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Ron Paul : CISPA would create 'Big Brother' culture
Ron Paul: CISPA would create 'Big Brother' culture, 4/25/13
Kim Dotcom, a.k.a. Kim Tim Jim Vestor, a.k.a. Kim Schmitz, doesn’t act much like a man with a net worth in the negative.
Inside Mega: The Second Coming of Kim Dotcom, 4/17/13
Internet speeds around the world have noticeably slowed down due to a massive "distributed denial of service" attack, reports the BBC.
Biggest Cyber Attack In History Is Taking Place Right Now, 3/27/13
The concentrated cyber attack that breached the defenses of U.S. Department of Energy [DoE] last week may be the scariest yet.
Energy Department Hit In The Most Dangerous Cyber Attack Yet, 2/4/13
People have rightly complained about SOPA, the "UN Takeover," and other abuses of the Internet by governments, but all these publicized abuses were minor. The real nasty deeds are taking place in back rooms right now, among engineers who are trading away Internet freedom for mere paychecks.
Internet Is Being Slaughtered in the Back Room, 1/14/13
Bureaucrats from around the world will gather behind closed doors in Dubai next week to plot an end to the Internet as we know it — or so Washington would have you believe.
Plot against the Internet, 12/1/12
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and European officials seized 132 websites on Monday for allegedly selling counterfeit merchandise in a coordinated crackdown timed to coincide with the holiday shopping season.
Federal officials take down 132 websites in 'Cyber Monday' crackdown, 11/26/12
The privacy and property rights of its 60 million users are also in jeopardy, as well as the privacy and property rights of anyone who stores data in the cloud, according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which is representing one of Megaupload’s users in a lawsuit against the government that could set a precedent for cloud users in general. A hearing on the issue in Virginia federal court is expected to be set any day.
Megaupload Case Has Far-Reaching Implications for Cloud-Data Ownership Rights, 11/7/12
On the surface, it’s all about protecting Russian kids from internet pedophiles. In reality, the Kremlin’s new “Single Register” of banned websites, which goes into effect today, will wind up blocking all kinds of online political speech. And, thanks to the spread of new internet-monitoring technologies, the Register could well become a tool for spying on millions of Russians.
Kremlin’s New Internet Surveillance Plan Goes Live Today, 11/1/12
First the financial system collapses and it's impossible to access one’s money. Then the power and water systems stop functioning. Within days, society has begun to break down. In the cities, mothers and fathers roam the streets, foraging for food. The country finds itself fractured and fragmented -- hardly recognizable.
Will the Apocalypse Arrive Online?, 10/22/12
They’ve been indicted by the U.S. government for conspiracy and briefly thrown in jail, but Kim Dotcom and his partners in the digital storage locker Megaupload have no intention of quitting the online marketplace. Instead the co-defendants plan to introduce a much-anticipated new technology later this year that will allow users to once again upload, store, and share large data files, albeit by different rules. They revealed details of the new service exclusively to Wired.
Megaupload Is Dead. Long Live Mega!, 10/18/12
They're not letting a technicality ruin this one. File-sharing site Megaupload has tried to escape criminal prosecution in the United States by saying since the company doesn't have a mailing address in this country, it can't be prosecuted here.
US Government Has Found A Sneaky Way To Punish Megaupload, 10/10/12
I am going to tell you some stories. To make it interesting, I will begin with one which could make one of my readers the deal of a lifetime. It ends on September 30. He who hesitates is lost. I begin with the obvious: the falling cost of Internet communications is revolutionizing the spread of knowledge. In doing so, it is undermining every establishment. Every establishment rests mush of its power on official views of the past. This is seen in the novel by George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four. The tyrant who enforces the totalitarian state says this. "Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past."
Digital Technologies vs. Truth Suppression, 9/22/12
A massive DDoS attack struck GoDaddy's name servers today, temporarily plunging thousands of websites into the internet abyss. "GoDaddy, the massive Web hosting company, went down on Monday, taking an untold number of websites with it," reported CNN.
DDoS attack on GoDaddy takes down millions of websites, 9/10/12
About three hours after joining a file-sharing BitTorrent swarm you are likely to come up on the radar of copyright enforcement agencies, a new study reveals. Most of them are not reporting publicly that they engage in such monitoring.
BitTorrent traffic closely watched by shady firms, 9/5/12
One of the founders of the popular file-sharing Pirate Bay website, has been arrested in Cambodia, the local police have announced.
Pirate Bay co-founder Warg arrested in Cambodia, 9/2/12
Get ready for another transfer of wealth via government confiscation. The FCC is ready to tax internet service in order to fund its Connect America Fund boondoggle. As is usually the case in corporatist nations – Mussolini told us corporatism is the essence of fascism – mega-corporations support this brazen theft. “Numerous companies, including AT&T, Sprint and even Google have expressed support for the idea,”
FCC Launching Huge Internet Tax, 8/26/12
If you have ever done any sort of comparison shopping online, chances are you have probably used Google's Shopping portal to pull up product information and compare prices. But if you live in the U.S. and try to use Google Shopping to buy vitamins, supplements, personal care products, and even many health foods, your search queries will now turn up blank, as Google has apparently blocked access to all vitamins and natural products for American customers.
Google Shopping blocks all vitamins and natural products - glitch or deliberate censorship?, 8/19/12
The internet has the potential to help you to reach more people than you ever imagined. But for many small-time authors and entrepreneurs you had might as well bury your work six-feet under the ground in what I call online insignificance. Furthermore, there may be no such thing as giving away information for free any longer. If you want a substantial number of people to view your free content you are likely going to have to pay to give your information away.
