CISPA’s back

I only have two real sources on the subject, and news concerning it is fairly recent, but it looks like the cyber-security bill CISPA is making rounds in government yet again. For those not in the know, this bill allows the NSA and the Department of Defense to read and exchange your Internet traffic history and private information. According to these two news posts, the bill is slated to make rounds through congress this Wednesday (February 13th, 2013).

edited 11th Feb '13 10:10:27 AM by BestOf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEdasNdp8C8

Well fuck.

Ok seriously, am I the only one sick of "internet patriots" constantly trying to shove all this CISPA/SOPA/WHATEVER news down our throats?

Whilst it does get annoying, they do make a good point about protecting internet freedom.

Can the powers given by CISPA be used to monitor users outside of the U.S.? That's my main concern with this.

...What happened to OPEN?

Could Obama veto it?

As long as we have enough people opposing it, yes.

Shame on Google and Yahoo! for supporting CISPA and rejecting its pro-privacy amendments! In fact, shame on TechNet and every site it supports (including Facebook) for supporting CISPA!

http://www.ibtimes.com/cispa-2013-google-apple-top-massive-list-supporters-favoring-controversial-cybersecurity-bill#

Well, according to this Obama has issued a veto threat, but they're still going to be voting in Congress on it tomorrow. So yeah, he can veto it and it appears like he will if it gets to his desk. But, as always in politics, anything can happen so I wouldn't rely one hundred percent on that.

http://act.demandprogress.org/letter/CISPA_IBM?referring_akid=2122.654596.LlFy_L&source=mailto

Edit: Here's more information.

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/04/16/obama-threatens-to-veto-cispa-citing-privacy-concerns

edited 16th Apr '13 8:30:45 PM by AceofSpades

More bad news: CISPA has passed the House! You know what that means? It's the end of the Internet as we know it... unless Obama vetoes the bill! Let's hope he does it, and fast!

http://betabeat.com/2013/04/house-passes-cispa-jumpstarting-cyber-privacy-debate-all-over-again/

Has it already passed the Senate then?

No. And furthermore the House majority isn't big enough to override a veto.

Did the vote go down party lines?

All but about 12 of them, yeah.

From what I can tell, the vote was for flooring it, and now they're in the amendment process.

edited 17th Apr '13 10:10:05 PM by Pykrete

So that makes it unlikely to pass the Senate? Or will there be more defectors there? Actually... couldn't the Senate democrats block it to coming to a vote? Or fillerbuster it if it did come to one?

That's actually less votes than it got the first time it passed through the House.

What does vote for flooring it mean?

It means the bill is now going through amendments from the House as a whole. They've already passed several amendments near-unanimously, which for something this polarizing is usually additions to defang the most outrageous bits.

Bills like this tend to be written kind of like South Park. They'll be about four degrees more extreme than the proposing party is actually shooting for, hoping the opposition will trim it down and call it good, and the supporting party goes along with those to look nice and bipartisan.

edited 17th Apr '13 10:43:40 PM by Pykrete

So they haven't actually passed it yet and are discussing more details before moving on to that? I guess that makes some sense, considering the reaction last time.

Still hoping Obama sticks through on his statement to veto it, though. If only because I'm feeling spiteful about all the other crap going on.

It's still worth keeping the public eye on. Even with a veto promise, Obama's been known to quietly pass horrible stuff when he thinks enough people are looking the other way.

Bumping for update.

Now you can start worrying. That appears to be exactly at 2/3, though I'm not certain if they need an additional one to push it beyond 2/3 for a veto override. They've got plenty of abstentions that could tip it though.

Still gotta go through the Senate at least. Email your senators now.

edited 18th Apr '13 6:09:10 PM by Pykrete

How would this even be enforced or monitored? Would the spying groups get emailed or notified every time someone visited a potentially suspicious webpage? What would the punishment be for visiting a potentially suspicious webpage? Or would they only go after specific people they were told were doing illegal things? Because it would probably be easier and more direct to go after specific webpages that they're worried about or specific people rather than trying to sift through the browser history of every single internet user.

Or is part of the problem that we don't know the criteria they would use for whose browser information they're going to consider as being suspect? That still sounds like a LOT of Internet users to sift through.

edited 18th Apr '13 8:22:56 PM by Rainbow

Apparently, someone invoked the recent Boston bombing to get the bill passed. I have no words.

Where are all the massive street demonstrations that managed to shut down SOPA when it first showed up?

I don't live in the US, nor do I like the US government at all in particular, but I still am disgusted by this callously dirty tactic. Seriously, are all politicians too cowardly to duke it out on the debate table fair and square?

Someone please tell me that that move had fallen afoul of at least one Logical Fallacy.

edited 18th Apr '13 9:00:52 PM by MarqFJA

I suppose the saying's right, never let a good crisis go to waste. Bastards.