. But one thing doesn’t change, and that’s the Internet’s persistance in recognizing and banding together against causes that impact a free Internet. Considering that the US will already be implementing the ISP-approved six strikes copyright alert system (more here) in July, these additional bills seem to be covering ground that they already have (DMCA and many other law enforcement tools).
We’re already seeing that certain industries (entertainment and other IP-related) do not want to modernize their business methodologies because they are in the winning seat. Actually, they’re the only ones who are continually invited to the negotiations table when these types of laws go into planning. But it’s getting to the point that the entire world is tired of the way these games are played. Heck, even Chris Dodd let slip that there are backroom negotiations to restart SOPA.
With a broken legal system, it’s up to the people to keep their voices loud, strong, and lasting so that everyone knows that those games of old are not going to fly with the voting public anymore. Especially when it effectively strips us of our rights. It looks like it’s up to all of us, once again. I don’t know about you, but I’m really getting fed up with how laws are made and especially with this Congress!!!
Online Petitions Against CISPA:
Avaaz – Save the Internet from CISPA (which gained over 200,000 in just a day)
EFF – Don’t let Congress use “cyber-security” fears to erode digital rights
Change.org – Stop CISPA