Online Insignificance: Buried on Google Search Page 23, 8/10/12
The latest attack on free speech in America comes from the FDA and is supported by Google Adwords. NaturalNews has learned that the FDA is quietly, and without notice to affected companies, commanding Google to disable the full Adwords accounts of nutritional supplement companies offering "detox" or "chelation" nutritional products.
Google complies with FDA demands to secretly disable Adwords accounts of nutritional detox companies, 8/8/12
We recently wrote about the fight over copyright/fair use in political videos. In the comments, someone anonymous pointed us to a YouTube page including a typical takedown notice.. Here’s a screenshot.
This is actually the first time I can recall that I’ve seen a takedown that had “multiple” takedown notices. So it’s interesting that YouTube even has such an error message. But what really caught my attention was the second claimant listed. United States Department of Homeland Security. Homeland Security?
Homeland Security Teams Up With YouTube To Take Down Controversial Videos, 8/3/12
Megaupload boss Kim Dotcom has launched an online song attacking US President Barack Obama and urging supporters not to vote for the US leader, who he accuses of trampling on Internet freedom.
Megaupload boss raps Obama in musical protest, 7/24/12
This is a pity. I liked using Google Shopping to compare prices on gun-related products. Google now has a worse policy than ebay, which at least allows accessories. Shame on you Google.
Google Shopping Censors All Gun, Ammo & Accessories Results, 7/1/12
This should be enough information to get you going but remember, blogging is a process and develops over time. Follow the methods mentioned below and keep publishing new posts. As you create new content, you’ll learn more about blogging in general. Who knows, maybe you’ll even become a pro blogger one day!
How to Blog: A Detailed Guide, 6/22/12
Some scientists have called nuclear bombs weapons they wish the world could un-invent. Now some are saying the same thing about cyberweapons, an expanding new form of "combat" aimed at debilitating or destroying an enemy's computerized infrastructure.
Flame malware, created by US government, could wreck critical infrastructure, 6/21/12
After a series of disputes and delays, U.S. investigators will have no choice but to turn over evidence against Kim Dotcom, founder of the shuttered cloud storage website MegaUpload, and his co-defendants, New Zealand’s highest court has ruled.
The order by New Zealand chief High Court judge Justice Helen Winkelmann will require the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to begin copying more than 150 terabytes of data, including more than 10 million emails, that were seized from MegaUpload.
FBI ordered to turn over MegaUpload evidence, 6/15/12
One of breakout standup routines from the late, great George Carlin was his 1972 monologue “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television.” In the presence of polite company, I shall not repeat them… but rest assured, the routine is still hilarious to this day.
I wish I could say the same about the Department of Homeland Security… I wish I could say this is all a big joke… that the government’s “377 words you can never use online” is just some stupid comedy routine.
But it’s not. And you just can’t make this stuff.
Uncle Sam Admits Monitoring You for These 377 Words, 6/2/12
In late 2011, representative from China, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan submitted a proposal called the International Code of Conduct for Information Security (ICCIS) to the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that called for international consensus of a global set of rules and regulations that standardize information flow on the internet...
Obama and Congress Approve Resolution that Supports UN Internet Takeover, 5/29/12
We previously saw how Orthodox Jews in New York prevailed upon the government to get rid of bike lanes in their neighborhoods to protect them from the sight of women on bikes. Now almost 40,000 men gathered in Citi Field to call for an end to the Internet as a danger to their faith. Women of course were not allowed to attend because that would also be an affront. They were allowed to watch . . . you guessed it . . . on the Internet.
The Evil of "Unadulterated Freedom": 40,000 Orthodox Jewish Men Gather in NY Stadium to Denounce the Internet, 5/23/12
The US is preparing to face FBI-drafted legislation enabling it to monitor any personal communication activities in the web. It aims to use preset backdoors in social networks, online messaging, internet telephony and even Xbox gaming servers.
FBI wants P2P and social media wiretap-friendly, 5/5/12
Kim Dotcom, the eccentric founder of cyber-locker website MegaUpload, will have more than $800,000 in assets returned to him thanks to a decision Monday by the High Court of New Zealand, according to Radio New Zealand.
Court returns MegaUpload founder’s cash, cars, 4/30/12
Its goal is a more secure internet, but privacy groups fear the measure breaches Americans’ privacy along the way. The White House had weighed in on Wednesday, threatening a veto unless there were significant changes to increase consumer privacy. The bill was amended to provide more privacy protections, but it was not immediately clear whether the Senate or the White House would give the amended bill its blessing.
Unpopular Government, Passes Even More Unpopular CISPA Bill, 4/26/12
An amendment introduced to the controversial CISPA bill by perennial big government advocate Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee would empower the Department of Homeland Security to intercept online IRS tax returns and any other Internet traffic deemed to transit networks owned by the federal government or operated on its behalf.
CISPA Amendment Allows DHS to Intercept Tax Returns, 4/25/12
Just because SOPA and PIPA, the infamous internet "kill switch" bills, are largely dead does not mean the threat to internet free speech has become any less serious. The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), also known as H.R. 3523, is the latest mutation of these internet censorship and spying bills to hit the U.S. Congress -- and unless the American people speak up now to stop it, CISPA could lead to far worse repercussions for online free speech than SOPA or PIPA ever would have.
SOPA mutates into much worse CISPA, the latest threat to internet free speech, 4/21/12
Real Reason for Prosecutions of Bodog.com and Megaupload?
