The Internet is a big part of people's lives these days and is a big business. Now President Obama has taken a very popular move in an election year insofar as taking the position that his administration will not support Internet censorship. Richard Rubin has reported for Bloomberg "White House Won’t Back Internet Censorship." The Obama administration has said legislation to combat online piracy will not be supported if it encourages censorship, undermines cybersecurity or disrupts the structure of the Internet.
Aneesh Chopra, the U.S. chief technology officer, Victoria Espinel, the coordinator for intellectual property enforcement in the Office of Management and Budget, and Howard Schmidt, the White House cybersecurity coordinator, wrote in a blog post on the White House website “While we believe that online piracy by foreign websites is a serious problem that requires a serious legislative response, we will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet.”
U.S. Representative Lamar Smith, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, has said his Stop Online Piracy Act meets the administration’s tests. Smith has announced that he would remove a provision that would require Internet service providers, when ordered by a court, to block access to non-U.S. websites which offer pirated content or counterfeit goods. The opponents of this bill say this could hurt the domain-name system. Smith’s bill and companion legislation in the Senate has been opposed by Google Inc. (GOOG), Facebook Inc. and other Internet companies. These firms say this legislation will promote online censorship and threaten the growth of the U.S. technology industry.
Representative Darrell Issa has said that he would postpone a hearing on the bill that had been scheduled for January 18. Issa said even with the changes made by Smith the bill is still “fundamentally flawed.” Issa has also said “Much more education for members of Congress about the workings of the Internet is essential if anti-piracy legislation is to be workable and achieve broad appeal.” The bottom line is it appears the majority of the general public will not be satisfied with any legislation which threatens to censor the Internet.
Photographer: digitalart
