U.S. Government Wants To Censor Search Engines And Browsers

[Newsjock]

http://act.demandprogress.org/act/protectip_docs/?referring_akid=.194196.pE4I30&source=typ-tw

We knew that members of Congress and their business allies were gearing up to pass a revised Internet Blacklist Bill -- which more than 325,000 Demand Progress members helped block last winter -- but we never expected it to be this atrocious. Last year's bill has been renamed the "PROTECT IP" Act and it is far worse than its predecessor.

... Senators Leahy and Hatch pretended to weigh free speech concerns as they revised the bill. Instead, the new legislation would institute a China-like censorship regime in the United States, whereby the Department of Justice could force search engines, browsers, and service providers to block users' access to websites, and scrub the American Internet clean of any trace of their existence.

... Google CEO Eric Schmidt just came out swinging against PROTECT IP, saying, "I would be very, very careful if I were a government about arbitrarily simple solutions to complex problems." And then he went even further. From the LA Times:

"If there is a law that requires DNSs, to do X and it's passed by both houses of Congress and signed by the president of the United States and we disagree with it then we would still fight it," he said, according to the report. "If it's a request the answer is we wouldn't do it, if it's a discussion we wouldn't do it."

[LiberalLoner]

1. Well, if DU disappears I guess we will know what happened. K&R n/t

[ixion]

5. DU really isn't 'underground' anymore... it's pretty mainstream

which is kind of sad, actually, because I liked it better when it was underground.

[steve2470]

2. k&r nt

[Indianademocrat91]

3. Good for Google

Although they practice some shady-tactics, I'm glad they are standing up for this.

When will the assault on the Internet be done? This is just like 1984 except without the books...

[FiveGoodMen]

4. "When will the assault on the Internet be done?"

When everything good about the internet is gone.

Or when America completely transforms itself into a thinking country and stops voting for fucktards.

Which do you think will happen first?

[Incitatus]

17. It's funny to hear that from Google. I thought they were doing the same thing for China. nt

[Indianademocrat91]

20. I think the Chinese government was censoring Google

and Google made go-arounds as to where the Chinese could search freely instead of being censored and China got very mad at them.

[obxhead]

6. They have a lot of quotes to hide out there. nt

[Posteritatis]

7. That'll go down in flames the moment a judge looks at it, but still, argh. (nt)

(ed. - me grammar am big good)

[FiveGoodMen]

8. Depends which judge.

[jp11]

9. Nice we can look to a big company like google to look after our freedoms.

You know everything is right in America when this is the way it works.

[girl gone mad]

18. I wouldn't count on it.

They made the same noises about China, but caved in the end.

[Matariki]

10. Why the hell do they give these kind of laws such Orwellian names?

"Protect IP"??? :eyes:

[Beam Me Up]

12. Oh, you mean like the "Help America Vote" (the way we want) act?

Or the (undermine the Bill of Rights) "Patriot" act? or the "No Child's Behind Left" act?

Those may seem obvious enough but "the War on Drugs" and "War on Terror" etc., etc., is the same BS.

Deception isn't the exception, it is the rule. It is how we are ruled.

[Posteritatis]

16. To prevent their opponents from voting against them

Seriously, that's the main reason you get things like the "USA PATRIOT Act" - if it was just H.R. 7358 or whatever it'd be a lot safer to vote against it without fear of retaliation at the polls. If you give something a stupidly loaded name like that, voting against it can become a political death sentence.

[AsahinaKimi]

11. The Internet is the only thing keeping us from

being overwhelmed by right winged media lies. All the right wing slant, has completely taken over most Television and Radio Networks. There is no such thing as integrity any more, in reporting the news truthfully. If not for the Internet, many of us would be badly informed on whats going on in the world today. We would only hear one side of it. Fortunately there other outlets on the net and people who are on top of the propaganda.

[lbrtbell]

13. And I'll just bet Obama will veto that legislation instantly!

:sarcasm:

Time to fire up the proxies and use overseas IP addresses.... :mad:

[Nye Bevan]

14. That's like making a list of book titles

and forcing bookstores to place any books on the list in a locked back room, off-limits to the public.

[L0oniX]

15. Hatch is a dumb ass. He introduced a bill to make it illegal to have a firewall.

[RandomThoughts]

19. Was going to make a coment.

Going to post a song I remember the hook from.

Collective Soul - Shine
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xcyvp9_collective-soul-shine-video_music