BishopofAges said:
ElPatron said:
I was once downloading files which are public domain (and perfectly legal to own - M1911A1 REDUX schematics, a few survivalism guides and the glorious SAAMI list of cartdridges) from Mediafire and my PeerBlock log showed pings from the US Navy and other North American agencies.
If I were an American citizen I'd be on a "list" right now.
I am not saying they want to randomly take people down, but I'd gladly chose not have private info read by someone investigating me. I care about my privacy, not about conspiracies.
Public domain, my friend, it would be the same as if they checked your library card info and saw you checked out that survival manual, if you had done it in person.
I can understand privacy for things like buying your girlfriend/wife something intimate or visiting a medical site to discuss your embarrassing rash, but those things happen to everyone, good and bad.
What I aim to put out here is that, IF (big if) this article is taken as fact of the law, that I generally do not care about its abilities. However, if this law is worded differently (I have not yet looked it up) and can have devistating effects on privacy or freedoms that Regular Guy/Girl A that have no reason of provocation, then Yes, we do need to stop it or resist it.
You don't understand the law. The Government can't go through your library records without a warrant, and for good reason. They can't go through your transaction records without a warrant. The same thing applies to the Internet. The Government is trying to give themselves the ability to grab all that information without a warrant. Let me repeat that, WITHOUT A WARRANT.
It's complete nonsense. They're trying to get their grubby hands on people's privacy through heavy handed bills that have no place in law.
Bhaalspawn said:
Anti Piracy legislation and Internet Regulation are required for this so called "Digital Future" that everyone loves to gawk starry-eyed at.
Making a law that allows a law enforcement to examine someone they may suspect of being a serious danger to the safety of the general public is unconstitutional?
Then fuck the Constitution. As MovieBob said, time to get out the red pens and the white out in this case. Canada has had a bill like SOPA and CISPA in place for eleven years, look around, not the end of the world.
So grow the fuck up, Americans.
Actually it has nothing to do with Piracy (Though their term: "Cyber Crime" means they could go after pirates). Furthermore, Canada does NOT allow the RCMP or other Police forces to peer into someone's private life without approval of our courts. I have no idea where you got that idea but please cite me the section that allows them to do this, chances are you won't find one. Time and time again the RCMP and other Police forces around Canada had to acquire a Warrant before being able to peer into personal records such as transactions, medical records and even Library records. The need for a Warrant is put into place for a damn good reason. This applies to both Canada and the United States.
CISPA covers the following crimes if "cybersecurity, investigating and prosecuting cyber crime, protecting individuals from death or serious bodily harm, protecting minors from child pornography, and ensuring national security."
Cybersecurity: What the fuck does that even mean? It's far too broad a term.
Investigating and Prosecuting Cyber Crime: Cyber Crime? Again, it's far too broad a term. They can label the discussion of opposing government opinions as Cyber Crime for all we know. Specifics.
Protecting individuals from Death or Serious Bodily Harm: That's already covered under current murder and assault laws. If you sent a threatening e-mail to someone, then that person can take that e-mail to the courts, the courts will grant the Police a warrant, and they'll begin investigating that claim. There's no need for any new laws concerning this shit.
Protecting Minors From Child Pornography: We already have laws covering this. People who molest their children are already prosecuted under current laws, why should we even need CISPA to do this?
Ensuring National Security: This is far too vague. They've already labelled innocent people as "Threats to National Security" It's also worth noting that the PATRIOT Act which in itself is too heavy handed. The term "Terrorist" is not a legal term, yet we see it being used time and time again. Those who perpetrated the 9/11 attacks weren't just Terrorists, they murdered thousands of people. Murder IS a proper legal term, Terrorism is NOT.
On top of the absolutely terrible wording of the bill, enabling a Government agency such as the NSA or FBI to acquire one's personal information without a warrant is completely ludicrous.
Fun Fact: Did you know that British Columbia and Nova Scotia both amended their own laws to prevent the US from infringing on their Citizen's privacy from the United States' PATRIOT Act?
Source: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2004/10/29/patriotact_bc041029.html
EDIT: The OP is pretty foolish to call this bill SOPA II. In many ways the implications of the bill are far more damaging than SOPA.
Also let me state that their use of
Cyber as a prefix for so called "crimes" is fucking aggravating as shit. If I steal someone's identity, then I'm an Identity Thief, I'm not a "Cyber Identity Thief." If I copy someone's music composition and incorporate it into my own song without proper permissions, then I'm a Pirate, not a Cyber-Pirate. The current laws that protect the citizens from thieves, murderers and rapists also apply to abusing people through the web. The laws that can't cover specific crimes related to the internet have already been dealt with in law.
For a Government to pass a bill of this scope in some ridiculous attempt to cover ALL THE CYBERCRIMES EVARR! is fucking dumb.