Government has Internet policing in sights

We read:

"Congress is considering two legislative proposals that would restructure the Internet in the wake of last July’s Wikileaks disclosure of 77,000 classified Afghan war documents and its release of 15,000 more in October.

First, in the name of preventing copyright infringement, the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA, also known as the Recording Industry Association of America, or RIAA, Act) would grant blacklist authority to the Attorney General for Internet domains whose “central” purpose is identified as infringing copyrights The Act is currently before Congress.

Second, in the name of preventing terrorism, an “e-wiretap” bill in the works is aimed at establishing government-mandated “back doors” in all communications systems. That bill is currently being drafted.

“This is an Internet censorship bill dressed up to look like a copyright enforcement bill,” said Peter Eckersley, senior staff technologist for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a San Francisco-based civil liberties group. “Despite changes that were made at the end of the last Congressional session, this remains a bill that could cause law-abiding U.S. and foreign Web sites to just disappear off the Net. It threatens innovative startup businesses in several market sectors, including one-click hosting and media discovery.”

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