Power Elite vs. the Internet, 3/12/12
Adult content has long been a big draw, and one of the most profitable, in the world of digital media, but a recent move by PayPal is a sign of how one part of that business may be facing some problems up ahead.
PayPal As Moral Police? Forces E-Book Sellers To Remove Certain Erotica Content, 2/26/12
Just last month millions of Americans rallied to defeat SOPA and PIPA. However, something worse has crept in the back-door and may not be able to be repealed. In October 2011 President Obama signed an international agreement called the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement or ACTA.
ACTA: the Internet Censorship "Law" That Can Not be Repealed? , 2/26/12
On March 1st, Google will implement its new, unified privacy policy, which will affect data Google has collected on you prior to March 1st as well as data it collects on you in the future. Until now, your Google Web History (your Google searches and sites visited) was cordoned off from Google's other products. This protection was especially important because search data can reveal particularly sensitive information about you, including facts about your location, interests, age, sexual orientation, religion, health concerns, and more. If you want to keep Google from combining your Web History with the data they have gathered about you in their other products, such as YouTube or Google Plus, you may want to remove all items from your Web History and stop your Web History from being recorded in the future.
How To Remove Your Google Search History Before Google's New Privacy Policy Takes Effect, 2/24/12
With the rollout of the Windows 8 operating system expected later this year, millions of desktop and laptop PCs will get kill switches for the first time. Microsoft (MSFT) hasn’t spoken publicly about its reasons for including this capability in Windows 8 beyond a cryptic warning that it might be compelled to use it for legal or security reasons. The feature was publicized in a widely cited Computerworld article in December when Microsoft posted the terms of use for its new application store, a feature in Windows 8 that will allow users to download software from a Microsoft-controlled portal. Windows smartphones, like those of its competitors, have included kill switches for several years, though software deletion “is a last resort, and it’s uncommon,” says Todd Biggs, director of product management for Windows Phone Marketplace.
All New Windows 8 Computers to Have Remote Kill Switch, 2/24/12
The never-ending war between copyright holders and online pirates just entered a new phase. However, this time hackers are armed with the ultimate weapon that may grant them victory.
The new software called “Tribler” is the new weapon in the battle for Internet liberty and does not need a website to track users sharing torrent files.
According to The Raw Story, it is a “peer-to-peer network protocol that enables computers to share files with thousands of others.”
For many this could be the solution movie and music pirates have been waiting for. Essentially it leaves no accountability for website owners.
Internet pirates winning the war on SOPA with "Tribler", 2/10/12
First, Go Global; Next, Follow the Blogs; Third, Think Security.
Internet Resources for the International Man, 2/4/12
Months before the debate about Internet censorship raged as SOPA and PIPA dominated the concerns of web users, President Obama signed an international treaty that would allow companies in China or any other country in the world to demand ISPs remove web content in the US with no legal oversight whatsoever.
Obama Signs Global Internet Treaty Worse Than SOPA, 1/26/12
Like the founding of America, we've yet again been given another chance to flourish. These chances only seem to come along very rarely. Before the founding of America, the last time there was an attempt at escape from the control of the state was nearly two thousand years ago with Jesus the anarchist.
And, for thousands of years, many people have been awaiting a return of "the savior". The savior could be the internet. Jesus, in many ways, was the top anarchist of his time, fighting against the depredations of the state for freedom.
Fight against any and all government control of this space. This space doesn't even exist physically. It exists virtually, but it is just as important as any locale in terms of your ability to access information and to make free your mind.
You've been able to access information you never thought even existed thanks to the internet. I know I have. And the governments of the world don't like this. Fight to retain this ability. If we lose this, all is lost.
Sadly, the internet is the last free place on Earth. We have to go virtual to escape government oppression at this point. And if we lose this, there is no hope for humanity. If we retain it, the future will be full of prosperity and peace unlike any we've ever known. If we lose it? We don't even want to think about it.
Defending the Last Free Place on Earth, 1/21/12
In what the federal authorities on Thursday called one of the largest criminal copyright cases ever brought, the Justice Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation seized the Web site Megaupload and charged seven people connected with it with running an international enterprise based on Internet piracy.
7 Charged as F.B.I. Closes a Top File-Sharing Site, 1/19/12
Lawmakers have begun to jump ship following a day of protest against the draconian internet legislation, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Senate version of the bill, the Protect IP Act (PIPA).
As many major websites such as Wikipedia and Google participated in a “blackout” in opposition to the bills, several former co-sponsers of the legislation have reversed their positions and retreated away from the bills.
SOPA: Co-sponsors Defect, Backtrack After Blackout, 1/18/12
While we applaud President Obama (yes, we agree with him on this move) for formally issuing a veto threat, we remain skeptical of his motivations. This being an election year, the last thing the President needs to be dealing with along with the economic crisis and tensions in the middle east, is the protests of millions of voters who would have undoubtedly taken to the streets when access to their favorite web sites like Youtube, Google, Facebook, and Twitter were shut down because of alleged SOPA violations.
Moreover, we aren't one bit convinced that this veto was done in the interests of free expression, as the administration may claim. In November, the President issued a similar veto threat about the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which allows for the detention of American citizens determined to be threats to national security and public safety on the domestic (U.S.) battlefront. He flip-flopped on the issue just a couple of weeks later, and signed the bill into law over New Year's weekend to complete silence from the mainstream media.
It is our view that SOPA, in one form or another, will return with a vengeance.
