The Obama executive action that places Net Neutrality concepts in the control of the FFC has set off alarms at the EFF. But, read between the lines of the EFF’s thinking. The network providers were stripped of their free speech rights. A privately held business was told they cannot control what is said using their privately owned service. It sounds good for you and I until you realize this move allows the government to decide which special groups the First Amendment applies to.
AP13 FREE* SPEECH
From there I’ll jump to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) that the most transparent Obama administration has for 5 years negotiated in secret and now refuses to let us read the proposed law before it is signed into law. This agreement and soon to be law according to leakers allows corporations to stop speech they don’t like by providing a new DMCA like liability to the blogger and Internet Service Providers (ISP).
The conspiracy minded person looks at these new laws and says, well on one side we have taken away the ISP’s right to choose what is placed on their service and now made them liable for it. The result is they can be sued out of existence, unless they appease those threatening them.
The natural reaction of the ISP’s will be to control who is allowed on the services, as they can’t control what. So, expect licensing. Want a blog? Get a license.
Ut, what is the point of this? Why aren’t politicians and ACLU fighting this? One prominent reason is The Drudge Report, which is a particular sore spot for politicians on both sides of the party isle and most of these new laws are spot on for targeting and removing the news service and similar sites, which suggests bloggers and others will be caught in the shotgun blast.
To emphasize the both parties’ idea: Matt Drudge Slams Boehner For Promising To Pass Obamatrade: ‘Clearly Treason’ (Boehner is the Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives – the controlling officer.) Drudge has also been pointing out how the Dems are abandoning workers in favor of TPP, which from what little we know from leaks, and remember not even Congress has been allowed to read the agreement, promotes shipping more jobs overseas.
The Obama administration has and is giving away American sovereignty. The plan for the Internet is to give control to the UN, a group who’s controlling majority are anti-free speech countries. The TPP leaks show it places copyright issues under the control of a new TPP formed court system controlled by a majority of countries with interests counter to America’s idea of Fair User of copyrighted materials.
Think of DMCA on steroids that is enforced by an international court. Think of the bureaucracy and cost… Individuals will have no chance.
What can you do?
An important step is voicing your opposition to passing another secret law that we only get to read after it is passed, the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Secret laws we can only see AFTER they become law is about as un-American and anti-freedom as it gets.
Contact your Congressional Representatives and Rep. Boehner and Sen. McConnell.
Year 2020
If you read Forbes and editorials on other generally supposed reliable sources, remember, those that write as if they know what the law will accomplish, they are spinning.
I can only guess that the what the leakers are saying MAY be true. But, WHY… WHY is Obama and company keeping the text of the law secret? And why are the Republicans going along with it? Who can anyone think this is government BY the people?
The first part of addressing, and protecting, free speech is getting the speech itself right to begin with, and here you have made a serious error. Sorry to say it is the kind of error that causes people to come to your blog and make the claim that you have no credibility. I won’t do that because I have no idea who you are, so credibility is not a known factor at this time (to me) anyway. But, you pointed to my blog post, and made a serious error in what you said about it.
The RICO – climate change idea, which I posted on my blog without comment because I thought it important, is not a call to “prosecute anyone denying climate change on RICO laws.” Anyone who clicks through to the link and reads it can see this. I see you had originally found out about the issues you are writing about here in another blog. Here, you are simply repeating inaccuracies stated there.
You are “free” of course to be just another person who is wrong on the Internet. But this is not useful or impressive.
The idea is to use RICO laws to investigate cases of conspiracy among large corporations and wealthy individuals, and pseudo-scientists giving testimony under oath, or providing other credible seeming information, with the intention of misleading the government and the public about the safety of their product.
There is absolutely nothing odd or unusual about investigating individuals or companies for fraudulent behavior. This is not a violation of free speech. The signatories of the letter are not asking to silence people with any particular opinion.
And now, you know and can correct your blog post! You’re welcome!
Cheers,
GTL
Your response ignores who is writing the letter and why they are writing it. The idea is that deniers are misleading the public. RICO does not target only corporations. Individuals are prosecuted too. The tactic is to start or threaten lawsuits, not to win. Intimidation is all that is needed. By claiming deniers are misleading others they try to make RICO fit.