Thoughts on Internet

So a Senate Committee approved of a rather controversial bill today, and it will moving into the voting phase soon. The bill is known by most as the IP Act, the IP standing for intellectual property. It is, obviously, an anti-piracy bill designed to give private parties and the US gov an upgrade in their legal recourse when it comes to combating piracy. If the bill becomes a law, a website that  has copy write infringing content on it, Private parties or government entities can seize the website and all its assets with a simple court order. That tenant applies to domains located in the US. For foreign websites that have copy write infringement, the private parties or government can force search engines like Google to removed the website from their search engine, force Internet Service Providers to black list the sites, making them inaccessible to their customers. Lastly, they can force Advertisement and payment services such as Ad-Sense and Paypal to remove any ads or payment service from the website. This bill would strike a serious blow to the movement for an Internet uncensored by governments and corporations. It has been supported heavily by many large corporations in the TV, Motion Picture and Music industry. While many view it as an Anti-Piracy bill a large group of people fear the eventual abuse of the powers granted through this bill. Anonymous has already planned an attack on some government websites and what not. I think them taking a stand on a lot of issues lately is pretty cool. I think that sometimes they may be a little but over the top, and misdirected. Most of the time though their "attacks" are pointed and relevant. I have to agree that Internet censorship is a very bad thing, in countries like China and Egypt it has run rampant, but I think the seeds of similar systems are being planted right here in America. I think the whole piracy is rather ridiculous. I remember getting into an argument with my economics teacher from high school about it.  We went back and forth about whether or not it was stealing. Eventually I conceded that it was technically stealing, but it was so rampant and uncontrollable that it has become socially acceptable. It kind of comes back to the whole tragedy of the commons thing. If the individual makes the decision to not "illegally" download music, good for them and their morals. Millions of others will continue to have free music and the individual has to pay cold hard cash for his tunes, while the piracy continues to raise prices for him/her. Basically what is the point of not doing it.
To sum it all up, I don't want the government to choose what parts of the Internet I am able to see. Down with censorship!



-Kyle Griffith McChesney