CISPA, the bill in Congress that would end privacy on the internet, has gone through a tricky legislative maze that has a lot of people confused. Here’s the deal: CISPA is now tucked inside of Senate bill S.2105, which has bipartisan congressional support, is being actively supported by the Obama Admin., and is scheduled for a vote in early June. It’s alive and well, and on a clear path to becoming law.
The Senate goes on recess next week, which means we have exactly 3 days to make calls before they leave for a week and then come back for the vote. The most important thing we can do with that time is to try to get meetings scheduled with our senators while they are in their home states over the recess. This is a proven grassroots strategy that was key to killing SOPA. We can beat CISPA if we do this.
Reddit, we really need your help this time. We can’t email our supporters about this because of an ongoing deliverability issue with our system, so we’re counting on our friends and allies to spread this in other ways.
Here’s the site we put together — use it to call your senators and request a meeting ::
Good guy Sen. Wyden said yesterday that this bill would create a “cyber industrial complex […] that profits from fear and whose currency is Americans’ private data.” He’s right, and our best shot at stopping it from becoming law is getting this strategy spread out far and wide right now.
CISPA: Where’s The Outrage And The Anger That We Saw With SOPA?
The Cyber Intelligence Sharing And Protection Act (CISPA), otherwise known as the bigger, and nastier brother to both the SOPA and PIPA acts that got loudly smacked down after the Internet realized just how dangerous and ill-thought out they were.
The reaction to both SOPA and PIPA was swift and pronounced, but that only happened in what amounted to the last moments before Congress was set to vote. In contrast CISPA looks, by all accounts, to be facing smooth sailing as it heads towards a vote in both houses of Congress.
So why no real visible outrage, why no threats of shutting down popular websites in protest, why no letters to Congress from the founders of the Web that it endangers, why no calls from the big web and tech companies against it?
First we have to understand what exactly CISPA is all about, or at least a short form explanation.
In contrast to SOPA and PIPA which was primarily about so-called protection of intellectual property and copyright the proponents of CISPA are using the all encompassing, and fear-mongering, concept of cyberterrorism - sort of like the Patriot Act for the Internet.
The idea is that the government would be able to get any and all private information from companies like Facebook, Twitter, or any company that might have information about you without having to go through the courts – it would be open-ended sharing without any need of your consent or knowledge.
Every post about this that I’ve seen seems to have very few notes and generates very little interest. I’m not sure if it’s burnout or the fact that this bill won’t actually make certain content unavailable the way SOPA would have, but this bill is every bit, if not more dangerous.
Reddit user LastPriority has put together a nice resource for combating this bills as follows:
Action list.
Step One. Sign this petition. Make sure to Share on Twitter and Facebook. Avaaz Petition. Link
Step Two Call your representative. One of these methods. EFF Message your representative or Call your congressional representatives and urge them to vote against CISPA or Contact Congress
Step Three Tell the guy that wrote it what you think. Primary Sponsor Mike Rogers (MI) Twitter: @RepMikeRogersTwitter and Facebook Send them your disapproval
You can also send him a personal email Zip code for MI 8th district is: 48346
Step Four Appeal directly to the president. He already does not approve of the bill. Let’s make sure we say we agree. We the people petition. LINK
Step Five Make note of these companies. Here is a list of companies. It is big though. link
Extra Credit Great Comment Below. Link and Reddit action list or Donate to the reddit TestPAC. Link
More Extra Credit Tweeting @barakobama with something like this: Commit to a veto on CISPA or lose my vote. #CISPA #StopCISPA #Obama2012
Share this Great Image Explanation and
Another Great Image Explanation
Youtube video. Link
News on CISPA
“A direct assault on Internet users” is what the ACLU is calling it. A U.S. House committee has already approved HR 1981, a broad Internet snooping bill which was introduced last year.
They want to force Internet service providers to keep track of and retain their customers’ information — including your name, address, phone number, credit card numbers, bank account numbers, and temporarily-assigned IP addresses.
And get this: It’s authored by lead SOPA sponsor Lamar Smith.
The ACLU, EFF, Demand Progress, and 25 other civil liberties and privacy groups have expressed our opposition to this legislation. Will you join us, by emailing your lawmakers today? Just use the form at right.
ISPs would collect and retain your data whether or not you’re accused of a crime. Supporters shamelessly dubbed it the “Protecting Children From Internet Pornographers Act,” but our staunchest allies in Congress are calling it what it is: an all-encompassing Internet snooping bill.
Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California, who led Democratic opposition to the bill said, “It represents a data bank of every digital act by every American [that would] let us find out where every single American visited Web sites.”
The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) is a United States proposed law introduced on November 30, 2011 by U.S. Representative Michael Rogers (R-MI). and 111 co-sponsors.
[…]
CISPA has been criticized by advocates of Internet privacy and neutrality, such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Avaaz.org, because they feel it contains too few limits on how and when the government may monitor private information, and too few safeguards with respect to how the data may be used; they fear that such new powers may be used to find and punish file sharers rather than the stated foreign spies or hackers. (Wiki)
(Source: obi-wankenblowme)
CISPA - HR 3525. AKA Return of the SOPA.
An onrush of condemnation and criticism kept the SOPA and PIPA acts from passing earlier this year, but US lawmakers have already authored another authoritarian bill that could give them free reign to creep the Web in the name of cybersecurity.
As congressmen in Washington consider how to handle the ongoing issue of cyberattacks, some legislators have lent their support to a new act that, if passed, would let the government pry into the personal correspondence of anyone of their choosing.
H.R. 3523, a piece of legislation dubbed the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (or CISPA for short), has been created under the guise of being a necessary implement in America’s war against cyberattacks. But the vague verbiage contained within the pages of the paper could allow Congress to circumvent existing exemptions to online privacy laws and essentially monitor, censor and stop any online communication that it considers disruptive to the government or private parties.
