[mdlug-discuss] Anti Censorship

[Ingles, Raymond]

> From: Garry Stahl

> In consideration of the events in Egypt, and the fact that Congress
has
> put an Internet "kill switch" back on the table; we the Geek community
> have to ask ourselves what proactive measures are we going to take to
> prevent the censorship of information in the United States?

As Aaron points out, too much business depends on the Internet these
days for the U.S. government to attempt a widespread shutdown. Try to
think of an industry that wouldn't be substantially hampered if not
fatally crippled by an Internet cutoff.

Partial shutdowns are possible, but difficult to make effective. Many
people connect via multiple alternate routes. For example, the
government would have to shut down *two* ISPs to seriously impact my
ability to communicate (my cable provider and my cell service). Even
then, I have a modem or two I could bust out, assuming I still had phone
service.

The more salient threat is focused takedowns of particular sites. Like
is happening with torrent sites now:
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110202/23363812934/senator-wyden-asks
-wtf-is-up-with-homeland-security-domain-seizures.shtml

Of course, not everyone agrees with this analysis:
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/02/07/014258/Internet-Is-Easy-Prey-For-
Governments

And then there are people working on more technical,
infrastructure-level approaches:
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/02/07/1436243/US-Has-Secret-Tools-To-F
orce-Internet-On-Dictatorships

 Sincerely,

 Ray Ingles                                                 (313)
227-2317

 "I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: 'O Lord,
make
         my enemies ridiculous.' And God granted it." - Voltaire

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