Worse Than SOPA: CISPA

[Friendly]

They'll never give up...
Here we go again: Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA)
http://rt.com/usa/news/cispa-bill-sopa-internet-175/

[Ed Oscuro]

This one will be a long slog compared to SOPA and PIPA, which held the interest of e-commerce firms. None of those guys are involved in the sorts of potentially disruptive activities that would cause them to have to protest this, in truth.

I think it will probably take some court challenges to even try to get an arm around this one. I think the reality is going to be that we will need a

It's interesting that RT is the outlet for this news - don't know if that has any larger meaning, either for Russia or (more likely) for the United States-based coverage. At the moment everybody's attention is wrapped up in the Treyvon Martin case which is pretty open-and-shut, but everybody wants to have their say and then some on that one. Ironically both are libertarian-style efforts, except the SYOG law in Florida was more about trying to enshrine a right that essentially already existed, and this is about defending the future of citizen freedom online.

[null1024]

I think it will probably take some court challenges to even try to get an arm around this one. I think the reality is going to be that we will need a

...(n) end to this sentence.

But in all seriousness, reading the bill, I dunno how dangerous this is. The bit relating to the information this bill deals with seems innocuous enough, but it's 11PM and I can barely make heads or tails of it.

Full text of bill available here: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c112:H.R.3523:

[Ed Oscuro]

The dangling thought, bane of my exist

In any case, yeah, I'll have to look up some other commentary on this. It's not like RT being based in one of the piracy capitals of the world would lead anybody to question the article's validity, but still...

[xbl0x180]

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/cisp ... 13974.html

So, what's the verdict on this one? I tend to be real circumspect of anything Congress passes with regards to search and seizure, and limiting the privacy of U.S. citizens

[Ed Oscuro]

Huh, I might have to send a letter to Rep. Rogers.

They're right - there is a need to protect our companies from predatory hacking from overseas. However, the sorts of allowances against private freedom they're writing into this bill are too much to swallow, and appear unnecessary to boot. Just another dumb piece of legislation.

Libertarians take note: This is the second time now the White House has clearly set out its opposition to stupid cyberlaws. So much for the popular meme that the President is a stealthy advocate of stripping freedoms from the people. And, bless him, Ron Paul has set out his opposition as well, although it would be shocking if he hadn't.

[BulletMagnet]

So much for the popular meme that the President is a stealthy advocate of stripping freedoms from the people.

Depends on which people you're talking about: the tiny handful who actually matter, or the filthy, lazy maggot hordes who only attain something approaching meaning in their lives by further enriching the former in obedient silence?

Mind you, I'm personally very critical of a lot of the decisions Barry has made, including several which do follow a distressingly Bush-esque pattern of overreach in the name of national security, but the point is that a vast majority of the self-appointed "guardians of freedom" making such a stink now were quiet as lambs during the previous President's tenure, if not openly supportive of the largely-unprecedented measures taken then.

Can't imagine what the catalyst might have been that finally got them to open their big mouths...