Dead On Arrival: SOPA Shelved Indefinitely, Obama Succumbs to Pressure, Issues Official Veto Threat, 1/17/12
A British student faces up to a decade in a U.S. prison for actions which are not even a crime in the UK.
Campaigners say Richard O’Dwyer, 23, is being abandoned by his country in the same way as computer hacker Gary McKinnon.
Mr O’Dwyer is accused of listing places where films and TV programmes could be illegally downloaded, on a website he ran from his university bedroom in Sheffield.
Abandoned by British justice: Student faces 10 years in U.S. jail for setting up 'illegal' website, 1/14/12
If you are planning a new online business, make sure that you look at all of the available options for every aspect of your website. Begin with the jurisdiction where you want to incorporate your business, followed by where the site is hosted and the location of the domain name. Many popular international jurisdictions have a wide choice of suppliers for each component of your online business structure.
While you may not be able to control whether acts like SOPA and Protect IP get passed into law, if you follow these simple steps, at least you’ll be able to ensure your business still goes on.
Internet is Global, Your Internet Business Should Be as Well, 1/5/12
GoDaddy, the domain register targeted by online activists in response to its enthusiasm for a pair of Hollywood-backed copyright bills, has finally denounced the legislation in response to a boycott scheduled for today.
GoDaddy bows to boycott, now 'opposes' SOPA copyright bill, 12/29/11
Users of domain registrar Namecheap who've been trying to transfer domains in from GoDaddy in the wake of its SOPA revolt in the past couple days have been running into a bit of a speed bump: Namecheap alleges in customer service emails that GoDaddy is blocking its WHOIS requests, which means it needs to "manually insert WHOIS details into the form." In a follow-up blog post today, Namecheap also says that GoDaddy "appears to be returning incomplete WHOIS information" in violation of ICANN rules, taking the opportunity to sling a little mud in GoDaddy's direction:
SOPA debate puts GoDaddy in hot water over domain transfers, 12/27/11
In addition to kidnapping Americans and tossing them into Camp Gitmo without recourse or trial, the draconian NDAA bill passed in the House yesterday contains language that will allow the Pentagon to wage cyberwar on domestic enemies of the state.
NDAA Gives Pentagon Green Light to Wage Internet War, 12/15/11
One of the many ways the nation's lawmakers slip freedom-seizing legislation through the gauntlet of public scrutiny is by hiding it within larger legislative bills with more favorable sounding goals and titles. And some members of Congress are currently trying to do just that by pushing through legislation aimed at stopping illegal, online piracy, for example. But within this legislation are tenets that will essentially criminalize the posting of links, which have the potential to censor much of the internet.
Congressional anti-piracy bill a Trojan horse to censor, kill the internet, 12/15/11
Over the weekend, First Amendment impresario Floyd Abrams addressed two controversial Internet piracy bills, the Senate’s Protect IP Act (PIPA) and the House version, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). He argued that the bill, designed to stop Internet theft of intellectual property, has been denounced by critics for setting up walled gardens patrolled by government censors.’ Or derided as imparting ‘major features’ of ‘China’s Great Firewall’ to America. And accused of being ‘potentially politically repressive.’ He contends, “This is not serious criticism. The proposition that efforts to enforce the Copyright Act on the Internet amount to some sort of censorship, let alone Chinese-level censorship, is not merely fanciful. It trivializes the pain inflicted by actual censorship that occurs in repressive states throughout the world. Chinese dissidents do not yearn for freedom in order to download pirated movies.”
Overkill on Internet piracy, 12/12/11
Imagine surfing the internet without being able to watch videos on YouTube, share with your friends on FaceBook, look at pictures of your best friend's new baby on Flickr or read news headlines from reddit. Luckily this is not reality, though it could be if the Congress passes H.R. 3261 the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).
SOPA Will Not Stop Piracy; Only the Flow of Information, 12/11/11
Microsoft's terms of service for its Windows Store allows the company to remotely "kill" or remove access to a user's apps for security or legal reasons, it said.
As noted by Computerworld, Microsoft's terms of service for the Windows store will technically allow the company to cut off access to apps, even if the user purchased them.
Microsoft Can Remotely Kill Purchased Apps, 12/8/11
India on Tuesday vowed to ban offensive material from the Internet after Facebook, Google and other major firms told the government they were unable to screen content before it was posted.
Communications Minister Kapil Sibal said talks with the Internet giants had failed to come up with a solution following complaints that he had lodged three months ago over “unacceptable” images.
“My aim is that insulting material never gets uploaded,” Sibal told reporters in New Delhi. “We will evolve guidelines and mechanisms to deal with the issue.
India to ban 'offensive' Internet material, 12/6/11
In the wake of news that terror suspect Jose Pimentel was operating a jihadist Blogger site, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) is urging Google to implement a system that bans terrorist material.
Lieberman to Google: Ban Terrorist Content, 11/29/11
Big names from Silicon Valley went head-to-head with media giants at a House hearing Wednesday on the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), which would punish companies for posting pirated content online.
...Internet giants including Yahoo, Google, Facebook and the Consumer Electronics Association have joined forces to oppose the legislation, which they say would give the government too much power to shut down Web sites accused of pirating or counterfeiting content.
SOPA: Why are Google and Facebook against it?, 11/17/11
Google Inc Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt blasted proposed legislation to tighten online copyright regulation on Tuesday, saying the bills would lead to censorship of the Internet.
Intended to combat the trade in pirated movies and music, the two bills would give copyright holders and law enforcement officials added powers to cut off websites and require search engines, payment collectors and others to block access. The legislation Schmidt opposed is called the PROTECT IP Act in the Senate and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House.
