Stop the Internet Blacklist

[RobrPatty]

When it really matters to them, Congressmembers can come together -- with a panache and wry wit you didn't know they had. As banned books week gets underway, and President Obama admonishes oppressive regimes for their censorship of the Internet, a group of powerful Senators -- Republicans and Democrats alike -- have signed onto a bill that would vastly expand the government's power to censor the Internet.

The Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA) was introduced just one week ago, but it's greased and ready to move, with a hearing in front of the Judiciary Committee this Thursday. If people don't speak out, US citizens could soon find themselves joining Iranians and Chinese in being blocked from accessing broad chunks of the public Internet.

Help us stop this bill in its tracks! Click here to sign our petition.

COICA creates two blacklists of Internet domain names. Courts could add sites to the first list; the Attorney General would have control over the second. Internet service providers and others (everyone from Comcast to PayPal to Google AdSense) would be required to block any domains on the first list. They would also receive immunity (and presumably the good favor of the government) if they block domains on the second list.

The lists are for sites "dedicated to infringing activity," but that's defined very broadly -- any domain name where counterfeit goods or copyrighted material are "central to the activity of the Internet site" could be blocked.

One example of what this means in practice: sites like YouTube could be censored in the US. Copyright holders like Viacom often argue copyrighted material is central to the activity of YouTube, but under current US law, YouTube is perfectly legal as long as they take down copyrighted material when they're informed about it -- which is why Viacom lost to YouTube in court.

But if COICA passes, Viacom wouldn't even need to prove YouTube is doing anything illegal to get it shut down -- as long as they can persuade the courts that enough other people are using it for copyright infringement, the whole site could be censored.

Perhaps even more disturbing: Even if Viacom couldn't get a court to compel censorship of a YouTube or a similar site, the DOJ could put it on the second blacklist and encourage ISPs to block it even without a court order. (ISPs have ample reason to abide the will of the powerful DOJ, even if the law doesn't formally require them to do so.)

COICA's passage would be a tremendous blow to free speech on the Internet -- and likely a first step towards much broader online censorship. Please help us fight back: The first step is signing our petition. We'll give you the tools to share it with your friends and call your Senator.

Sign Petition

[Atasas]

Done! ;)

[DKT27]

Signed. :)

[Marik]

also signed

[HX1]

Yes and reposted as well.. I have to do some of that today too..

[*dcs18]

. . . . . . . . autographed. :sneaky:

[CODYQX4]

Signed as well.

[alaindc]

signed

[Drolz]

freedom to the for the people, signed...

[toyo]

Well I signed too, but I highly doubt that in politics signatures mean shit against lawyers and real, hard cash. You don't think that this free net will carry on forever, do you? In the end the publishers will have their way and protect the intellectual property properly, and so it should be. Artists work their asses to put out stuff, movies, music, art... and we just steal. It's the same as stealing a physical property, like a car or jewellery.

The real problem is that we are too poor to afford to buy stuff. Because the money is concentrated in the hands of fat bankers etc. We need to be paid so we can afford to live without being thieves.

[Brrownie]

Signed! as well..thanks for bringing it up..;)

[Qui Peccavit]

Well I signed too, but I highly doubt that in politics signatures mean shit against lawyers and real, hard cash. You don't think that this free net will carry on forever, do you? In the end the publishers will have their way and protect the intellectual property properly, and so it should be. Artists work their asses to put out stuff, movies, music, art... and we just steal. It's the same as stealing a physical property, like a car or jewellery.

The real problem is that we are too poor to afford to buy stuff. Because the money is concentrated in the hands of fat bankers etc. We need to be paid so we can afford to live without being thieves.

Of course one lobbyist can easily overcome a couple hundred thousand virtual signatures, which is why I also clicked the third link on that page, "chip in $3 to send a lawyer to Washington" at http://DemandProgress.org/donate. How many of us put our money where our mouth is?

And if you want to really have an effect, forward this on to http://www.MoveOn.org -- those guys know how to get heard. The link for making suggestions is http://pol.MoveOn.org/feedback/fb/form.html?tp=suggest

[Kavu]

i posted something about this weeks ago... why was it deleted? x.x

[SIRavecavec]

Signed!

[HX1]

I hope that many of you who signed this petition and can, will follow up to the email that has went out imploring you to send a letter to your local Chamber of Commerce.. a process which they will actually do for you...

Important to complete the move to have this act removed from the table.. and not pushed back across after November..

[toyo]

It worked! Amazing victory for the free Internet. Bill is postponed 1 year. I am not the legal type of mind, so I'd rather present to those who didn't vote (BUT WHY?) the result:

toyo -- big news! Yesterday the Senate Judiciary Committee voted unanimously to send the Internet blacklist bill to the full Senate, but it was quickly stopped by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) who denounced it as "a bunker-buster cluster bomb" aimed at the Internet and pledged to "do everything I can to take the necessary steps to stop it from passing the U.S. Senate."

Wyden's opposition practically guarantees the bill is dead this year -- and next year the new Congress will have to reintroduce the bill and start all over again. But even that might not happen: Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Hollywood's own senator, told the committee that even she was uncomfortable with the Internet censorship portion of the bill and hoped it could be removed when they took it up again next year!

This is incredible -- and all thanks to you. Just a month ago, the Senate was planning to pass this bill unanimously; now even the senator from Hollywood is backing away from it. But this fight is far from over -- next year, there's going to be hearings, negotiations, and even more crucial votes. We need to be there, continuing to fight.

Can you chip in a couple bucks so we can keep our lobbyist in DC?

We're doing everything we can: working with key staffers to remove the most egregious parts of the bill, lobbying more members of Congress to speak out against this bill, and insisting on hearings so the whole Senate can learn about how dangerous this is. And, of course, we'll keep working with you to make sure more people hear about this bill and tell their senators.

Chip in a couple dollars to support our work. Click here.

http://act.demandprogress.org/go/13?akid=21.118908.8klc2n&t=4

Keep on fighting,

-- Aaron Swartz, David Segal, and the Demand Progress team

[DKT27]

That's a great great news. I was really really worried when it was passed yesterday. Really really thanks for the news. :D

[RobrPatty]

Thanks for the news toyo. I received the e-mail also....great news.