SDT's and Government Internet Control!

SDT’s and Govt. Internet Control

I have come to the conclusion that SDT’s are indeed contagious! Like a virus they have infected my manuscript and spread at an alarming rate- much to the horror of my editor. So, now I have lots of work to do. Not that I mind. It’s just that I really wanted to have this manuscript out before my Birthday August 23rd.

Also, I don’t know how I became such a grammar, punctuation and formatting rebel, but according to the MANY corrections my editor has sent back it’s pretty atrocious. I’m sure anyone who reads my blogs and has even the most elementary knowledge of English grammar is probably terrified by my lack of said knowledge. From what I hear it makes it very distracting to read.

I had and still have full intentions of hiring a copyeditor to go through it with a fine-toothed-comb. However, this does not make life for you or my editor any easier.

So, I guess this means I need to hire a 5th grade tutor or begin using my library card for more educational purposes. Argh! And I thought writing was supposed to be fun! (laughs at herself.)  After this initial thought I decided maybe utilizing the internet would be a better idea.

So, I began to look up English Grammar and got nothing and I mean NOTHING. Google stared blankly back at me, it didn’t even attempt to find what I was looking for. My next thought was OMG! Have they passed that bill already? Am I seriously not going to be able to look up things up like I used to? Will Google never to be the same?
With that frightening thought I used Yahoo and to my great relief it worked and I was able to search for the Governments Internet Regulation Act and was alarmed to find that pretty much every Country aligned with the US is also in a unexplained rush to censor the internet.

You know what this does? It makes me paranoid and then conspiracy theories begin to run rampant in my head.

For example, maybe this is only the beginning of a larger plot.

First, it begins with banning explicit content in schools and libraries, then it goes to scanning the internet for a series of words that may alert them to terrorists, then it’s about fishing for websites that have counterfeit content that directly effect American consumerists.

Then they’ll decide what constitutes as an American consumerist, are you not “buying” into something when you read it and take it for truth and doesn’t even one person from America who reads it count?

So, in short everything on the internet is targeted toward American consumerists! Plus, the Government gets to decide what it counterfeit, so websites with conspiracy theories or information that the Government hasn’t really publicized or flat out denies will be considered counterfeit.

The very constitution becomes null and void and no one is allowed to even blog about what they believe is true or sell items that even remotely resemble something someone else who supported the Act has produced!

Next, because the Act involves policing websites from other countries we’ll either have to agree that other countries are allowed to investigate on American soil under the same terms of our Act or we will refuse and create the beginnings of an eventual war!!!

Suddenly, Russian and Chinese officials are banging on my door because I incited panic in my blog over their Internet control efforts! I’m plastering aluminum foil over my windows and ditching my cell phone in the Blue Springs River and banning myself from the Internet because I just don't know enough computer geek stuff to remain under the radar of the Nazi’s!
Pant, pant, pant!

Scheesh, getting educational is very stressful. No wonder college students need all that booze! (Or grammatically correct, those booze?)

So, see where this takes me? I’m sooo not for the Act at ALL! It violates at minimum two of our rights under the Constitution, which it would seem the current presidency has decided to undermine at any convenience given. All this because I wanted to brush up on my English grammar!

For those of you who may like to know, here are the sites that supported this rant.

Fair warning, these are just my opinions on how I interpreted what I read. I encourage you to read the links below so that you may have the benefit of forming your own opinion. Sometimes my emotions misread the content and I'm on occasion happy to say I am wrong. I'd love to hear what you think, please comment!

Protect IP Act
Another blatant violation of the Constitution. So, what is to stop competitors from blocking each other. Am I misunderstanding this? I prefer free speech.

"The new version tightens up its definition of infringing sites, but adds things like a “private right of action” for companies who want to cripple sites without waiting for the government to get involved. Search engines are also prohibited from linking to blocked sites."

Go Here For Article: Blacklists, ahoy! Protect IP Act sails on to Senate Floor

Russia
Basically it started out as a control to find and stop child pornography. This is a noble idea and I am all for protecting children. However, there does not seem to be a limitation to only regulate sites that hold this content. What was said, by the Minister of Internal Affairs, Rashid Gumarovich Nurgaliyev, is that,

 "Russia's youth needed looking after to prevent young people from being corrupted by "lopsided" ideas, especially in music, that may undermine traditional values."

If you read the article on the link below you'll see that Nurgaliyev also suggested that what the youth of Russia read and watch needs to be regulated as well.


Go Here for Article: Russian Minister Calls for Limits On the Internet


US to Regulate Internet Access
"President Barack Obama vowed during his campaign to support regulation to promote so-called net neutrality, and received significant campaign contributions from Silicon Valley. Mr. Genachowski, a Harvard Law School buddy of the president, proposed new net neutrality rules as his first major action as FCC chairman."