SOPA: Does bill encourage Internet censorship?, 11/16/11
Anyone driving down a typical stretch of highway in the U.S. will encounter an endless barrage of traffic signs designed to dampen our aggressiveness, forcing drivers to drive slower.
At the time, our speeds in the digital world are never fast enough. In fact a 2010 study done by Fiona Fui-Hoon Nah at the University of Nebraska concluded that the amount of time an average person is willing to wait for a web page to load has decreased to just 2 seconds.
However, our online patience has been parsed into far tinier increments than we humans can consciously comprehend. Tests done by Amazon in 2007 showed that every 100-millisecond delay in load time translated into a 1% decrease in sales.
Enormous Power of the Slow Link, 11/3/11
A leading internet security expert has warned that a cyber terrorist attack with "catastrophic consequences" looked increasingly likely in a world already in a state of near cyber war.
Eugene Kaspersky is not given to easy hyperbole. But the Russian maths genius who founded an internet security empire with a global reach, clutched at his thick mop of hair with both hands.
Web Security Expert Warns Of Cyber World War, 11/1/11
In the clip below taken from Infowars Nightly News, Alex Jones reveals the hypocrisy of the transnational corporation Google and its popular video asset YouTube.
YouTube has not only blocked the ability to embed the video from the Alex Jones channel, but has used a host of tricks to prevent it from being viewed, including forcing users to register with YouTube to view adult content and include an email address. This works as a delisting to block views and in essence cosigns the video to the dead zone of porn and other questionable content.
The following is a temporary fix to YouTube’s undermining. We are working on hosting a version on our servers and it will be included here soon.
Google Censors War Crimes Video, 10/29/11
US lawmakers introduced a bill on Wednesday that would give US authorities more tools to crack down on websites accused of piracy of movies, television shows and music and the sale of counterfeit goods.
The Stop Online Piracy Act has received bipartisan support in the House of Representatives and is the House version of a bill introduced in the Senate in May known as the Theft of Intellectual Property Act or Protect IP Act.
The legislation has received the backing of Hollywood, the music industry, the Business Software Alliance, the National Association of Manufacturers, the US Chamber of Commerce and other groups.
But it has come under fire from digital rights and free speech organizations for allegedly paving the way for US law enforcement to unilaterally shut down websites, including foreign sites, without due process.
'Rogue websites' bill introduced in US House, 10/26/11
“In the US, Google received 757 takedown requests across its sites and services, up 70 per cent from the second half of last year,” reports technology website V3.co.uk.
“US authorities also called for the removal of 113 videos from YouTube, including several documenting alleged police brutality which Google refused to take down.”
Feds Order You Tube To Remove Video For Containing "Government Criticism", 10/26/11
Net Neutrality is the last frontier of press freedom. With it, consumers have open access to an array of equipment, content, applications and service, free from corporate control. Public interest groups want it preserved. Giant telecom and cable companies want control to:
• establish toll roads, or premium lanes;
• charge extra for speed and free and easy access;
• control content to stifle dissent and independent thought;
• co-opt this essential public space for profit; and
• subvert digital and political democracy.
Congressional hard-liners want to end Internet freedom, 10/3/11
Finally, it’s time to watch your favorite show. The popcorn’s popped, the dishes are washed, the lights are dimmed. You shut off the cell phone, sink into the couch, and turn on … YouTube?
The online video giant – famous for drugged toddlers, Rebecca Black, and quite possibly the best campaign ad in the history of mankind – is reportedly finalizing contracts for its first of more than a dozen channels, which will feature original, regularly-scheduled content on fashion, sports, and other mainstream topics.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Google executives say they want to build a comprehensive video service that will rival traditional TV channels, not just a service to better compete with other Web video sites like Hulu, iTunes and Netflix.
YouTube Preps Launch of New TV-Like Channels, 9/27/11
Former CNN journalist Rebecca MacKinnon said during a TED Talk that new political innovations are needed to create a “consent of the networked” to protect the Internet from censorship and surveillance.
Rebecca MacKinnon: Political activism needed to protect the Internet, 8/14/11
Freedom of speech is under attack once again as the bloated US federal government continues its quest to destroy the last bastion of free and open communication -- the internet.
Sen. Patrick Leahy's (D-Vt.) "Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property" bill, also known as the Protect IP Act, is more oppressive and restrictive to free speech than even communist China's internet censorship protocols, and a group of law professors recently wrote an open letter warning that the bill would allow the government to freely pull websites without any proper legal restrictions.
New legislation would allow state to arbitrarily shut down, seize websites, 7/26/11
Given the nature of most governments worldwide, the only way to say certain things without risk of being arrested (or worse) is to do so anonymously, in a way that cannot be traced to your physical self. However, in order to have what you say be paid attention to, you also need to be able to say more than one thing, and have those things tied to a single identity: a pseudonym. Almost everyone on the internet has some 'handle'; the hard part is having a pseudonym that allows you to remain anonymous.
Here are a list of steps that will allow you to have a reasonably anonymous pseudonym, allowing you to fully exercise your right to free speech, and proof against anything short of investigation by a Three-Letter Agency... and, as long as you avoid doing anything in real-life to tie yourself to your pseudonym, which would give them some reason to consider you as potentially being linked to your pseudonym, providing reasonable protection even against that.
