Jᴀᴄᴜʀᴜᴛᴜ - Tʜᴇ Cᴀsᴛ Oᴜᴛ

Huffington Post | Bianca Bosker First Posted: 06-17-10 03:20 PM | Updated: 06-17-10 03:26 PM

A new Senate bill, sponsored by Senator Joseph Lieberman, proposes to give the president the authority "to seize control of or even shut down portions of the Internet," according to CNET.

The authority granted to the government in the bill, known as the Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act (PCNAA), has been likened to an Internet "kill switch."

The bill would require that private companies--such as "broadband providers, search engines, or software firms," CNET explains--"immediately comply with any emergency measure or action" put in place by the Department of Homeland Security, or else face fines.

It would also see the creation of a new agency within the Department of Homeland Security, the National Center for Cybersecurity and Communications (NCCC). Any private company reliant on "the Internet, the telephone system, or any other component of the U.S. 'information infrastructure'" would be "subject to command" by the NCCC, and some would be required to engage in "information sharing" with the agency, says CBS4.

Numerous groups, such as TechAmerica, have criticized the bill, warning of the "potential for absolute power" and expressing reservations about the "unintended consequences that would result from the legislation's regulatory approach."

Liberman recently defended the PCNAA, arguing that it was imperative the president had the ability to "say to an electric company or to say to Verizon, in the national interest, 'There's an attack about to come, and I hereby order you to put a patch on this, or put your network down on this part, or stop accepting any incoming from country A.'"

He added that the bill is necessary for it would reduce the liability of companies that may need to resort to extreme measures in an emergency situation. Companies might have to "do things in a normal business sense you'd be hesitant to do but national security requires you to do," Lieberman explained, adding "We protect them from that because the action the government is ordering them to take is in national security or economic interest."

CNET notes an Internet "kill switch" has been proposed before:
A draft Senate proposal that CNET obtained in August allowed the White House to "declare a cybersecurity emergency," and another from Sens. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.V.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) would have explicitly given the government the power to "order the disconnection" of certain networks or Web sites.

Something critical of Israel *kill switch*

Without the Internet, how will we get our news!?

I think it's a bad idea. Really, how much would shutting down the Internet really help in a terrorist attack? Some-thing's fishy in Denmark and in this case it's not McDune.

Bad bad bad.

Very bad.

But... at least this way it is openly legislated. The truth is the US already controls the internets - through ICANN (which was meant to transfer control of the internet over to the UN in 2006) and they have already done some very questionable stuff (like transferring control of the top level domains for Iraq (.iq) and... somewhere else (K???istan iirc) to the US government without consulting anyone).

Very bad, but I don't think it will change a great anything.

Eyes High wrote:... and in this case it's not McDune.

But what about my theory that all bad things in the world can eventually be traced back to McDune?

TheDukester wrote:

Eyes High wrote:... and in this case it's not McDune.

But what about my theory that all bad things in the world can eventually be traced back to McDune?

Maybe we should check Liberman's reading list

Dam Joe Liberman f**king die allready. I love how the game Postal ripped on him. Dam DINO (Democrat In Name Only). How awesome would it be if he was jailed for tyring to kill Maralyn Manson or John Carmack LOL

Kensai wrote:Dam Joe Liberman f**king die allready. I love how the game Postal ripped on him. Dam DINO (Democrat In Name Only). How awesome would it be if he was jailed for tyring to kill Maralyn Manson or John Carmack LOL

We're going to need to get you a spell checker, you're worse than I am!

A Thing of Eternity wrote:

Kensai wrote:Dam Joe Liberman f**king die allready. I love how the game Postal ripped on him. Dam DINO (Democrat In Name Only). How awesome would it be if he was jailed for tyring to kill Maralyn Manson or John Carmack LOL

We're going to need to get you a spell checker, you're worse than I am!

I'm genuinely dyslexic, sorry. I was diagnosed when I was 6.

Kensai wrote:

A Thing of Eternity wrote:

Kensai wrote:Dam Joe Liberman f**king die allready. I love how the game Postal ripped on him. Dam DINO (Democrat In Name Only). How awesome would it be if he was jailed for tyring to kill Maralyn Manson or John Carmack LOL

We're going to need to get you a spell checker, you're worse than I am!

I'm genuinely dyslexic, sorry. I was diagnosed when I was 6.

Now I feel bad, sorry!

A Thing of Eternity wrote:

Kensai wrote:

A Thing of Eternity wrote:

Kensai wrote:Dam Joe Liberman f**king die allready. I love how the game Postal ripped on him. Dam DINO (Democrat In Name Only). How awesome would it be if he was jailed for tyring to kill Maralyn Manson or John Carmack LOL

We're going to need to get you a spell checker, you're worse than I am!

