Most weeks there’s more Internet-related news than people can handle.
Given the constant flux, we at Free Press are taking a stab at listing, every week, the top five things you need to know about developments impacting Internet freedom.
Here’s our first shot. Be nice.
- CISPA Is Dead (for Now). CISPA — the terrible, no good, privacy-killingsurveillance-machine-producing bill — passed the House last week. But we’re safe from CISPA for now — it looks like the Senate is starting from scratch on its own cybersecurity legislation. Here’s hoping that any Senate bills actually protect our civil liberties.
- Speaking of cybersecurity, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) obtained documents revealing a deal struck by the Defense Department, the Department of Homeland Security and private ISPs — including AT&T and CenturyLink — that allow government monitoring of private networks. The deal is possibly illegal under the Wiretap Act — so it was secretly authorized by the Justice Department. Nasty stuff.
- And speaking of AT&T, the telecom claims that the Justice Department is “trying to get the [Federal Communications Commission] to ‘rig the upcoming 600 MHz auctions for the benefit of two specific competitors, Sprint and T- Mobile.’” Free Press’ Matt Wood isn’t pleased: “AT&T has done some pretty arrogant things in its century-plus of bullying government and demanding handouts, but accusing the Department of Justice of rigging an auction takes the (cup)cake… We’re tired of AT&T playing by its own set of rules. It shouldn’t lash out at agencies when it doesn’t get government’s help in making end runs around the law.”
- Still not convinced of money’s disproportionate role in politics? Check out this amazing infographic from grad student Tony Chu. It includes some eye-opening data, including the fact that CISPA supporters spent a whopping $605,000,000 lobbying Congress to pass the bill.
- Our friends at Canada’s OpenMedia launched a campaign to stop a telecom plan to increase fees on text messages crossing international lines. Nice to seethat telecoms everywhere suffer from the same greed complex.
And here’s a video: Click here or Google “cat shark duck.”
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