Steve’s CISPA Roundup

OK, a lot of us at FTP have been insanely busy, so we didn’t do any really good job covering CISPA, which some see as a bastard child of SOPA.  Here’s what I’ve dug up.

CISPA (Cyber Intelligence Sharing And Protection Act) came onto the scene pretty quick earlier this month.  It seemed to be an odd mix of overly broad language, added some privacy reviews, and troublingly, let people off the hook for sharing data with the government.  It also had a lot of sponsors.

The odd thing with the bill is it seemed “less” SOPA-like than I’d expect, but then had some huge back doors and odd language revolving around security.  It seems broad enough that it could be massively misused.  The EFF has a roundup here, including amendments.

I’m not sure this is so much the “return of SOPA” as it is “general broad powers.”

It didn’t seem to cause nearly the kerfluffle that SOPA/PIPA did.  That was kind of worrysome.  Heck, *I* should have been more aware.

The bill got amended like crazy later, which the EFF found pretty lame.

It passed the house on April 26th.

It’s now on to the Sentate to do their own bill, and there’s at least two competing ones: The Cybersecurity Act of 2012 (Leiberman/Collins) and  The SECURE IT Act of 2012 (McCain).  There’s a nice roundup here.

The Obama Administration is backing the Leiberman/Collins Act, though there’s obviously plenty of concern about it (though from what I can tell it has some legitimate ideas which may be good).  The White House issued a veto threat against CISPA.

So that’s where we stand.  I can’t say this is “son of SOPA,” its’ broader in a way, which is probably why we didn’t get as much of a firestorm.  It’s bad enough (and CISPA supersedes some past law) that I’m concerned.

Steven Savage

Lamar Smith Is Back To “Protect The Children”

Lamar Smith, who gave us the disaster known as SOPA is now back with a supposed “protect the children/stop child porn bill” that really involves ISPs keeping your information and making it available without warrant. Now it’s only in the House, with no Senate version in sight.

TAKEAWAYS:

  • Lamar Smith apparently has decided to be the enemy of internet freedom and privacy in the House, so those of us working in IT who also like not being treated like criminals should keep an eye on him. Come to think of it when he leaves the House (I figure due to a scandal) we should ALSO keep an eye on him. Oh, and he’s a jerk.
  • Considering Smith introduced it, my guess is this bill could be a back-door to SOPA like shenanigans. If IPSs had to keep this information, it would be a lot easier to add SOPA-like abuses.
  • Technically a bill like this is a disaster as well, but note it’s not as much an “internet breaker” as SOPA. I’m suspecting this could be part of SOPA-returns-in-pieces.
  • The bill won’t come up until later this year, so it has a chance to die off – or be killed.
  • No, it’s apparent members of Congress don’t get the internet. *We* have to remind them.
  • I’m pretty sure Lamar Smith hates you.

Steven Savage

Dodd Isn’t Popular

Looks like Chris Dodd is having a few issues. He gets called out by the founder of Wikipedia, and the petition at Whitehouse.org to investigate him for corruption.

Takeaways:

  • People know who to blame for SOPA/PIPA.
  • It's still in people's consciousness.
  • Ignoring this will likely make it worse – so if the petition leads to nothing, expect more.
  • Dodd calling out Wikipedia was very stupid.

So, we know SOPA isn't dead yet. But neither is awareness of it.

Steven Savage