America bids to become net watchdog

[andrewas]

The idea that the US Government will develop and deploy software to break through firewalls, open up web access and allow secret communication, and then make that software widely available to anyone who wants

Oh my, this is such a great plan. Lets make software avaialble publicly that can bypass the most important security feature on the internet. Oh joy. Just imagine the possibilities. Now *anyone* can get into *anything* and if they get caught, they can claim their allowed to do it under US law. What a totally great idea.

Come on, get real. Firewalls are the sole reason my (and every other) company still has any data that hasnt been stolen (And every major virus - including bugbear - tries this).

[True_Moose]

Originally posted by Charean: "Under the bill the US would develop what is called anti-censor software, monitor state censorship of the net and seek to prevent people in other countries who get round this censorship from being prosecuted."

Here's a hypothetical example though:
Say in Turkey (which is a moderate Islamic republic) someone posts sites on webpages and whatnot about the need for women to wear burkas and not go out on the streets. If Turkey censors him or whatever, how likely is the US to help him out? Or about child-brides? Even though these are specifically what the US says it will help, they simply can't because it would be a domestic public relations disaster!

On the other hand, the way the US government works, the software probably will come out in around 2025, when the internet is obsolete.

[Ronn_Bman]

Originally posted by andrewas: Oh my, this is such a great plan. Lets make software avaialble publicly that can bypass the most important security feature on the internet. Oh joy. Just imagine the possibilities. Now *anyone* can get into *anything* and if they get caught, they can claim their allowed to do it under US law. What a totally great idea. Come on, get real. Firewalls are the sole reason my (and every other) company still has any data that hasnt been stolen (And every major virus - including bugbear - tries this).

This is the part of the idea that scares me.

Of course hackers, who are good enough, can pretty much do what they want now without any help.

[Azred]

I have another take on this. One paragraph in particular reads thus:

"This bill that would empower the US Government and its agencies to combat any attempt to restrict what can be seen or said on the internet, anywhere."

This sounds like the agency in charge of fulfilling this bill's policies would be able to punch through any firewall. Any firewall. edit: It looks like I wasn't the first person to think of this. [img]graemlins/laugh3.gif[/img] All this, of course, under the guise of furthering the cause of free and unfettered exchanges of information available via the Internet. Does Mr. Cox really want a completely open Internet? Including sites offering information about how to make deadly chemicals from the housecleaning isle of WalMart or floor plans of Federal buildings? I think not.

I may be cynical, but I smell an ulterior motive here.

[ 10-06-2002, 12:26 PM: Message edited by: Azred ]

[Charean]

Originally posted by Ronn_Bman: I mean, Al Gore invented the internet...how bad can the uncensored version be...LOL [img]graemlins/hehe.gif[/img] [/QB]

ROFLMAO!!!!!

[Ronn_Bman]

Originally posted by Azred: Including sites offering information about how to make deadly chemicals from the housecleaning isle of WalMart or floor plans of Federal buildings? I think not. I may be cynical, but I smell an ulterior motive here.

You can find that on the internet now with a Google search

The article doesn't leave much doubt the idea behind it. It's to get the US message out to those who are blocked from hearing it as the example of VOA radio in the story points out. But it would be more than the US message, it would be everything.

I will point out that while child pornography sites within the US are shut down due to violating US laws, international sites which are similar aren't blocked. US citizens can be arrested for having those materials in their possession, but the sites themselves aren't blocked even though most people think anything like that should be shutdown no matter where it's coming from.

[TheCrimsomBlade]

READ THE ARTICLE!!!

It isn,t so the U.S. can censer people talking on the net or even to stop normal forums like ours.Its main consern is to by pass censoring in third world countries that don't get to use forums like ours or that can't read the news as it really is. the one thing it does want to censor it the exploutation of chlidern used in child porno and the fact that sick basterds outside the U.S. can photograph young boys & girls in a pornographic manor and get away with it.
these sick people that exploit childern need to be caught and placed in prison or stood against the wall and shot. Right now there is no one outside of the U.S. and a few other countries that outlaw this. with the right to oversee the internet in all countries they will be able to stop these child pornographers and other sadistic basterds, and at the same time stop other governments from censorning the truth in what is really happening in the world and maybe will help in bringing everyone together as one big happy world. that is what everybody really wants or a'm I wrong?, should all the third world countries just be kept in the dark about what the free world is all about? I would really like to see an end to calling any country third world we should all be of one world but with the right to our own beliefs and customs and the knoledge that nobody is going to burst into their home and take away their property or family just because they believe in a different GOD or whatever.

[Neb]

Even if they claim to only want it for those reasons, Crimsom, then I doubt that it's true.

They will exploit it to point out "unpatriotic" people and throw them in jail for being "terrorists". Just like most dictators would.

[andrewas]

Originally posted by Azred: I may be cynical, but I smell an ulterior motive here.

Cynical? Look at the crap thats out there now. Every other week we hear about child porn on the net. Terror cells using it to communicate. Whatever you can think of, the net can and is used to facilitate it.

It needs some form of censorship. But its not for the USA to determine what form of censorship is appropriate. It would have to be international in scope.

[True_Moose]

TCB
1) Most countries can decide what they want on their section of the internet. For example (correct me if I'm wrong), Jewish boys are considered men after their Bar Mitzvah at the age of 13. So does the US really have a right to "protect" them. In the US, certainly, as they are American citizens. But elsewhere? I'm not saying they should be exploited, only the American concept of adulthood and other non-tangible concepts is different, and must be respected.
2) Second of all, how do they honestly expect to be able to censor/decensor the internet? Obviously, it would be impossible to go to every single site, so how would they do it? Would they search for buzzwords?
3) How many people in third world countries even have access to the Internet? The first world (not just US, but Canada and UK and whatnot) need to get it that what these people need is not cyberfreedom, but food, water and shelter.
4) In most of these countries a)Pedophilia doesn't come onto the internet (see 3) and b) There are incredible social and political consequences for this type of behaviour.