In case yall havent heard

[PP Mguire]

COICA

In the United States, a new law proposal called The Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA) was introduced last week, and there will be a hearing in front of the Judiciary Committee this Thursday.

If passed, this law will allow the government, under the command of the media companies, to censor the internet as they see fit, like China and Iran do, with the difference that the sites they decide to censor will be completely removed from the internet and not just in the US.

More info is on the net about it, but thats the gist of it. Discuss.

 

[pro2a]

Hmm... there is something I read once saying they can't do that... oh yeah here it is:

Amendment 1... US Constitution.

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances".

Darn that pesky document

 

[S0ULphIRE]

We're not so lucky as to have a doc like that I predict our government will start censoring internet access within the next 10 years here. I'm so depressed right now lol

 

[pro2a]

I have a feeling this will die quickly. Most members of congress are not that dumb to blatantly censor the internet (except maybe some of the extreme ones out there). There would be a lot of public outrage if this did get to the floor... remember this is barely in committee, and a lot of extreme stuff like this dies in committee too. The way this next election looks like it's going to go, I really doubt anything will happen with this. Most Americans understand that freedom of speech applies to the internet as well and politicians would be idiotic to pass this if they like their jobs.

In short it will go over like a fart in church if it gets through the whole political process.

 

[C0RR0SIVE]

Most members of congress are also pushed along by the RIAA and what not, the major copy write companies are pushing this through as hard as they can, they even said they back it fully.

 

[pro2a]

If it does get through... I see massive lawsuits and even Supreme Court challenges.

 

[PP Mguire]

Look passed what your mind is trying to say it is because its much more. Big shots are backing this trying to go after the torrent sites based on US soil and using piracy to back up the bill. It could very well happen more than you think because backed by an attitude like that, it shoots passed the 1st amendment.

Oh yea, for lack of words, the underground is pretty shakin up about it. Id say its more serious than most think.

 

[pro2a]

If you're talking about copyright infringement that is one thing, but if you're talking about the feds shutting down news sites or forums because they don't like what is being said, that is a whole separate issue.

 

[C0RR0SIVE]

One representative said something about this law giving the US the ability to shut down any domain they wish for, at any time.

This puts all control of the internet in the states hands, you don't obey by american laws, they shut you down, which, if this law is passed, they can legally do so.

This was designed to take down pirate sites far easier, but, with it, they bring in the possibility of basically pulling an entire countries connection, everyone will have to revert to private DNS servers, or use the IP address of a website instead of the domain name.


It shouldn't pass, but, with the amount of money the federal government could pull in from the copy-write holders backing this, I don't see it not passing.

Now, if the law is re-wrote, and targets only sites that break international treaties/laws, or sites that break the law in american soil, and they can't target any site they wish, then well, that is another thing, but as is, the way I under stand it, they have the power to pull even tech forums domain name if they wanted.

 

[Spit-wad]

Someone should seriously start laying down new fiber and creating a fresh new internet for when the government inevitably ruins the one we have.