How to Live Free in an Unfree Internet, 7/24/11
In this powerful talk from TEDGlobal, Rebecca MacKinnon describes the expanding struggle for freedom and control in cyberspace, and asks: How do we design the next phase of the Internet with accountability and freedom at its core, rather than control? She believes the internet is headed for a "Magna Carta" moment when citizens around the world demand that their governments protect free speech and their right to connection.
Rebecca MacKinnon: Let's take back the Internet!, 7/21/11
A group of Internet and intellectual property law professors have penned a letter to congressional lawmakers in opposition to the Protect IP Act, which would give the government sweeping new powers to take websites offline, censor search engines and sue Internet publishers accused of infringing activities.
In the letter, they warn that the act would "undermine" U.S. leadership on freedom of speech issues, cautioning that provisions within the legislation are more closely aligned with "repressive regimes" than the traditional American stance on Internet freedom.
Protect IP Act would align U.S. Internet policy with 'repressive regimes', 7/5/11
On May 12, in a rare show of bipartisan co-operation, Senators Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) introduced a bill entitled Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act of 2011, also known as the Protect IP Act. The stated goal of the legislation is quite simple: to protect the economic interests of American intellectual property owners from theft and piracy online.
A proposed U.S. law would see websites shut down on just an accusation of copyright infringement, 6/14/11
It sounds like such an innocent idea, one rooted in "fairness" and wrapped in good intentions. An internet "ministry of truth," run either by the federal government or the United Nations, to protect against "misinformation and rumors" that find their way to the information superhighway.
US government to set up internet Ministry of Truth as communist-style government-run media, 6/10/11
Techdirt reports that Senate bill 978 – a bill to amend the criminal penalty provision for criminal infringement of a copyright, and for other purposes – may be used to prosecute people for embedding YouTube videos.
According to Mark Masnick, if a website embeds a YouTube video that is determined to have infringed on copyright and more than 10 people view it on that website, the owner or others associated with the website could face up to five years in prison.
Embedding YouTube Videos May Soon Be a Felony, 6/2/11
The Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday unanimously approved a bill that seeks to rein in foreign websites that traffic in pirated movies and TV shows, a move that drew widespread support from a broad coalition of entertainment industry groups.
Senate Judiciary committee approves anti-piracy bill, 5/26/11
Moves to place restrictions and controls on the internet by Western governments are gathering pace, with the US setting the standard as the Department of Homeland Security seized yet more domain names over the weekend and shut down several websites under the guise of piracy and copyright regulations.
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee held a hearing Monday to debate the Obama administration’s proposed move to provide the president with the authority to completely shut down the internet during a national emergency.
Government Internet Takeover Kicks Into High Gear, 5/24/11
In a frightening example of how the state is tightening its grip around the free Internet, it has emerged that You Tube is complying with thousands of requests from governments to censor and remove videos that show protests and other examples of citizens simply asserting their rights, while also deleting search terms by government mandate.
Government Orders You Tube To Censor Protest Videos, 5/20/11
Come Monday, AT&T will begin restricting more than 16 million broadband users based on the amount of data they use in a month. The No. 2 carrier’s entry into the broadband-cap club means that a majority of U.S. broadband users will now be subject to limits on how much they can do online or risk extra charges as ugly as video store late fees.
Shed a Tear: The Age of Broadband Caps Begins Monday, 4/29/11
Law enforcement organizations are making tens of thousands of requests for private electronic information from companies such as Sprint, Facebook and AOL, but few detailed statistics are available, according to a privacy researcher.
Police and other agencies have "enthusiastically embraced" asking for e-mail, instant messages and mobile-phone location data, but there's no U.S. federal law that requires the reporting of requests for stored communications data, wrote Christopher Soghoian, a doctoral candidate at the School of Informatics and Computing at Indiana University, in a newly published paper.
U.S. police increasingly view private email, instant messages, 4/12/11
The most important point of this argument is that we could, today, make the internet a much safer place to compute. All the open-standard protocols required to significantly decrease malicious attackers and malware already exist. What is missing is the leadership and involvement from the politicians, organisations, and tech experts necessary to turn the vision into a reality.
10 building blocks for securing the internet for the "Global Police State", 4/11/11
We've all thought it, but never dared think it could be true: what if Microsoft, Yahoo, and AOL actively monitor our instant messenger chats? What if mentions of 'bomb' and 'underage' are tracked and sent to law enforcement agencies? What if chat providers don't agree with the things we say, or the links we share, and filter or censor the content of our transmitted messages?
Yahoo! Messenger now censors the links you share, 3/30/11
Sen. Al Franken claimed Monday that big corporations are "hoping to destroy" the Internet and issued a call to arms to several hundred tech-savvy South by Southwest attendees to preserve net neutrality.
"I came here to warn you, the party may be over," Franken said. "They're coming after the Internet hoping to destroy the very thing that makes it such an important [medium] for independent artists and entrepreneurs: its openness and freedom.”
Al Franken: ‘They're coming after the Internet’, 3/14/11
You may want to think twice the next time you share a link to your favorite video. In a case against a New York website owner, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is claiming that merely linking to copyrighted material is a crime.
New York man faces five years in jail for ‘linking’ to online videos, 3/10/11
When Google updated its algorithm late last week to weed out low-quality content factories from the top of search results, the changes didn’t sit well with all. Many well-known sites that pop up in search results despite having little good information, including Associated Content and Mahalo, were downgraded, according to an analysis by independent SEO software firm Sistrix. But other content manufacturers weren’t. For instance, Demand Media, a content factory that churns out hundreds of web pages and videos daily, was hardly affected.
