Internet Censorship Bill Introduced In US Senate
Published On June 13, 2011 | Government
Written by Stephen Lendman just-international.org
S. 968: Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act of 2011 (PROTECT IP) was introduced by Senator Patrick Leahy (D. VT) and nine other senators on May 12. It is a smoke screen to introduce new censorship provisions that violate First Amendment freedoms, without which all others are at risk in USA. Reported to committee on May 26, it was placed on the Senate calendar for a floor vote yet to occur.
If enacted, PROTECT IP will give federal authorities “unprecedented power to attack the Internet’s domain name system (DNS),” by: forcing ISPs and search engines to redirect or reject user attempts to reach certain cites; and vaguely call DNS servers “server(s) or other mechanism(s) used to provide the Internet protocol addresses associated with a domain name.” This definition endangers other technologies, including operating systems, email and web clients, routers, and others able to provide IP addresses when given domain names like traditional DNS servers.
Calling PROTECT IP “COICA Redux,” EFF’s Abigail Phillips explained differences between both measures, expressing grave concerns about the new one, saying:
It includes “a private right of action for intellectual property owners (as well as government to) seek injunctions against websites (allegedly) ‘dedicated to infringing activities’ in addition to court orders against third parties providing services to those sites.”
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