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Internet freedoms restrained - SOPA/PIPA/OPEN/ACTA/CETA/PrECISE-related updates

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IainB:
Not sure if this is the right place to post this, but it's rather curious, and disturbing news:
Fox Censors Cory Doctorow’s “Homeland” Novel From Google
(See link for details.)

Tinman57:
Not sure if this is the right place to post this, but it's rather curious, and disturbing news:
Fox Censors Cory Doctorow’s “Homeland” Novel From Google
(See link for details.)
-IainB (April 21, 2013, 07:55 AM)
--- End quote ---

  I downloaded the book.  Now to find the time to read it.... 

IainB:
This just sort of popped out at me and poked me in the eye as I was reading the Reason.com Hit & Run blog in my feed-reader.
I had to do a doubletake to make sure I had read it aright. The motivation for this apparent example of counter-democracy would appear to be that at least one senator might be fearful that shifting public notification of local government actions to the Internet and away from newspapers might make him more accountable.
(Copied below sans embedded hyperlinks/images.)
Brickbat: Here, Sir, The People Don't Govern
Charles Oliver|Apr. 23, 2013 7:00 am

"I am the senator, you are the citizen. You need to be quiet."
That was what North Carolina state Sen. Tommy Tucker, R-Waxhaw, said to Hal Tanner. Tanner had just asked for a recorded vote from the State and Local Goverment Committee on a bill that would shift public notification of local government actions to the Internet and away from newspapers. The committee had just had a voice vote on the bill, and Tucker, the committee's co-chairman, said it had passed. Tanner, publisher of the Goldsboro New-Argus, said the bill failed the voice vote and asked for a vote on the record. Tucker denied telling Tanner to shut up, though the remark was confirmed by others at the hearing.
_____________________________

--- End quote ---
Whilst this discussion thread has mainly related to evidence of existing/future potential Internet freedoms being restrained by government or **AA lobbies' and/or other "Big XXX" lobbies' actions, this is the first instance I can recall where there is evidence that the restraint is coming from the other end - i.e., by deliberately avoiding use of the Internet where it might improve citizens' freedoms and democratic rights and ability to more actively participate in civil matters, and make government (and senators) more open to scrutiny, and more accountable and transparent for whatever legislation they find themselves having to push or block.
This would seem to be akin to pulling the teeth of potential future use of the Internet for increased transparency and democratic scrutiny and participation.

If it so happened that there were (say) any senators with a tendency to behave like arrogant little Fascist toads with hidden agendas that they want to keep hidden, and without them being scrutinised or held accountable, then I think that pulling those teeth might be a very good idea for those senators to consider.

My suggestion would be to keep an increasingly wary eye open for any such "democracy dentists" - just in case they show themselves, like.    ;)

Tinman57:

 Oh Yea!  Now if they'll do the same with CISPA...

Plans to end warrantless email searches pass Senate committee
Summary: The privacy law governing how U.S. law enforcement can access email data after a certain time has been passed unanimously across both sides of the Senate.
The Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday passed a bipartisan measure that would force U.S. law enforcement and government agencies to get a warrant before reading citizen emails.
--- End quote ---

http://www.zdnet.com/plans-to-end-warrantless-email-searches-pass-senate-committee-7000014527

TaoPhoenix:
Hmm. Well everything needs to be taken with salt, it seems like maybe the Senate has a little more sense than the House on the "abuse-privacy" front.


CISPA may already be dead in the Senate
http://www.dailydot.com/politics/cispa-senate-dead-cybersecurity-bill-failed/

"Experts and sources with knowledge of the situation say the most controversial Internet bill of the year, the Cyber Information Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), is already dead in the water.
...
But though CISPA resoundingly passed the House of Representatives April 18, "it is extremely unlikely for the Senate" to vote on the bill," the ACLU's Michelle Richardson told the Daily Dot."

However, as predicted, they then are "...senators are "drafting separate bills" to include some CISPA provisions."

So then instead of all the Nasties being chunked into one bill, they will wander into smaller little bills that wear down our ability to protest them!

THAT is the fundamental new advantage emerging against regular citizen process now! Citizens have no measure to permanently stop "with prejudice" or something, whatever Congress feels like passing. So we have *AGAIN* apparently stopped a Big Name bill, (and look how many there are!), only to be explicitly informed that they are apparently learning they can't smash all of the evil rules into one bill, so now they will make little bitty "hot-pepper" bills that will be easier to slip by one by one.
>:(

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