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"Because digital content can be copied quickly, easily, and without degradation, digital programmers and content owners face an exponentially increasing piracy threat in a digital age." Senator Fritz Hollings                   "Some content distributors and legislators believe the only way to prevent piracy is to prohibit all digital copying. Gateway believes we can all enjoy digital music legally and respect copyright laws." Gateway Computer's Consumer Rights Campaign	Senator Hollings Continues to Attack Fair Use and Free Speech "Chairman Fritz" Proposes State Controlled Digital Media Battle Lines are Drawn Between Technology and Media Companies April 16, 2002 An unparalleled assault on fair use and free speech continues in Washington, D.C. as media companies continue to lobby Congress to introduce more and more restrictive Copyright Laws that would curtail the traditional rights of consumers and citizens. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ernest "Fritz" Hollings (D-SC) introduced legislation March 21 that would require the consumer electronics and information technology industries to build standardized copyright protection technologies into computers, software and many other digital products. Leading the attack on what they see as theft of their creative works are Disney Chairman Michael Eisner, News Corp's Peter Chernin, and Jack Valenti, chairman of the Motion Picture Association of American Senator Hollings' proposed Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act (CBDTPA) will require every new digital technology to go through a punishing 12-month review process where Hollywood's representatives will dictate, at lawyerpoint, what features must and must *not* be included. The proposed legislation raised to a new level the danger involved with on-going efforts to protect intellectual property on the Net. Although there is scant evidence that copying of copyrighted materials affects either artisrs income of theft of digital media, the major Hollywood companies and their representatives look to close every possible loophole. They treat every customer as a thief. Sen. Hollings' bill proposes to legislatively mandate a scheme under which all technologies that might be used to play, copy, retrieve or transmit digital content -- whether on the Net or off it -- must be built so as to prevent illegal copying. The "Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act" (S. 2048), is co-sponsored by Sens. Stevens (R-AK), Inouye (D-HI), Breaux (D-LA), Nelson (D-FL) and Feinstein (D-CA). Under its central provisions: Makers of computers and consumer electronic devices, consumer groups and copyright owners would be encouraged to reach agreement on copyright protection standards and encoding rules. If the private sector failed to agree on standards within one year, the Federal Communications Commission would be required to develop them. All "digital media devices" -- TVs, audio and video players, and PCs, as well as many other devices -- would have to be manufactured to recognize and respond to those standards. The rules to be developed would have to preserve fair-use rights, including for educational and research purposes and legitimate consumer copying. The Hollings bill is online at: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d107:s.02048: Makers of computers and consumer electronic devices as well as some major software companies are opposed to government mandates. These companies are willing to develop digital-rights management (DRM) technologies that can be used to limit or prevent unauthorized copying, and to license those technologies to Hollywood, but they oppose any standard that would require them to redesign all their products to check whether the files that are being read, copied or transmitted are copyrighted works. They see it as a form of government licensing and they worry about how the standards will limit future innovation. An often unheard side of the debate is the consumer perspective:will such DRM technologies permit ordinary use that most consumers believe is proper, such as copying CDs onto a laptop, making a favorite songs CD for the car, or using a snippet of copyrighted content in a home video? Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) is taking a much more cautious approach. While several Senators expressed concern about Internet piracy, especially the scope of piracy over broadband services, Chairman Leahy raised questions about the technical difficulties of implementing the kind of solution that Hollywood wants. the WIZARD, fkap agrees that copyrighted material should be protected against piracy online. Creators, writers, musicians and film makers and artists deserve compensation for their work. However this legislation would most certainly give Hollywood undeserved windfall profits while completely eliminating consumer's traditional rights to use legally purchased materials. In addition this legislation would affect the free flow of information on the Internet. In reality, this legislation would actually end up diminishing the power of the Internet as a forum for ideas and creativity. Sen. Leahy made clear at his committee's hearing that there is significant disagreement among legislators as to whether it's yet even appropriate for Congress to be considering mandating a copyright security standard, and the Senator further promised that no legislation of the sort that Sen. Hollings had circulated will emerge from Congress this year. The Judiciary Committee staff has set up a new webpage designed to keep interested parties, including individual citizens, informed about developments on the copyright/technology-policy front. In an important step for digital democracy, the webpage also solicits citizens' direct feedback. the WIZARD, fkap urges all Internet users to visit Sen. Leahy's site and express their views on this issue, which may do much to define the future shape and functions of the Internet. The Leahy webpage can be found at http://judiciary.senate.gov/special/feature.cfm.