'Working to Help Good Sites Caught by Spam Cleanup', 3/1/11
The U.S. military said it has brought 22 new charges against a soldier accused of leaking hundreds of thousands of sensitive U.S. government documents that were later published by the website WikiLeaks.
Bradley Manning, a former intelligence analyst suspected of obtaining the documents while serving in Iraq, is being held at a Marine base in Virginia as U.S. officials investigate last year's publication of State Department cables and military documents related to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The U.S. Army's new charges against Manning, the result of a seven-month probe, include 'aiding the enemy' and 'wrongfully causing intelligence to be published on the Internet,' the military said in a statement.
U.S. files 22 new charges against WikiLeaks soldier, 3/2/11
According to an article in Computerworld, the Obama administration has contracted for the development of software that could create multiple fake social media profiles to manipulate and sway public opinion on controversial issues.
Obama Admin to Concoct Phony ePeople for Propaganda, 3/2/11
How can the stranglehold on humanity's digital communications be broken? One media studies professor has a revolutionary idea.
"If we have a dream of how social media could restore peer-to-peer commerce, culture, and government, and if the current Internet is too tightly controlled [by the network owners] to allow for it, why not build the kind of network and mechanisms to realize it?” asked Douglas Rushkoff, writing for Mashable earlier this month.
Rushkoff is the author of "Program or be Programmed: Ten Commands for a Digital Age" and a noted Internet futurist. He also teaches media studies at The New School University in Manhattan.
Douglas Rushkoff: Time to replace the Internet, 2/18/11
A bipartisan trio of senators has introduced a new cybersecurity bill that eliminates the president's authority to switch off the Internet.
The "kill switch," as it's known, exists in the 1934 Telecommunications Act, which was amended in 1996. It gives the president powers to shut off all regulated telecommunications if he or she deems it vital to national security interests.
New bill strips president’s power to shut off Internet, 2/18/11
Some members of the 112th U.S. Congress are seething with anticipation over a new billed they have crafted that would give the government the power to shut down the internet in the event of a "cyberterrorist" event. Created by Sens. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), and Tom Carper (D-Del.), the "Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset" bill threatens not only free speech and the free flow of information and communication, but also access to independent health news sources like NaturalNews.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) banded several others in Congress to introduce a bill last month to pave the way for what many say will be the imminent reintroduction of the Kill Switch bill into Congress. And many advocates of free speech and privacy are decrying the efforts as a massive attempted takeover of humanity by the federal government.
Internet 'Kill Switch' bill threatens your access to health information, 2/17/11
Approximately 84,000 websites were shut down and wrongfully accused of having links to child pornography as part of "Operation Protect Our Children," a new joint operation between the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Department of Justice (DOJ). The DHS Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced Tuesday that it had executed seizure warrants against ten domain names of websites engaged in the distribution of child pornography, but during the operation the domain name of a large DNS service provider was also mistakenly seized, TorrentFreak reported.
US government accidentally shuts down 84,000 websites during child porn raid, 2/16/11
Some members of the 112th U.S. Congress are seething with anticipation over a new billed they have crafted that would give the government the power to shut down the internet in the event of a "cyberterrorist" event. Created by Sens. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), and Tom Carper (D-Del.), the "Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset" bill threatens not only free speech and the free flow of information and communication, but also access to independent health news sources like NaturalNews.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) banded several others in Congress to introduce a bill last month to pave the way for what many say will be the imminent reintroduction of the Kill Switch bill into Congress. And many advocates of free speech and privacy are decrying the efforts as a massive attempted takeover of humanity by the federal government.
Internet 'Kill Switch' bill threatens your access to health information, 2/17/11
Just as the Egyptian government recently forced the Internet to go dark, U.S. officials could flip the switch if the Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset legislation becomes law, say its critics.
Proponents of the bill, which is expected to be reintroduced in the current session of Congress, dismiss the detractors as ill-informed — even naive.A raging debate over new legislation, and its impact on the Internet, has tongues wagging and fingers pointing from Silicon Valley to Washington, D.C.
The ominously nicknamed Kill Switch bill and its impact on the Internet is stirring debate. Just as the Egyptian government recently forced the Internet to go dark, U.S. officials could flip the switch if the Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset legislation becomes law, say its critics. Proponents of the bill, which is expected to be reintroduced in the current session of Congress, dismiss the detractors as ill-informed - even naive.
'Kill Switch' Internet bill alarms privacy experts, 2/15/11
The websites seized yesterday were popular “linking” sites – a type of website that provides access, or “links,” to other websites where pirated sporting and pay-per-view events are hosted. Users simply click on a link to begin the process of downloading or streaming to their own computer an illegal broadcast of a sporting event from the third party website that is hosting the stream.
Linking websites are popular because they allow users to quickly browse content and locate illegal streams that would otherwise be more difficult to find. Visitors to these websites are being redirected to a banner that advises them that the domain name has been seized by the New York office of ICE HSI because of criminal copyright violations.
Homeland Security Hijacks Domain Names of Sites That Allegedly Linked to Copyrighted Materials, 2/8/11
The Obama administration unveiled a blueprint Monday to beef up digital copyright laws, as part of an effort to adjust intellectual property regulations in the age of the Internet: "Our efforts focus on combating significant acts of infringement, protecting legitimate uses of the Internet and respecting principles of free speech and fair process," the 92-page report (pdf) reads. However, it doesn't clarify what fair usage of digital copyrighted material would entail.
