Showing posts with label Lauren Weinstein. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lauren Weinstein. Show all posts

Lauren Weinstein | Internet Regulation, October 27, 2011

Source: coasttocoastam.com, vortex.com



Technology expert Lauren Weinstein reported on recent attempts to regulate the Internet. There are pieces of legislation showing bi-partisan support in the US Senate and House, such as the Protect IP Act, and the Stop Online Piracy Act, which are ostensibly designed to curb piracy on the Internet. Yet, Weinstein noted that such bills if passed would allow entertainment industries and the government to shutdown any website they wanted to, and a website owner would have to file a complaint or appeal in order to get their site back up. Such legislation "would eviscerate or destroy most of the safe harbors that are in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act," which protected ISPs and websites from being sued, he commented.

Weinstein expressed concern that such laws will end up eroding free speech on the web. In Europe, there's a push for something called "The Right to be Forgotten," a plan for people to have items about themselves that they don't like removed from the Internet. In the US, if these new bills pass, the Courts may rule that large parts of them are unconstitutional, yet the Internet may ultimately be moving toward a more closed model, like China has, he lamented.
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