Saturday, November 13, 2010

Congress to Vote on Internet Censorship/Blacklist Bill

From DemandProgress.org:

Congress is bringing back the Internet blacklist bill for a vote on Thursday -- just a week from now! We've spent the week meeting people in DC and I can tell you our petition is definitely making a difference. This bill was supposed to pass without objection, but now even Politico is calling it "hotly debated" -- all thanks to you.

We've found the most effective way to get through to senators is for constituents to call in to Congress.

Remember, this bill--in blatant violation of the Constitution--would let the Attorney General create a blacklist of websites that every American ISP would be required to block. Wikileaks, YouTube, and others are all at risk. Human rights advocates, constitutional law experts, and the people who invented the Internet have all spoken out against this bill -- but some of the most powerful industries in the country are demanding that Congress rush it through. The music industry is even having all of their employees call Congress to pose as citizens in support of the bill.

-- Aaron Swartz, David Segal, and the Demand Progress team

P.S. Can you please forward our petition to your friends? So far over 250,000 people have signed. Can you help us hit 300,000 before the vote?


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The music industry is supporting this bill, doubtless to make it easier to take down "pirate" sites. But if this bill passes, it can be used to censor any site that the military, or any politically well-connected group, wants to censor.

Another example of how over-broad intellectual property protection threatens free speech.

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1 comment:

wbourget101 said...

These guys that want to block pirated sites are not very bright like really does it matter where we get our movies or songs from really theses major companies are trying to take the freedom of the first amendment away from us with this piece of crap, ridiculously low bill that will make America a living hell and seriously i like to post videos of games i like on YouTube, i like to post colorings i did in Photoshop in Google+ to show my coloring skills, and i wouldn't want this bill to be passed because of the shit (sorry for the language) that the government and the general law system will block any site without permission of the general legal system will be considered copyright and be blocked and I'm not gonna let that happen but if it does I'll throw tables, I'll break things, and try to get to congress and flip their tables and call the mentally challenged for this and its not allowed to take one of our most famous rights away the the first president George Washington Gave us when the Constitution was made that gave us our rights as citizens of the US and they would be destroying the spirits of the USA and I can't let that happen and i want this to be heard America Will not be let down and I will not back down if this bill is passed I want the internet the same way it is no uncensored and free not blocked and limited.