Your right to free speech online just got suspended.

[erj549]

It seems the 1984-ification of America is coming more "Fast and Furious" (TM). The Stop Online Piracy Act was introduced in October for the ostensible purpose of allowing the government to bar access to offshore websites that had pirated content. That seems straightforward enough, except for the reality of how similar laws are used to quash dissent in countries like Russia and China.

From NYT:

Across Russia, the security services have carried out dozens of similar raids against outspoken advocacy groups or opposition newspapers in recent years. Security officials say the inquiries reflect their concern about software piracy, which is rampant in Russia. Yet they rarely if ever carry out raids against advocacy groups or news organizations that back the government.

[A] review of these cases indicates that the security services often seize computers whether or not they contain illegal software. The police immediately filed reports saying they had discovered such programs, before even examining the computers in detail. The police claims have in numerous instances been successfully discredited by defendants when the cases go before judges.

From Time:

At a moment when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is urging world governments to keep their hands off the Internet, creating a blacklist would send the wrong message. And not just to China or Iran, which already engage in DNS filtering, but to liberal democracies that might want to block information they find naughty. Imagine if the U.K. created a blacklist of American newspapers that its courts found violated celebrities’ privacy? Or what if France blocked American sites it believed contained hate speech? We forget, but those countries don’t have a First Amendment.

Oh, and in case anybody asks "will this pass?" or "will Obama sign it?" I will go ahead and answer that for you: yes, it will pass, and yes, Obama will sign it. Any questions?

More sources:
http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed...ment-criticism
Internet pioneers oppose US online piracy bills
Stop Online Piracy Act - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Three Libertarians Raise Concerns about the Stop Online Piracy Act | Cato @ Liberty

[TerminatorX91]

It seems the 1984-ification of America is coming more "Fast and Furious" (TM). The Stop Online Piracy Act was introduced in October for the ostensible purpose of allowing the government to bar access to offshore websites that had pirated content. That seems straightforward enough, except for the reality of how similar laws are used to quash dissent in countries like Russia and China.

From NYT:


From Time:


Oh, and in case anybody asks "will this pass?" or "will Obama sign it?" I will go ahead and answer that for you: yes, it will pass, and yes, Obama will sign it. Any questions?

More sources:
http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed...ment-criticism
Internet pioneers oppose US online piracy bills
Stop Online Piracy Act - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Three Libertarians Raise Concerns about the Stop Online Piracy Act | Cato @ Liberty

Yep. Will you be mainly voting for Republicans and or Democrats anymore?

[terry b]

Free speech suspended?

Did Podium Girls get axed again?

[Oxtox]

well, on the brighter side...the govt can only suspend so many civil liberties before the world ends next Dec...

so, we got that going for us.

[ziscwg]

These Hollywood media corps need to be shut down for crap like this.