Proposed US (CISPA) cyber security bill criticised
A proposed bill concerning the sharing of intelligence to combat cyber crime in the US has been criticised by civil rights campaigners and journalists. The "Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act" (CISPA) sets out to to regulate which potentially confidential information can be shared between government agencies – such as the intelligence services and investigative authorities – and the private sector.
The House of Representative's Intelligence Committee approved the controversial bill by a large majority in December, but the chamber's representatives still need to vote on it. Read more...
Congress should scrap SOPA, PIPA and start over
The U.S. Congress should scrap two controversial copyright enforcement bills and start over with attempts to target foreign websites accused of infringement and counterfeiting, more than 70 groups have said.
With widespread concerns about the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA), Congress needs to "take a breath, step back, and approach the issues from a fresh perspective," the groups said in a letter to lawmakers, sent Monday.
Among the groups signing the letter were Amnesty International, the American Library Association, Consumers Union, Public Knowledge, Fight for the Future and Human Rights Watch. Many of the groups signing the letter have opposed SOPA and PIPA. The letter comes as the lead sponsor of PIPA has indicated he wants to move forward with copyright enforcement legislation. Read more...
Post SOPA, it’s time to protest ACTA (on Feb. 11)
Hey! Remember our nation's 24-hour nightmare last month when we were forced to live a whole day without easy access to Wikipedia, Reddit, BoingBoing and other popular websites that went dark for 24 hours to protest anti-piracy legislation?
In the end, U.S. lawmakers agreed to withdraw the SOPA and PIPA bills, legislation that free speech advocates and tech companies said would crush Internet freedom and inspire frivolous lawsuits. Well, don't exhale just yet. There's still the Anti-Counterfeiting Trademark Agreement (ACTA) in Europe floating around, and on Feb. 11, Access, a "new global movement for digital freedom," wants to mobilize people all over the world to protest what the group and others see as a threat to free speech, human rights, innovation and trade.
What exactly is ACTA? Well, that's a huge part of the problem. Signed by the EU and 22 of its 27 member states on Jan. 27, the exact details of this act are known only to those involved. Read more...
SOPA’s big brother signed by EU nations amid widespread protests
The European Union signed up to the controversial Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) on Thursday despite widespread opposition, particularly in Poland, where people took to the streets in protest.
The agreement was officially signed in Tokyo by 22 European member states. Cyprus, Estonia, Slovakia, Germany and the Netherlands did not sign, but committed to do so in the near future, according to the European Parliament's Green party.
The agreement seeks to enforce intellectual property rights and combat online piracy and illegal software. But opponents of ACTA claim it goes far beyond the U.S.' doomed SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) legislation and encourages ISPs to police the internet without any legal safeguards. SOPA is being revised after receiving broad criticism.
The ACTA agreement, meanwhile, has been mired in controversy from the beginning due to secrecy imposed by the U.S. and worries that it may not uphold E.U. rules on data privacy. The most controversial paragraph in the final text leaves the door open for countries to introduce the so-called three-strikes rule, which would require Internet users to be cut off if they continue to download copyright material after receiving two warnings, as national authorities would be able to order ISPs to disclose personal information about customers. Read more...
EMI Boss Opposes SOPA, Says Piracy is a Service Issue
The RIAA has been one of the most dedicated supporters of the PIPA and SOPA bills, but not all of the people they represent share their enthusiasm. EMI’s VP of Urban Promotions Craig Davis made some very reasonable remarks on the controversial anti-piracy plans, stating that “the method they’re using is incorrect.” In addition, the VP says that he’s no fan of DRM and that piracy is a service issue, not an issue of money.
In recent weeks millions of people have spoken out against the pending PIPA and SOPA anti-piracy bills, which have both been delayed as a result.
Today we can add a VP at one of the major RIAA labels to this list, which is quite unique and yet another game changer.
Speaking for himself, EMI’s VP of Urban Promotions Craig Davis said that the two pending anti-piracy bills are not the way to move forward. Read more...