Basically, what I'm getting from this article, link found below, is that the Government wants Internet providers to treat all information and sites equally. The proposal was to prevent the slow connections and blocks to websites. However, this seems to suggest that if explicit content is not allowed on a site for children, then you're e-mail cannot have it either. The regulation details have not been released so speculations are many.

Go Here for Article: New US Push to Regulate Internet Access


Obama Ignores Federal Law
Wondering why your cellphone fees are so high? You may have this tasty little morsel of Government abuse to blame. If the administration would have followed the PRA rules as they are required to do then we most likely wouldn't be having to wince at our cell bills. Yet, while they continue to smirk as they deny the public's right to have a say in applied regulations, before they implement them, companies like cell phone giant Metro PCS are called under investigation.

"The people who were just hammered by the FCC are probably now too busy trying to undo said hammering – as is Congress – to even notice the PRA process the Commission quietly announced in February – let alone avail themselves of our role therein."

Now, I have mixed feelings about Metro PCS. On the one hand their walled- garden offends me because I believe that consumers  should have the right to any content out there. On the other hand, if you want to use your phone for calls and maybe some GPS or searches and you agree to not watching Netflix or Youtube, then great you have lower prices. It's all about making informed decisions.

You may be asking how does this affect my cell phone bills. Well, the answer is simple. More content availability equals more money. If the Government is going to say that a company cannot limit access then the company will be forced to charge more because they themselves will need more bandwidth for you to view it on. I'm not a computer geek, but this is the way I understand it. Please read for yourself and tell me if I'm wrong.

Go Here for Article: Obama Ignores Federal Law to regulate Internet

France
"The e-G8 comes amid concerns in the industry that some countries – including several in Europe such as France – have taken measures or enacted laws that could curb Internet freedoms."

"French President Nicolas Sarkozy, kicking off the conference, said governments need to lay down and enforce rules in the digital world – even as they need to foster creativity and economic growth with the Internet."

From what I gather, France wants a couple things that I do. I like the option for parent and teachers to prevent children from viewing "evil" content. I'm just not certain how France intends to alter this feature.

I guess Facebook can send a friend request to a non-member found in your address book. Well, I still have people in my address book that I would rather not talk to ever again. I think they might be slightly confused if they receive a solicitation from Facebook asking if they want to be my friend. I know I should probably delete them, but who has the time? I have a blog to write :)

So, here is the problem with France, what they want is full disclosure, abolition of privacy and autonomy. I get it, they want to make sure that the Internet isn't used for secretly plotting to poison the water supply and be able to catch those that do.

However, what about gamers, GLE (God love 'em), But they are always talking about killing someone or destroying the Government or anything of a like nature. Can the average White Wolfer expect their door to be knocked down by French swat teams and hauled away for interrogation? I don't know, but it sounds wrong to me. I want my e-mails to be private.

Go Here for Article: French President Nicolas Sarkosy At eG8: Governments Must Regulate Internet

Poland
I have to say this, Poland is transparently ambitious. It would seem that they actually told their public about their ideas of controlling their citizen's correspondence, private websites and personal blogs.

"If the law is passed by the Senate and signed by the president, the media council would have the right to regulate video websites just like it regulates broadcast radio and television. The law comes with limits on content produced outside Europe."

"Thousands of Polish Internet users have joined an online campaign against the government’s plan, saying the media council may use the law to censor the web."

Go Here for Article: Polish Government Feels Urge to regulate Internet

China
Well, China loves to save face, is all I can say.

Go Here for Wikipedia: Internet Censorship In the peoples Republic of China 


India
I guess they really don't have freedom of religion there?

Go Here for Article: This Week In Internet Censorship: China, India And Faith-Based Censorship.

Bloggers!

Looky what I found! A regulation for people who blog!

Go Here for Article: Randi Zuckerburg Runs in the Wrong Directions on Pseudonymity Online

For the skinny on regulations of all things Internet related this weblink below it a decent resource.

Go Here for website: Electronic Frontier Foundation

Australia
This is what one Australian citizen did to combat the censorship of his some 60 odd websites.


Go Here to View Australian Government Fails in Attempt to Censor Internet


American Government  Hypocrisy

So the Us wants to thwart world-wide Internet censorship. It's like when Garfield said,

"Hey, stop beating up Odie, I'm the only one allowed to do that."

I'm paraphrasing of course but that was the gist of it. Read what the Govt. has proposed since the Protect IP Act.

"The Attorney General of The United States would have the power to force US-based third parties, including (but not limited to) Internet Service Providers, Payment Processors, Internet Advertising Network Suppliers and Search Engines to block access of the site in question or stop doing business with it altogether."

Go Here to Article: US Denounces Internet Censorship Worldwide while Pushing For More Censorship At Home