I'm genuinely dyslexic, sorry. I was diagnosed when I was 6.

Now I feel bad, sorry!

Don't worry about it I wasn't offended. I was just letting you know my crappy spelling isn't because I couldn't be arsed.

Found this article re: lotek's movie sites getting seized (viewtopic.php?f=18&t=2336" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;)

So the basic formula appears to be this – the US Government felt the sites in question were illegal and since they were accessible from the US, they should do something about them. On its part, ICANN has no problem cooperating with the Government and is happy to act on terms of use violations either by domain owners or domain registrars.

http://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-and- ... us-100707/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

So now there's a precedent they can can just take down any domain they like (finding violations is easy - my site violates the terms (technically))

This is all getting a bit rubbish.

Pretty much it's the same sort of deal that they have in the People's Republic of Tyranny--I mean China. Naturally, you do not want this bill to pass. At all.

Well, as bad as this is, it doesn't come close to old China, who can censor and firewall shit at will. Shutting down the internet is a different thing than editing it (not saying if worse or better).

Shouldn't a gov technically be able to do this anyways? Just shut down phone/cable providors etc. I'm sure it wouldn't be legal, but a gov in the position where it wants to shut down the internet might not give a flying fuck what's legal.

In Canada we have a fun law called something like the "war measures act" (someone will correct me I'm sure) which pretty much allows our gov to delclare martial law and do whatever the hell they please once it's been activated - seems like it would cover stuff like this in reality.

Kensai wrote:

A Thing of Eternity wrote:

Kensai wrote:

A Thing of Eternity wrote:

Kensai wrote:Dam Joe Liberman f**king die allready. I love how the game Postal ripped on him. Dam DINO (Democrat In Name Only). How awesome would it be if he was jailed for tyring to kill Maralyn Manson or John Carmack LOL

We're going to need to get you a spell checker, you're worse than I am!

I'm genuinely dyslexic, sorry. I was diagnosed when I was 6.

Now I feel bad, sorry!

Don't worry about it I wasn't offended. I was just letting you know my crappy spelling isn't because I couldn't be arsed.

again, I gots to say : Firefox

the spelch3k is awesome ... a right-click on the underlined word brings up a suggestion of correct spellings;
selecting one auto-replaces; words can be added to the dictionary, so all the dune-related names can be
added so as not to trip the thing; f'instance, "gots" & "f'instance" and so on have been added to mine, so
firefox accepts them ...

I'm a fairly fast typist, too, so alot of times I'll just type the whole post and then right-click my way to
correct spelling .... this thing has also taught me how to spell some words I've habitually misspelled for
years - like "mispelled", f'instance ...

anyway, my opinion is, with this easy tool at your disposal, there is simply no fucking excuse for misspelling.

SandRider wrote: ...

anyway, my opinion is, with this easy tool at your disposal, there is simply no fucking excuse for misspelling.

Except when you're borrowing a computer that doesn't have that on it.

If you can post, you obviously have Internet access.

If you have Internet access, you have any number of online dictionaries available. Not to mention the whole corpus of the WWW. Just google a word and see if that spelling comes up.

preeq

Did you mean: prereq

Just google a word and see if that spelling comes up.

In fact, that is precisely what I do.

SandChigger wrote:If you can post, you obviously have Internet access.

If you have Internet access, you have any number of online dictionaries available. Not to mention the whole corpus of the WWW. Just google a word and see if that spelling comes up.

preeq

Did you mean: prereq

You mean I have to work to look smart? Dang, and I thought we could just spout out perfection like our favorite author.



(that was mean wasn't it. I should be ashamed of myself.)

Eyes High wrote:

SandChigger wrote:If you can post, you obviously have Internet access.

If you have Internet access, you have any number of online dictionaries available. Not to mention the whole corpus of the WWW. Just google a word and see if that spelling comes up.

preeq

Did you mean: prereq

You mean I have to work to look smart? Dang, and I thought we could just spout out perfection like our favorite author.



(that was mean wasn't it. I should be ashamed of myself.)

No, not at all.

I always thought it was a piss-take to have dyslexia as the word for a spelling disorder.
Very Monty Python.

dune stroller wrote:I always thought it was a piss-take to have dyslexia as the word for a spelling disorder.
Very Monty Python.

Just think of the people with hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia.

(Fear of large words.)

hypposquidphobia, yeah, I know about that one ...