My Suggestion to Keep the Internet Free

I think that the best way to keep the internet free from suppression is to institute a law very similar to separation of church and state. A person or company that is interested in making money off of their infrastructure that allows connection to the internet should not be able to in any way alter, censor or restrict access or quality of a website, either for profit or other gains. Heck, just not at all. Many millionaires and celebrities have been made due to their presence on the internet, but no one should be able to profit from an absence of information on the internet. Also, if laws are put into place allowing these companies to essentially ruin the internet, there should be a form of government run internet provider that will never censor the internet. The job of the government is, after all, to only do what individuals cannot do themselves or for themselves. It is therefore their job to protect OUR privacy and access to knowledge in the same way they try to protect the same attributes for large companies and copyrights.

The Future of the US and Net Neutrality

I personally think that ISPs have another thing coming if they think CISPA or a related act is going to get passed without a fight from those of us not trying to make a buck off of something that should be equal and free for everyone. The blackout of 7,000 websites in protest of SOPA, including internet power houses like Google and Reddit, as well as the fact that 1/300 americans actively positioned SOPA, an almost unheard of amount of support for net neutrality, or anything due to the normally lackadaisical American public, just goes to show that we are not going down without a fight. 

Current breakthroughs in the FCC's protection of Net Neutrality (check out this page for more about that) and the fact that today's generation is not willing to just sit back and take it make me believe that it's join to be a long time before the internet is privatized, at least I'm going to cross my fingers about it. Honestly, what is most exciting is the protection that the internet is getting in other countries that the FCC seems to be noticing which are being passed into law in Italy, the Netherlands, and Chile, to name a few. 

Great Net Neutrality Sites

Here are the websites and other resources that I used for the information in this blog, I really suggest checking them out!


And of course Wikipedia is a great place to get fresh information and even more (often credible) sources and sites to check out.


Sites:
FreePress  (specifically this page)
Save The Internet
Tim Wu's Net Neutrality FAQ



Articles:
Vint Cerf speaks out on net neutrality (via google, definitely check this out)
NY Times: Net Neutrality
Is CISPA SOPA 2.0? We Explain the Cybersecurity Bill

Books:
"The Master Switch" by Tim Wu

SOPA (and other attempts to limit free speech)

SOPA, or the "Stop Online Piracy Act" was an attempt to censor the internet by using "piracy" of intellectual property as a jumping point. The bill was supported by companies such as MPAA, Nike, Pearsons Education, Sony and Viacom, among over 100 other companies and organizations, all companies that aim to lose business because teenagers are posting movies on youtube or sharing math textbook problems on the internet so other kids don't have to purchase them. While any normal person would admit that, yes, you really shouldn't be giving away IP like this, one really has to think about how severe these "crimes" should be treated as. If SOPA had been passed there would had been a major decrease in personal privacy, as law enforcement would be able to monitor your online actions closely, and act upon copyright infringements like they're never been able to in the past. Any website deemed in violation of copyright infringement would be banned, which is as we like to call it, censorship. Currently if you decided to stream a video online, like posting a movie in 20 parts on youtube, there are basically no negative consequences, but is SOPA had been passed there would be up to 5 years of jail time for anyone caught doing so.

Other attempts by congress to effectively censor the internet include:

(Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act, or (PIPA)

Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA)

Also, Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) is currently waiting for approval from the Senate to be passed into law. We had a good discussion in our class about this, here was my views on CISPA:

I personally can't believe that there is another bill like this after the whole SOPA fiasco. Politicians are being swayed into forcing censorship and slowly becoming big brother. The idea that companies like Facebook would be required by law to share information that could possibly help in the 'cyber threat" is ridiculous. This sounds like they are looking for an excuse to gain information about us without our expressed permission or even having us know they are obtaining this information or why. Maybe is Facebook and other similar companies notified you whenever your information was being accessed that would be one thing... but I doubt that they would. 

However, I do think that if you are willing to share information on the internet you should be aware that almost anyone can access that information. This is one of the main reasons that identity theft is such a huge problem on the internet, it's really easy to get data from insecure websites, and there is no grantee that the site you are accessing is legitimate, secure or has your best interests and privacy in mind. Also, 99.9% of people don't read the privacy agreements in the terms of use of websites... which they should. 

So, basically, I think CISPA is ridiculous and I hope it gets squashed like SOPA did!

After further research into CISPA, I found that the tally of votes from the house reads like this:

Affiliation         Yes votes    No votes   Did not vote

Democratic      42              140          8

Republican       206            28            7

I honest become more and more Liberal when I read stuff like this. But that's another blog!

What is Net Neutrality?

Net Neutrality is something we Americans take for granted. It is the concept that no one, not ISPs (Internet service providers), the government, or any other body should be able to censor websites and content on the internet. Just imagine if anyone with Comcast internet service was only able to see websites that Comcast wanted you to see, or, if like China and other nations with slightly oppressive governments, were able to keep you from seeing alternative options to lifestyles you are currently living, or sensor Google so the information you are looking for *actually* doesn't exist.  Currently, the biggest threat to Net Neutrality are the huge ISPs, who want to be ale to have a "fast lane" for companies that pay them lots of money, and websites that want to be more prominent or higher quality/have a faster connection can pay a pretty penny to make sure that their web sites are more easily accessible. This seems like a Twilight Zone status idea, something that the free world would never let come to pass, but there are people, both in media industries and the government, that are trying to make this nightmare come to fruition through acts like SOPA; preying on the fear that Americans so willingly give into because they're too afraid to do any research by themselves. In this blog I will focus on the acts that have been made to eradicate Net Neutrality, as well as ways we can help make sure that the internet stays free.


If the above statement was a little bit too liberal, here is a little video to sum up net neutrality and the attempts to get rid of it: