johncondry

In the past few months, Congress has tried to pass several bills in the name of internet security and copyright laws. I think we all remember the blackout day for the Stop Online Piracy bill (or SOPA) and the endless, but necessary), Facebook statuses about it. Just in case you haven’t been on the net in a few months (HA! Who am I kidding, right?) here’s what’s what:

The bill called SOPA and it’s counterpart, PIPA, were meant to enforce copyright laws on the internet. Unfortunately, SOPA/PIPA were so broadly worded and inefficient that they would have caused a lot of harm to the Internet and free speech (you know, that thing people die for every couple decades?). You can check out the bill for yourself here. Thankfully, the Internet users of the world, fought back and the U.S. did not pass those bills into law, but it seems those knuckle heads on Capitol Hill are up to it again with a new bill called CISPA.

CISPA is basically an agreement between third party corporations like Facebook and the U.S. government that will allow the government to access your information directly from those third party companies (if they decide it’s a matter cyber security). Again, this bill is also broadly written so that the government can get their hands on your private information, messages, or posts whenever they like. It could also lead to surveillance and censorship of the web. That’s some scary stuff.

People may argue that the very nature of the Internet is that anything you say or put up can be viewed by anyone, so it is the job of the user to monitor themselves. This is true to an extent, but just because you should be careful what you put online doesn’t make it okay for third parties to just hand over your private information without your permission.

So, WHY should we care?

The Internet is an integral part of ours lives. We use it to learn, communicate, and express our opinions. In many ways, the Internet is like collecting the brains of the world and letting them interact. Will we allow the powers that be to watch our every move  or censor our own thoughts in the name of safety?

I say NO. I mean, when was the last time any of us were the victim of cyber terrorism anyway? Can’t remember? Me neither.

So let’s not let them take anyway our free speech and privacy so that they can protect themselves from groups like Anonymous or Wiki-leaks (who are only trying to expose them). Stand up and log on for Internet rights.

So what do you think about CISPA? Is it really in our best interests? Will it go to far?

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