"When you carefully consider FOIA requests and decide to withhold records, in whole or in part, you can be assured that the Department of Justice will defend your decisions unless they lack a sound legal basis." John Ashcroft, Attorney General of the United States             "They're basically trying to create a third category of information -- classified, unclassified and information that might help terrorists," John Pike of GlobalSecurity.org, a policy research organization, reporting on government actions.	The Unthinkable is Happening! Freedom of Speech is Sacrificed in War Against Terrorism Have the Terrorists Won? September 25, 2001 Substantial assistance in the preparation of this report was received from The Electronic Frontier Foundation Contrary to popular belief, it is NOT possible to transmit Anthrax via the Internet!! Never the less, the Internet is still the target is aggressive anti-terrorism censorship. The irony is that, with the unwitting help of supposedly patriotic Americans, the terrorists have actually succeeded in "taking out" some of the pillars of the civil rights long cherished by Americans, most noticeably Freedom of Speech on the Internet. Julia Scheeres reports in Wired Magazine, "Amid the nationalistic furor sweeping the United States in wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, many government and private websites are yanking content that could be deemed unpatriotic or risky to national security." "While the people pulling the informational plug say their actions are in the country's best interests, free speech advocates say the trend is chilling and anti-democratic," Scheeres continues. Yahoo has continued its schizophrenic approach to self-censorship by yanking dozens of sites in the Jihad Web Ring, according to a story in The Wall Street Journal. And Yahoo isn't alone. azzam.com has been swept off the Internet through the actions of multiple ISPs, some of whom claimed to be threatened by the Federal Government. Azzam.com reportedly provided "authentic news and information about Jihad and the foreign Mujahideen everywhere." See the above Wall Street Journal article for documentation. Since the actions of ISPs has killed this website we cannot report it's content first hand. But Azzam.com supposedly provided stories of martyrs killed in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Chechnya. Critics claim Azzam repeated Islamic tenets that "martyrdom operations are permissible." iraradio.com is a pro-IRA site which archives all Radio Free Eireann broadcasts. But now the site is missing because its web service provider, Hypervine, felt that the Bush administration's announcement of the new Office of Homeland Security's activities threatened the ISP with seizure of their assets if they continued to host "terrorist" radio programs. Iraradio.com owners hope to reopen probably on a Canadian server after they move into their new office later this year. Resources: Politech and Guardian Unlimited and USA Today The strangest, and perhaps the saddest, example of self censorship is the demise of Bert Is Evil! Although it is not clear if this happened due to the well documented reports of Islamic fundamentalists holding posters containing an image of Sesame Street's Bert character right next to Osama Bin Laden, the owner of this site, Dino Ignacio, explained that he removed the site because "I feel this has gotten too close to reality and I choose to be responsible enough to stop it right here," Bert Is Evil Some actions by private and government web sites seems logical and prudent, at least on the surface. For example, some web sites have voluntarily removed information about troop movements or information about hazardous chemicals or materials. Nuclear data is also suddenly absent from long established websites. But much of this self-censorship is coming at the request of government officials. One Washington watchdog group, OMB Watch is keeping a list of government agencies that have pulled previously public information from their websites since the terrorist attack. OMB Watch reports, "Attorney General John Ashcroft issued a memorandum on October 12 urging federal agencies to exercise greater caution in disclosing information requested under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The Electronic Frontier Foundation is keeping a running tally of sites that have been shut down or restricted since Sept. 11. EFF opens it's thorough review with the following caution, "The right to free speech faces the strongest challenges during times of crisis. This page attempts to convey the chilling effect that responses to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, have had on information availability on the Internet as well as some sense of the effect on people trying to provide this information. Currently, the EFF is tracking the following: Websites Shut Down by US Government Websites Shut Down by Other Governments Websites Shut Down by Internet Service Provider Websites Shut Down or Partially Removed by Website Owner US Government Websites That Removed Information US Government Requests to Remove Information Media Professionals Terminated or Suspended Other Employees Terminated or Suspended Related Incidents Related Links If you know of a anti-terrorism chilling effect that should be listed by the EFF, you can e-mail freespeech@eff.org
