COICA: A Federal Official Deciding Who Gets to Stay Online

"Web Censorship Bill Sails Through Senate Committee"
Sam Gustin, Epicenter, Wired (November 18, 2010)

"Who says Congress never gets anything done?

"On Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approved a bill that would give the Attorney General the right to shut down websites with a court order if copyright infringement is deemed 'central to the activity' of the site — regardless if the website has actually committed a crime. The Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA) is among the most draconian laws ever considered to combat digital piracy, and contains what some have called the 'nuclear option,' which would essentially allow the Attorney General to turn suspected websites 'off.'

"COICA is the latest effort by Hollywood, the recording industry and the big media companies to stem the tidal wave of internet file sharing that has upended those industries and, they claim, cost them tens of billions of dollars over the last decade...."

Okay: the Lemming isn't "political," and I do think that intellectual property rights need to be protected.

The Lemming also thinks that COICA has 'bad idea' written all over it.

Not the basic notion of making it harder to rip off someone's work and pass it off as your own - or get the profits that should have gone to the owner. That actually makes sense.

It's the Senate, right after an election - with another reality check a couple years away and some of them at the end of the line in Congress - putting a bill through that lets a Federal official decide who's allowed to be online.

Sure - it's not for 'honest citizens like me.' The only people who have to worry are those low-life pirates. Or folks who might be pirates. Or might become pirates.

'It can't happen here?' The Lemming sure hopes so.

Related posts:

• "Lemming Tracks: China, Internet Traffic, and Why It Matters"
  (November 18, 2010)
• "The Horror! Monster Comics that Scared Congress"
  (October 31, 2010)
  • Deciding what Americans should see
  • 'For our own good,' of course
• "Lemming Tracks: Erin Andrews, Policing the Internet, and Power to the People"
  (July 29, 2010)
• "Internet Freedom: 'What are the rules? Who decides?' "
  (March 23, 2010)
• "Yogi Yorgesson's "I Yust Go Nuts At Christmas" and the Hamms Bear"
  (December 15, 2009)
  • More examples of American government 'protecting' us