Internet Censorship Bill Popular in the US Senate
Internet Censorship bill, The Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA), was introduced just two weeks ago, but has been making its way through the Senate like lightning, getting signatures from influential Democrats and Republicans, and potentially threatening free and open access to huge chunks of the Internet to United States citizens.Outrage and backlash has been swift in forthcoming, with citizens of the U.S. quickly taking to their keyboards in writing to their state Senators. Those efforts have managed to temporarily put the Bill on hold until after the November elections. Organizations such as The Electronic Frontier Foundation are keeping close tabs on the issue bringing news as it happens to a jittery Internet population.
U.S. Citizens and the world are watching this bill closely, including inventors of many crucial parts of the Internet who continue to add their names to “An Open Letter From Internet Engineers to the Senate Judiciary Committee.†The letter outlines crucial points such as, “(this bill) will risk fragmenting the Internet’s global domain name system (DNS), create an environment of tremendous fear and uncertainty for technological innovation, and seriously harm the credibility of the United States in its role as a steward of key Internet infrastructure. In exchange for this, the bill will introduce censorship that will simultaneously be circumvented by deliberate infringers while hampering innocent parties’ ability to communicate.”
IT professionals have already been discussing the need for an alternate means of keeping the Internet functioning properly if the bill passes, but even if it doesn’t. Over at Crunchgear.com, Devin Coldewey writes, “The bill is ostensibly to “combat online infringement, and for other purposes,†but broadly speaking, it would grant “root access†to one of the fundamental technologies running the web: DNS.†He goes further to suggest that work needs to be done to create new ways for connections over the Internet should be discovered.
United States citizens concerned about their ability to access an uncensored Internet can write to their Senator instantly by searching for them at http://www.contactingthecongress.org.
Further Reading:
- Hollywood wants to censor the Internet, and Congress is on board Salon.com
- Internet pioneers protest Senate anti-piracy bill Washington Post
- Online IP protection bill sparks outrage Computerworld
- People Behind the Internet Question Plan to Block Piracy Sites Wall Street Journal
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