After protest, Congress puts off movie piracy bill
WASHINGTON -- Caving to a massive campaign by Internet services and their millions of users, Congress indefinitely postponed legislation Friday to stop online piracy of movies and music costing U.S. companies billions of dollars every year. Critics said the bills would result in censorship and stifle Internet innovation.
The demise, at least for the time being, of the anti-piracy bills was a clear victory for Silicon Valley over Hollywood, which has campaigned for a tougher response to online piracy. The legislation also would cover the counterfeiting of drugs and car parts.
Congress' qualms underscored how Internet users can use their collective might to block those who want to change the system.
The battle over the future of the Internet also played out on a different front Thursday when a loose affiliation of hackers known as "Anonymous" shut down Justice Department websites for several hours and hacked the site of the Motion Picture Association of America after federal officials issued an indictment against Megaupload.com, one of the world's biggest file-sharing sites. Read more...
Sen. Leahy criticizes ‘knee-jerk’ reaction to PIPA, SOPA protests
Sen. Patrick Leahy, (D-VT), the lead sponsor of the controversial Protect IP Act (PIPA), today criticized the "knee-jerk' reaction of fellow senators to this week's protests against the bill, and vowed to press forward with it.
In response to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's (D-NV) decision this morning to delay a scheduled Jan. 24 cloture vote on PIPA, Leahy said he remains committed to dealing with the problem of online piracy.
"I understand and respect Majority Leader Reid's decision to seek consent to vitiate cloture on the motion to proceed to the Protect IP Act," Leahy said in a statement. "But the day will come when the Senators who forced this move will look back and realize they made a knee-jerk reaction to a monumental problem."
A cloture vote is designed to overcome a filibuster of a bill by placing a limit on the amount of time the Senate can consider the measure. Read more...
FireFall creator Red 5 drops from E3 to protest SOPA
Red 5, the PC game developer behind the upcoming free-to-play shooter/MMO mashup FireFall, has dropped out of E3 2012 in protest of SOPA.
CEO Mark Kern, also a Boston University Law School graduate, is redirecting the company’s E3 funds to launch The League For Gamers, an advocacy group representing end users, gamers and First Amendment advocates. The Entertainment Software Association (ESA), a trade body for the games industry, owns the E3 show and supports SOPA.
Kern gave an extensive interview to Ars Technica in which he explained that the ESA has taken only the side of large publishers on the SOPA issue, leaving out developers, indies, and users. Read more...
SOPA and PIPA: The pros and cons
The Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act are getting more negative attention, as major websites such as Wikipedia protest the bills with blackouts on Wednesday. Even Google joined the action, with a link on its homepage explaining why the company opposes the legislation.
But what are SOPA and PIPA, exactly, and why are tech luminaries lambasting legislation aimed at stamping out copyright infringement? Read on for a full explanation.
SOPA and PIPA: The basics
Media companies are always looking for new ways to fight piracy. They've tried suing individual users, getting Internet service providers to take action against subscribers, and working with the U.S. government to shut down domains based in the United States. But none of those actions can stop overseas websites such as The Pirate Bay and MegaUpload from infringing copyrights, or prevent Internet users from accessing those sites. Read more...
Mozilla, Firefox join anti-SOPA strike
Mozilla, the open-source organization responsible for Firefox, joined other major technology companies today to protest anti-piracy legislation by blackening the browser's home page.
From 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. ET, Firefox's default home page -- essentially a search field for Google -- will change from its usual white background with the Firefox logo to a blacked-out version displaying a modified graphic emblazoned with "Stop Censorship."
Meanwhile, the English language versions of Mozilla's sites -- mozilla.com and mozilla.org -- will redirect visitors to an "action page" asking for their support in stopping what it called "Internet blacklist legislation." Read more...
