Today, with the Internet serving as the People’s Press, built solely for the dissemination of information (or disinformation in some cases), it looms as the largest threat to the unfulfilled “promise of transparency” in government. So it shouldn’t come as any surprise that the people wanting to “protect” us from “threats” will do just about anything to control it.
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski wants rule it with a “light touch.” Napolitano wants to control it. Lieberman wants to protect it. The President wants a kill-switch. Hmmm
I’d like to call your attention to a small provision in Lieberman’s latest approach in the “Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act” (“PCNAA”). More specifically, a few sentences in the bill, in Section 250 titled Enforcement. Here, companies that comply with this statute “shall not be liable for punitive damages” should they mess up and/or harm internet users. Hmmm, again.
I first learned of this type of arm-twisting compliance in the “Hiring Incentives To Restore Employment Act, H.R. 2847″, the bill enacted by President Obama on 18 March, 2010. Here, the banking institutions are not liable, by law, if they make a mistake and cause harm to their customers. Fined if they don’t comply and covered if they error while complying. Wow, now that’s an incentive program. Damned if you don’t, protected if you do!
Pretty slick move Senator Lieberman. Seems the Senate will do whatever it takes to take control.
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Comments
Don't trust anyone who tries to “protect” you by censoring information, putting up firewalls, or creating laws & penalties to steer your behavior. They're controlling and manipulating you.
We submit to fear every day and erode our freedoms. Control is evil and shouldn't be tolerated. The Internet represents the clearest path to true independent freedom and we should embrace it. It has the potential to bring balance to this world. Our “leaders” should be steering us on that path. Rather they try to stifle it's growth.
I don't believe in countries and I don't believe in borders. I understand the implications, but they're only implications because we operate like children in a primitive society that's afraid to adapt. Borders by their nature create divisions. Labels do the same.
The evil motivations of people have brought us to where we are today and we appear locked in place. We blindly feel protected from invisible threats. We appreciate being controlled, while completely missing how this affects our livelihood.
The key Brian, is to be smarter and more creative than the mindless hierarchies in place. The Internet represents a medium that can't be controlled. Momentum needs to build and it needs to come from every direction, across borders, and across cultures. It has to provide extreme value and happen while no one is paying attention.
The Internet's power is waiting to be harnessed. The old world we live in, is in a silent panic. Becoming irrelevant is their biggest threat and they know it.
More big government>more conrtol>more big government, ect,ect.