In mid-2012, in the wake of the ratification of ACTA and the proposal in the US of bills like SOPA and PIPA, in an age where the war on terror is gradually morphing into a cyberwar and database hacks, password leaks and identity thefts are reported on breathlessly, it is difficult to imagine the promise that the very idea of the Internet once aroused in the public. Just 20 years ago, in the age of the much-vaunted “Information Superhighway,” people could pontificate with a straight face on the potential for online communities to give rise to a Jeffersonian revolution and spawn a new flowering of civic participation.

Quaint as such optimism might seem to a jaundiced modern eye, to some extent that promised revolution has arrived in the birth of an alternative media that has already begun to eclipse outdated forms of information distribution. Once confined to the information accessible from local libraries, daily newspapers, and what was commonly known as “the idiot box,” the general public is now able to instantaneously access vast amounts of information on even the most obscure topics with merely a few keystrokes and clicks of the mouse. But given the increasingly draconian measures that are being proposed to block, track, control, monitor and censor communications on the Internet, it is almost impossible to be as optimistic about the future of this technology as we once were.

In this episode of our EyeOpener Report James Corbett presents currently proposed measures to block, track, control, monitor and censor communications on the Internet, and our responsibility in determining the future of the web.

Watch the Preview Here:

Watch the Full Video Report Here:

SUBSCRIBE

*The Transcript for this video is available at Corbett Report: Click Here

This site depends exclusively on readers’ support. Please help us continue by SUBSCRIBING, and by ordering our EXCLUSIVE BFP DVD .

US Prepares to Censor Internet Access While Urging Internet Freedom for the Rest of the World!

At the London Conference on Cyberspace, November 1-2, Vice President Joe Biden urged other nations to protect internet freedom of expression.

“Biden did not name countries he felt were offenders. But he criticized the efforts of some nations pursuing an “international legal instrument that would lead to exclusive government control over Internet resources, institutions and content and national barriers on the free flow of information online.” (PCWorld)

Meanwhile, back in the US, Congress was preparing to pass a law granting extraordinary powers to censor the internet. The proposed law, described as “the Great Firewall of America,� has the support of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who also favors Internet freedom for other countries. If the US government still had any credibility on this issue after banning access to websites posting leaked cables, the latest hypocrisy should have killed it.

Last week, Representatives Lamar Smith (R-TX), John Conyers (D-MI), Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) and Howard Berman (D-CA) introduced a House bill called the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). A Senate version, called the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA), had been introduced last May by Senators Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), and Charles Grassley (R-IA). The bills propose to let the federal government block public access to websites accused of violating intellectual property rights. They would also require Internet access providers, search engines and payment providers to deny services to websites upon request from rights holders.

A devil in the lack of details

The bills have been criticized for their vague language and lack of due process, making them ripe for abuses.

“Imagine a world in which any intellectual property holder can, without ever appearing before a judge or setting foot in a courtroom, shut down any website’s online advertising programs and block access to credit card payments. The credit card processors and the advertising networks would be required to take quick action against the named website; only the filing of a “counter notificationâ€� by the website could get service restored.

Finally, and for good measure, Internet service providers and payment processors get the green light to simply block access to sites on their own volition—no content owner notification even needed. So long as they believe the site is “dedicated to the theft of US property,â€� Internet providers and payment processors can’t be sued. (ArsTechnica)â€�

Such a law could be used to chill criticism of corporate and government policies. Read more È