White House seeks to clamp down on piracy, copyright infringement, 2/8/11
The Obama administration is quietly seeking the power for it and other governments to veto future top-level domain names, a move that raises questions about free expression, national sovereignty, and the role of states in shaping the future of the Internet. At stake is who will have authority over the next wave of suffixes to supplement the venerable .com, .org, and .net. At least 115 proposals are expected this year, including .car, .health, .nyc, .movie, and .web, and the application process could be finalized at a meeting in San Francisco next month.
U.S. Seeks Veto Powers Over New Domain Names, 2/7/11
In recent days this blogger has been reading a great deal about both the proposed extension of the USA PATRIOT ACT and the proposed “Internet Kill Switch” which would allow Federal authorities to unilaterally shut down the internet services in much the same way that Egyptian authorities have restricted the access to internet services in Egypt. The first issue is the extension of the Patriot Act. Notwithstanding what appears to be broad popular support calling for the repeal or “sunsetting” of the Patriot Act, lawmakers on Capitol Hill continue to push for a further extension of this questionably Constitutional piece of legislation.
Roving wire taps, library records surveillance, access to “any tangible thing” during an investigation, the question must be posed: is this really what is best for the United States of America? The USA was founded upon principles which run completely counter to all of these notions. Furthermore, vague definitions in bills such as the Patriot Act (eg. “any tangible thing”) makes this blogger think back to a time in the United Kingdom when blank warrants were utilized as a circumvention by authorities to search people without probable cause. Again, those who follow United States politics and policy with any kind of regularity must have noticed what appears to be a movement toward a more authoritarian regime in Washington D.C. Why do the American people need to continue to be placed under a regime of such heavy surveillance and scrutiny with no definitive end? Yes, there are threats in the world today, but it has always been America’s ability to remain free in spite of war, terrorism, and general unrest that, if anything, once made the American people “exceptional”. In much the same way that the British pride their “stiff upper lip” so too did Americans once prize their self-reliance and liberty. Why are these principles being undermined by the very lawmakers who have sworn to protect and defend the US Constitution?
Patriot Act and Internet Kill Switches: The Devil is in the Extensions, 2/1/11
There is a bill before Congress that is loosely referred to as the Internet Kill Switch that was introduced by Joe Lieberman and Susan Collins. This gives the President the power to literally kill the Internet. Other similar bills by Jay Rockefeller and Olympia Snowe are also being pushed. These are designed to give authority to the Executive Branch to shut down the Internet in the USA completely during any sort of National emergency or cyber attack.
Shutting Down the Internet, 1/31/11
As Egypt's government attempts to crackdown on street protests by shutting down internet and mobile phone services, the US is preparing to reintroduce a bill that could be used to shut down the internet. The legislation, which would grant US President Barack Obama powers to seize control of and even shut down the internet, would soon be reintroduced to a senate committee, Wired.com reported.
As Egypt goes offline US gets internet 'kill switch' bill ready, 1/31/11
With reports of Egypt's government completing shutting down the Internet in the country, talk about an "Internet kill switch" bill in the U.S. has reemerged. Could it happen here?
The bill in question is the Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act of 2010, a cyber-security measure introduced in June by Sen. Joseph Lieberman. It was an over-arching cyber-security measure that, among other things, would create an office of cyberspace policy within the White House and a new cyber-security center within the Homeland Security Department.
A provision that got the most attention, however, was one that gave the president the power to "authorize emergency measures to protect the nation's most critical infrastructure if a cyber vulnerability is being exploited or is about to be exploited."
After Egypt, Will U.S. Get 'Internet Kill Switch'?, 1/28/11
If you haven't been keeping up with the story, here's the gist. Citizens across Egypt are protesting their government in unprecedented numbers, and its believed that the internet played a major role in the protests. So what did the Egyptian government do? First, they started blocking domain name servers (DNS)—the phone book of the internet—but citizens circumvented this limitation by using proxy servers. In reaction, the government cut broadband connections to the web and forced mobile providers to do the same. For more details, read Gizmodo's take on how Egypt turned off the internet. The result: a nationwide internet blackout that's preventing Egyptian citizens from communicating online. To put it bluntly, this sucks. But it's still not good enough. We're going to look at how Egyptian citizens can (and are) circumventing the problem.
How to Foil a Nationwide Internet Shutdown, 1/28/11
These days, no popular movement goes without an Internet presence of some kind, whether it's organizing on Facebook or spreading the word through Twitter. And as we've seen in Egypt, that means that your Internet connection can be the first to go. Whether you're trying to check in with your family, contact your friends, or simply spread the word, here are a few ways to build some basic network connectivity when you can't rely on your cellular or landline Internet connections.
Get Internet Access When Your Government Shuts It Down, 1/28/11
With the FCC talking about lumping the Internet in with television and the other services that it regulates and with various members of Government calling for total control of the Internet, I think that the people at [redacted] news are onto a great idea: Lets's create a back-up Internet -- before it's too late!
Create a back-up Internet!
According to the great-grandson of John D. Rockefeller, nephew of banker David Rockefeller, and former Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller the internet represents a serious threat to national security. Rockefeller is not alone in this assessment. His belief that the internet is the “number one national hazard” to national security is shared by the former Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell and Obama’s current director Admiral Dennis C. Blair.
Jay Rockefeller: Internet is "#1 National Hazard" 3/23/9
Here's an excerpt from Senator Jay Rockefeller's Cyber Security Bill 773, just introduced into the Senate:
"(2) may declare a cybersecurity emergency and order the limitation or shutdown of Internet traffic to and from any compromised Federal Government or United States critical infrastructure information system or network."
Rockefeller wants to shut down the Internet
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