SOPA on hold, PIPA may be weakened as Congress revisits the bills
As major technology websites such as Reddit and Wikipedia prepare to go dark this Wednesday in protest over the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the U.S. House of Representatives and the similar Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA) act in the Senate, there are signs that the protests from the technology industry are causing Congress to rethink the two bills. The bills are supported by the entertainment industry and a variety of business groups whose goods are often counterfeited or pirated. The technology sector -- outside of online businesses -- has been conflicted, with the Business Software Alliance initially supporting SOPA but then withdrawing that support.
Many online advocates say the bills would let the government censor and otherwise regulate the free speech and information flow of the Internet and put Internet service providers and websites in the impossible position of acting as police for the validity of services advertised or promoted via their networks, as well as block access to parts of the Internet if ordered by courts to block access to alleged pirates' and counterfeiters' sites abroad. Read more...
How SOPA Can Kill Reddit and Many Other US Sites
Supporters of SOPA and PIPA, two bills that aim to deter piracy, claim that they will only affect foreign sites and businesses. However, this view is not shared by a wide range of opponents, including the people behind the popular Reddit community. But how exactly can SOPA and PIPA threaten sites like Reddit? Leading First Amendment lawyer and Internet policy expert Marvin Ammori explains.
In recent weeks, protests against the pending SOPA and PIPA bills have dominated the tech press. Most opponents are not that worried about losing access to their favorite file-sharing sites, but they fear that the broader implications of the bills will seriously hurt the livelihoods of both existing and future Internet-based ventures.
One of the most prominent sites that has rallied against the bills is the largest online community Reddit. The site’s users have organized various successful protests, which led domain registrar GoDaddy to drop its support for the bill. But the site itself also actively encouraged its users to speak out against SOPA and PIPA on several occasions. Read more...
Go Daddy faces boycott threat from SOPA opponents
Internet domain registrar Go Daddy is facing a boycott threat after it figured in a list of supporters of the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).
Ben Huh, CEO of Cheezburger, which runs humor websites, said in a Twitter message: "We will move our 1,000 domains off @godaddy unless you drop support of SOPA. We love you guys, but #SOPA-is-cancer to the Free Web".
SOPA, which was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives in late October, would allow the U.S. Department of Justice and copyright holders to seek court orders blocking payment processors and online advertising networks from doing business with foreign sites accused of infringing copyright. Court orders at the request of the DOJ could also bar search engines from linking to the allegedly infringing sites, require domain name registrars to stop resolving queries that direct traffic to those sites, and require Internet service providers to block subscriber access to sites accused of infringing. Read more...
House committee to push ahead on SOPA
The U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee will continue its hearing on the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) on Wednesday, not until after Congress' holiday break, as originally believed.
Late Friday, Representative Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican and committee chairman, scheduled a continuation of the hearing to amend the bill for this Wednesday at 9 a.m., even though many members of the committee may be out of town for the holidays. Representative Darrell Issa, a California Republican and opponent of the bill, tweeted the hearing announcement late Friday.
At the urging of some SOPA opponents, Smith said Friday he will consider a hearing or a classified briefing on the bill's impact on cybersecurity. More than 80 Internet engineers and cybersecurity experts have raised security concerns about the bill, which would require Internet service providers and domain name registrars to block the domain names of foreign websites accused of copyright infringement. Read more...
Kaspersky Dumps Anti-Piracy Group in SOPA Protest
Security vendor Kaspersky has announced it will withdraw its membership of the Business Software Alliance (BSA) over the group’s support of SOPA. The Russian company, which is famous for its anti-virus products, says the pending legislation will hurt both innovation and consumers. In protest, Kaspersky will end its association with the BSA on January 1st 2012.
While the opinions of outright SOPA opponents are well documented, it came as a surprise last month when the Business Software Alliance (BSA), a former staunch supporter, published a blog post indicating it had some reservations on the pending legislation.
The BSA – which counts giants such as Microsoft, Apple, Adobe and Intel among its ranks – declared in their headline that SOPA Needs Work to Address Innovation Considerations.
Nevertheless, for BSA member and security vendor Kaspersky, it’s too little, too late. Read more...