Could Patrick Leahy’s legacy be the end of the Internet as we know it?

Once lauded as the “Cyber Senator,” Vermont’s Senior Senator is now the sponsor of a controversial bill that would give the worst kind of sweeping and poorly defined powers to corporations and the government to choke private websites based on what these notoriously aggressive corporations deem to be even a hint of copyright infringement.

The Senate bill S.968, or the PROTECT IP Act, and the House bill H.R. 3261, the Stop Online Piracy Act would not kill the web, but it would go a long way towards making it a corporate-defined marketplace rather than the free information and association zone that has so defined twenty-first century international activism and culture.

The twin bills constitute, quite simply, one of the scariest attempts to consolidate corporate power over individuals that I’ve ever seen, as well as a potential disaster for cybersecurity by inviting haphazard tampering with the internet DNS system.

This video sums up much of the problem:

PROTECT IP Act Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

This is the second time Leahy has tried this. Previously it was the  Combating Online Infringement and Counterfiet Acts (COICA). According to attorney James Sykes, “The most controversial provision of COICA, requiring broadband providers to block access to targeted sites, does not appear to be in the bill.  It seems the bill targets only the sites themselves, but the end result is the same, pulling the plug on websites that either sell counterfeit goods, or give free access to copyrighted materials.  This means that the government can pull the plug on sites like “wikileaks” if they provide free public access to copyrighted material.”

One wonders who among his Vermont constituency is clamoring for this action enough to warrant his herculean efforts on the matter.

The Brookings Institution says, aside from the obvious free speech and corporate power issues, the bill will “set back other efforts to secure cyberspace, both domestically and internationally.” Google is against it. Lawyers have called it a “legal nightmare.” The Electronic Frontier Foundation warns that the bill’s clumsy language invites “risk of extreme and unintended consequences”. Lord knows regular folks aren’t interested.

Who’s left?

Currently, Oregon Senator Ron Wyden (D) has a hold on the bill, but historically, you can only count on such a hold being respected if it’s applied by a Republican, so watch out.

24 thoughts on “Could Patrick Leahy’s legacy be the end of the Internet as we know it?

  1. “One wonders who among his Vermont constituency is clamoring for this action enough to warrant his herculean efforts on the matter.”

    For a start, it would probably take reading the list of Leahy’s financial contributors.

  2. Start setting up broadly distributed routers and a distinct DNSing system with lots of redundant peer-to-peer connections. Whoever is behind this is clearly determined to shut off our ability to communicate with one another.

  3. After reading this, I went to wyden.senate.gov and used the contact form to beg him to continue his hold on S.968, and that ‘liberal’ senator Leahy does NOT represent me on this matter.

    See, this is where I get arguments form other commenters on this blog.  Sure Leahy does a couple of things that are ‘liberal’, but then he introduces draconian legislation like this.  How can Leahy be considered ‘liberal’ when he sponsors far-right draconian legislation?

  4. They are the funders of the front group called the Business Software Alliance – the group that wrote the bill.

    Contact them directly and let the know that if they don’t come forward and condemn the bill, you’ll take your business elsewhere. Open source software has grown up over the last ten years, and can easily replace all of their offerings.

    * Adobe

    * Apple

    * Autodesk

    * AVEVA

    * AVG

    * Bentley Systems

    * CA

    * Cadence Design Systems

    * CNC Software – Mastercam

    * Compuware

    * Corel

    * Dassault Systemes / SolidWorks Corporation

    * Dell

    * Intel
    * Intuit

    * Kaspersky

    * McAfee

    * Microsoft

    * Minitab

    * Progress Software

    * PTC

    * Quark

    * Quest

    * Rosetta Stone

    * Siemens PLM Software, Inc.

    * Sybase

    * Symantec

    * TechSmith

    * The MathWorks

  5. The internet and the media should be handed over to the USPS. The CEOs should be handed to the Hague since we do not have a justice system in this country.  

  6. Is this the deal with the devil Leahy made so he could get that cameo in the Batman movie? Frankly, I think Sen Leahy is losing it and it may be time to retire.

  7. The problem is that SW rights are protected by copyright laws and not by other legal mechanisms. Any change made to sensibly protect software from being stolen (insert another phrase here for using someone else’s property to improve your life or bottom line) has unacceptable impacts on other forms of copyrighted content (music, books, or as some here have pointed out, sensitive corporate documents on wikileaks).

    In other circumstances many on this board would be the first to condemn an internet provider for not censoring certain sites, especially those whose very existence promotes a serious crime. (Please imagine your own most heinous crime here) The software industry has no other recourse than to use police powers to reduce theft, classifying these activities as their favorite “Serious crime”. Thus, they pressure Senators to write laws that make their content less susceptible to theft.  The owners of these companies don’t want to shut down Wikileaks, but they’ll accept it as collateral damage to preserve their investment in the software that they sell.  I’d venture to say most people in the same situation would do the same thing.

  8. I’m going to repost this:

    Dear Reader,

    You don’t know me. If you walked by me you wouldn’t recognize my face….or my voice.

    But I have touched your life.  

    I am the “endangered” professional songwriter. You have danced to my song at your daughter’s wedding. My song made you feel less alone when your heart was broken. My song was playing when you kissed your true love, and now you can call it “your song”. Like a time machine, It will take you right back to that moment. It’s a good song, memorable, well written. And that didn’t happen by accident. I worked hard at it for years. I probably wrote hundreds and hundreds of songs before I landed on that magic combination of idea, melody, and lyric. And that “Hit” enabled me to be at least financially unembarrassed for a while. And that money bought me time to better my craft.

    I am not greedy.  I just want to support myself and my family doing what I’ve gotten very good at.

    All I ask is to make a living doing what You love.

    People all over the world applaud and emulate American music. It has become the soundtrack to their lives.

    And now they want it for free. Not only do they want it for free, but they want to make money off it and give me nothing.

    Would they steal the flowers off my grave as well?

    I wonder where it will stop.

    Will it end with me watching my life’s work sail away on a pirate ship?

    I wonder, what will they value once they have stolen everything?

    Goodbye great American music. Sweet, Silent dreams, Stephen Foster.

    And Roll Over, Beethoven.

    You don’t know me.

    But someday, and maybe soon, my quiet song will be the one that soothes your troubled heart.

    And you will miss me when I’m gone.

    On behalf of Senator Leahy and those who are fighting for protection of creators and their work, I thank you.

    Angela Kaset

    Professional Songwriter, Endangered Species

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