Internet Censorship

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fbenario
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Internet Censorship

Unread post by fbenario »

I'm sure we've all pondered the possibility of waking up one day to discover that the forum has been destroyed by the perps. Maybe this news makes that a little less likely.
Oregon Senator Wyden effectively kills Internet censorship bill

"Deploying this statute to combat online copyright infringement seems almost like using a bunker-busting cluster bomb, when what you need is a precision-guided missile," Wyden said.
...
Opponents of the bill insist that many sites which contain allegedly infringing materials also traffic in legitimate data that's constitutionally protected. There's also a fear that whatever action the US takes, other countries will seek to emulate, and some to a much more zealous degree.

Activist group DemandProgress, which is running a petition against the bill, argued the powers in the bill could be used for political purposes.
...
"The Act, if enacted into law, would fundamentally alter U.S. policy towards Internet speech, and would set a dangerous precedent with potentially serious consequences for free expression and global Internet freedom," Post wrote in the petition letter (PDF).

"Blacklisting entire sites out of the domain name system," explained the Electronic Frontiers Foundation (EFF), a privacy and digital rights advocate group, is a "reckless scheme that will undermine global Internet infrastructure and censor legitimate online speech."

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/11/oreg ... ship-bill/
hoi.polloi
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Re: Internet Censorship

Unread post by hoi.polloi »

It's a start.
fbenario
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Re: Internet Censorship

Unread post by fbenario »

It looks as if Britain will be a particularly bad place to have a website, if the government only has to claim that a site is illegal in order to shut it down.
Police to get major new powers to seize domains

Nominet discusses censorship powers

At present, Nominet has no clear legal obligation to ensure that .uk domains are not used for criminal activities. That situation may soon change, if proposals from the Serious and Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) are accepted.

SOCA wants Nominet to change its registration terms and conditions, giving the registrar the power to suspend domains if it has "reasonable grounds to believe they are being used to commit a crime".

And Nominet gives us an example of what those "reasonable grounds" might consist of - "a request from an identified UK Law Enforcement Agency".

Such a move would mark a massive extension of the authorities' powers to clamp down on illegal web sites - and possibly just those that the powers that be deem to be a thorn in their side.

Two weeks ago, Fitwatch, a site dedicated to campaigning against what it sees as heavy-handed practices by police surveillance units, was taken down by its UK-based web hosting company, JustHost, after a formal request by the Metropolitan Police.

The site was accused of publishing guidance to students involved in the recent violent Millbank protests to escape detection by the police.

But in a matter of days Fitwatch was back up and laughing in the face of the law, with a heap of extra publicity under its belt. The site is now hosted in the United States, where its hosting company is beyond the jurisdiction of UK police.

With no specific powers to seize the site's domain name - the memorable address ending in .co.uk that is used by servers on the internet to point browsers in the direction of a specific server's numeric IP address, Fitwatch could simply set up on the other side of the Atlantic and point the same domain name towards their new servers instead.

SOCA's new proposals, if accepted, would put an end to that, giving Nominet the power to grab back a name at the police's request - and effectively increasing the powers of censorship wielded by the UK's law enforcement agencies.

With its domain name suspended, the only way for visitors to find a rogue site would be to type in its lengthy (and decidedly less memorable) numeric IP address.

http://www.thinq.co.uk/2010/11/25/polic ... e-domains/
brianv
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Re: Internet Censorship

Unread post by brianv »

The Furhrer has declared that rap clowns downloading music industry recordings of "yo-yo m'fucka" in various keys are a threat to National Security!

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/11/home ... ens-sites/
reel.deal
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Re: RAP CLOWNZ

Unread post by reel.deal »

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