http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s111-3804http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=s111-3804.
I think the hoopla regarding this bill is a bit overstated.
It isn't close to passing. It's in committee. Most bills die in committee.
Even if it makes it out of committee, there is no guarantee it will make
it to the floor of the House and/or Senate...much less be passed.
(Only 3-5% of Bills that are introduced each year become law)
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Second, in many ways, parts of the internet are like the Wild West.
Youtube is a pretty good example. A lot of copyright infriged material
is posted there. The bill seeks to give the government another tool
to fight illegal activities. (And as much as I like Youtube, they don't
really have an effective system in place to halt such rampant
illegal activities.)
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The "slippery slope" argument is overused as poor logical reasoning for/against
many things. (ie. If they let gays marry, who will be next? pigs? dogs? blah blah blah)
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While I do agree with ol' Ben that "They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." That doesn't really apply here.
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"Security" is not a topic that the bill addresses. I agree, if it did, that would be too far reaching
and vague. However, the bill is fairly specific about the topics that it covers.
It's only about documented cases regarding copyright and counterfeits that are referred by the
Attorney General to a court. And with the courts involved, that means there is a means for appeal.
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While some denizens of the Wild West may like it completely free without rules, people do get
lynched there (ie the headlines regarding harassment lately), the stagecoach does tend to get
robbed (copyrights), and simple townfolk get swindled (counterfeits). Even if the current
lack of law does benefit me in many ways, I can see the need for some form of structure in
order to curtail illegal activities. When an issue is rampant and unchanging on a particular
site, sometimes the house of ill-repute has to be closed in order to cease the illegal activity.
In the real world the police give warnings, but then have the means to follow-up if those
warnings are not heeded.
Currtenly, the government doesn't have the means to enforce their laws in this Wild West.
Complete and utter freedom without any sort of accountability
does create some issues on the internet. It can be a strength in some ways, but it has also
proven that it can be a danger as well.
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Personally, I don't care if the bill passes or doesn't.
If it doesn't, nothing changes for me.
If it does, I probably won't be watching as much anime on Youtube.