"We could start opening people's envelopes on the off-chance that we'll find something. But in the process of catching something we'll make this country a much less pleasant place to live." J.D. Tucille, Civil Liberties Activist, Writer and About.com Editor       "The goal of terrorism is to paralyze the American government by encouraging totalitarianism. Don't give them the satisfaction. Fear nothing. Live free." John Perry Barlow, of Harvard Law School and co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)	Electronic Frontier Foundation Increases Efforts to Protect Civil Liberties Federal Government Pushes Carnivore After Terrorist Attacks Consumer's Seem Willing to Sacrifice Rights and Liberties September 13, 2001 Today the nation and the world are terrified by the threat of massive violence. The "impossible" today seems to be all too easy. The terrorist threat is at our doorstep and we fear we are powerless to stop it. And Americans are reads to take any action to join in a battle that President George Bush has called the "first war of the 21st century." Every American is quick to do their part in the fight against terrorism. But did you know that Internet service providers have reported that they are working with the FBI to monitor traffic? Until September 11, 2001 this was one thing they were unwilling to do. Declan McCullagh reported in WIRED NEWS "Just hours after three airplanes smashed into the buildings in what some U.S. legislators have dubbed a second Pearl Harbor, FBI agents began to visit Web-based, e-mail firms and network providers, according to engineers at those companies who spoke on condition of anonymity." John Perry Barlow, of Harvard Law School and co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), wrote a mass e-mail on Tuesday encouraging Americans to hold on to their freedoms by writing public officials, joining the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) or the EFF, "to prevent the control mania from destroying the dreams that far more have died for over the last 225 years than died this morning." The WIZARD begs you to answer these simple questions. In light of September 11th's terrorist attacks are you now willing to allow the government to open and read every single piece of mail coming into your postal mail box? Will you let the FBI open your bills? Do you want them to monitor your purchases? Can the CIA read your letters from Aunt Martha? Will you now allow the NSA to catalog which magazines you subscribe to? If the answer is NO!!!, then why would you ever allow the government to implement the "Carnivore" Internet monitoring program? The FBI's controversial Carnivore spy system, which has now been renamed DCS1000 in an effort to improve 'public relations," is a specially configured computer designed to spy on an Internet provider's network and monitor electronic communications. Every piece of traffic on the host network is stuffed into the spy machine until a federal agent stops by to pick up a removable hard drive. What happens to the information then is anybody's guess.
FREE SPEECH!! Support the First Amendment on the Internet! the WIZARD's Sex on the Internet Essay Information on the impact of the Communications Decency Act. Support Free Speech On Line Join the Blue Ribbon On-line Free Speech Campaign! 24 Hours of Democracy Supporting Internet Freedom of Speech.   Search the WIZARD,fkap The Web for Powered by whatUseek intraSearch	Links to Sites Supporting Free Speech on the Internet "Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of sXXXch, or the right of the people peaceably to XXXemble, and to peXXXion the government for a redress of grievances." Marc Rotenberg From the PEACEFIRE Web Site Linked Below The Freedom Forum Online - Comprehensive source to Freedom of Speech Issues Worldwide in all Media American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) PEACEFIRE - Youth Alliance Against Internet Censorship The Benton Foundation Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR) Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) Internet Education Foundation Media Access Project People For the American Way The Progress and Freedom Foundation Free Congress Foundation American Library Association ZD News - Law and Politics - an excellent source of news on Internet related issues About.com Guide to Free Speech

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