America’s New Internet Censorship System

Could sharing on your favorite social media site soon be against the law in the US?

If Washington had it's way, social sharing on sites like Facebook, Youtube, Tumblr and Twitter would soon be history.

Many musicians, actors, writers, artists, photographers and, well, entertainers, are is tired of those annoying laws that protect innovation, creativity and economic growth rather than protect every Penney they feel they have coming to their already fat wallets. Rather than let anyone else possibly make a Penney off of their overblown fame and fortune, they want to rewrite the rules, regulate the Internet, effectively screwing the online world. 

Coming to answer the call of Hollywood and celebrities everywhere, the US government has already pulled the plug on many sites without any warning or explanation to the site owner. According to these bills, sharing anything copyrighted on sites like Facebook,Youtube, Tumblr, Twitter and Google's new G+ would be considered illegal behavior. In fact, according to these new bills, it would become a felony with a potential 5 year sentence to stream a copyrighted work! Even if you are a totally noncommercial user, e.g. singing a pop song on YouTube (the way Justin Bieber got his start).

Fortunately, SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) (bill H.R.3261), which had already passed in the Senate, has been effectively postponed until forther notice, do primarily to the online protests against the bill, which included 24 hour blackouts by major sites like Wikipedia, Reddit and many others.

SOPA had proposed to expand the ability of US law enforcement and copyright holders to protect copyrighted intellectual property and fight online trafficking of that property. The bill was originally introduced to the House of Representatives on October 26th, 2011, but was brought to a standstill in the Senate mid January, 2012. 

The PROTECT IP, or PIPA, (Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act (bill S.968) was introduced to the Senate on May 12th, 2011. It proposes to give the US government and copyright holders tools to stop access to “rogue websites dedicated to the sale of infringement and counterfeit goods.” It too remains in lala land until further notice, also at the hands of activists and protests.

Even if you have never and will never illegally download anything, this new American Internet censorship system will negatively change your whole online experience if lawmakers have their way.

An Internet governed by the Stop Online Piracy Act would allow any intellectual property holder to shut down any website's online advertising programs and block access to credit card payments. The credit card processors and the advertising networks would be required to take quick action against the named website; only the filing of a “counter notification” by the website could get service restored.

The US government would have the power to make US Internet providers block access to infringing domain names. They can sue websites, blogs, forums, you name it, to have links to these sites removed. The US government and corporations will also have the ability to cut off the funding to infringing websites by forcing US based advertisers to cancel their accounts with the sites.

Private companies would have the right to sue sites they feel aren't filtered enough. This includes any site with copyrighted music, movies, clips and TV, including social media sites such as Facebook, Google Plus and MySpace, social blogging sites such as Posterous and Tumblr, social content sites such as Reddit and Digg, torrent sites such, Mediafire and Torrentfreak, file sharing sites such as Scribd and 4shared, and video sharing sites such as YouTube and Vimeo, as well as many other outlets. Violators sharing copyrighted material could even face up to five years in jail! 

The piracy  issue is a whole other matter. The RIAA has submitted to the US government a list of "notorious markets." This list included torrent sites like MegaUpload, which ignore international laws while raking in huge advertising proceeds from trafficking in free, unlicensed copyrighted materials. Still, if the government eventually passes the proposed, or even similar Internet censorship bills, they will essentially put an end to social media "sharing" and social blogging. 

Fortunately for Internet users everywhere, censorship promoters within the U.S. government are getting opposition from groups like NetCoalition, which includes both Google and Yahoo, as well as many smaller ISPs as members.  NetCoalition's executive director Markham Erickson said, "as leading brands of the Internet, we strongly oppose offshore 'rogue' websites and share policymakers' goal of combating online infringement of copyrights and trademarks," continuing with an official statement:

"However, we do not believe that the solution lies in regulating the Internet and comprising its stability and security. We do not believe that it is worth overturning a decade of settled law that has formed the legal foundation for all social media. And finally, we do not believe that it is worth restricting free speech or providing comfort to totalitarian regimes that seek to control and restrict the Internet freedoms of their own citizens."

Dozens of law professors have also claimed the original PROTECT IP Act, which contains most of the same ideas, is unconstitutional. But the drumbeat for some sort of censorship is growing louder.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, this bill would cost us $47 million tax dollars a year — that's for a fix that won't work, disrupts the internet, stifles innovation, shuts out diverse voices, and censors the internet. This bill is bad for creativity and does not protect your rights.

European Parliament had even called for SOPA to be abandoned, while more than 60 civil and human rights organizations writing letters to Congress calling for its rejection, arguing that the act is as unacceptable to the international community as it would be if a foreign country were to impose similar measures on the United States.

If the US government is successful in passing bills allowing them to censor the Internet, similar bills will likely follow in other countries. Do you trust other governments not to abuse this power? For that matter, do you trust yours?

These bills have already prompted tons of backlash, including a massive boycott convinced Go Daddy to switch from supporting the bill to openly opposing it in just a few days, losing tens of thousands of customers in the process.

But that is not enough. According to Maplight, a watchdog group, pro-SOPA contributions to Judiciary Committee members outweigh contributions from those opposed 4 to 1!

The only way to persuade lawmakers to drop these bills might be with a black-out by the big websites like Google, Yahoo, Facebook and Amazon, but can we take the chance to leave the fate of the Internet in their self-interest hands? 

“There have been some serious discussions about that,” says Markham Erickson, who heads the NetCoalition trade association. “It has never happened before.”

What you can do?

First, get informed about the censorship and control issues (also keep the dangerous new NDAA bill in your sights). There are a lot of good websites and blogs that devote their entire existence to fighting censorship (like this one) censorshipwatch.net, savetheinternet.com, dontcensorthenet.com, publicknowledge.org, peacefire.org and AmericanCensorship.org. Make sure to voice your concerns, sign petitions, call your representative or Senators. If you are outside of the US, you can still call the State Department. Tell your friends. Repeat daily until this is no longer a threat.

Forth, voice your opinions via comments, bellow.

Written By: Tom Retterbush

Internet Censorship: Protecting Citizens or Trampling Freedom?
(USA Today's Debate: Voices & Perspectives)

Americans are sharply divided on the issue of Internet censorship. This book examines the history of censorship in the United States as well as current federal, state, and local laws. It provides the opinions and perspectives of government and business leaders, activists, and ordinary Americans on both sides of the issue.

Buy Internet Censorship directly from Amazon, HERE

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