As seen on hacker’s mailing lists all over the web.<\/p>\n
\nUS plans to ‘fight the net’ revealed (2006-01)
\nhttp:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/2\/hi\/americas\/4655196.stm<\/p>\nFrom influencing public opinion through new media to designing
\n“computer network attack” weapons, the US military is learning
\nto fight an electronic war.
\nThe declassified document is called “Information Operations Roadmap”.<\/p>\nWrecking the Internet: Turning Gold into Lead (by Robert Storey 2006-05)
\nhttp:\/\/distrowatch.com\/weekly.php?issue=20060508#opinion<\/p>\nThe COPE Act would do away with the requirement for net neutrality, thus
\nturning America’s Internet into a “private network.” This would permit
\nISPs and telecom companies to dish out Internet access to the highest
\nbidder. Under such a regime, AOL could, for example, block access to
\nMSN, or Verizon could throttle your Skype bandwidth because it competes
\nwith their own voice-over-IP service. Even worse, a wealthy political
\nparty could pay ISPs to block access to a rival party’s web sites and
\nblogs. Emailing lists could also be throttled. It’s not hard to imagine
\nproprietary software companies paying to block access to DistroWatch, or
\nprevent you from downloading the latest Ubuntu or Fedora release. […]<\/p>\nOpposition to the COPE Act is being coordinated by Save the Internet.
\nhttp:\/\/savetheinternet.com\/<\/p>\nThe telecom\/cable industry is pulling out all stops to polish this turd.
\nTheir “coalition” has the Orwellian title Hands Off the Internet – their
\nthoroughly misleading web site can be found here.<\/p>\nThe telecoms have lots of cash, and are handing out campaign
\ncontributions (otherwise known as “bribes”) by the bucketful in order to
\nget the COPE Act passed. Geeks of the world – especially US-based geeks
\n– need to put down their cups of espresso for a moment and get busy
\nfighting this thing. […]<\/p>\nKind regards Philippe<\/p>\n
—<\/p>\n
http:\/\/distrowatch.com\/weekly.php?issue=20060508#opinion<\/p>\n
Not everyone realizes that the USA invented the Internet. Even fewer
\npeople realize that the USA is on the verge of wrecking it. This is not
\nan exaggeration. Some nasty new legislation currently under debate in
\nthe US Congress could make the Internet as bland as day-old yogurt.<\/p>\nThose who do not live in the USA should not be smug. There is a famous
\nold saying that when America sneezes, the rest of the world catches
\npneumonia. The USA has a history of exporting its bad laws. Most geeks
\nare familiar with the notorious DMCA and software patents. Thanks to the
\nDMCA, DVDs are region-coded and it’s illegal to buy mod-chips for an
\nXbox. Thanks to software patents, most Linux distros do not have video
\ncodecs or an MP3 player. The fact that this execrable legislation
\noriginated in America did not prevent its rottenness from spreading
\naround the world.<\/p>\nTo understand what is at stake, you should become familiar with the term
\nnet neutrality. The basic concept of net neutrality is that Internet
\ncontent should be dished out in a non-discriminatory fashion. Thus, your
\nISP should not be preventing you from accessing DistroWatch, nor should
\nyour bandwidth be throttled when you try to use BitTorrent or Skype. In
\nthis sense, the network is neutral – it does not play favorites.<\/p>\nAll this would change (for USA residents) if the US Congress passes the
\nCommunications Opportunity, Promotion, and Enhancement (COPE) Act of
\n2006. This odious new law is the brainchild of telecom and cable TV
\ncompanies. Chief ogres include Verizon, Comcast, BellSouth and AT&T.
\nTheir incentive for pushing this legal abomination is the opportunity to
\nmake a lot of money.<\/p>\nThe COPE Act would do away with the requirement for net neutrality, thus
\nturning America’s Internet into a “private network.” This would permit
\nISPs and telecom companies to dish out Internet access to the highest
\nbidder. Under such a regime, AOL could, for example, block access to
\nMSN, or Verizon could throttle your Skype bandwidth because it competes
\nwith their own voice-over-IP service. Even worse, a wealthy political
\nparty could pay ISPs to block access to a rival party’s web sites and
\nblogs. Emailing lists could also be throttled. It’s not hard to imagine
\nproprietary software companies paying to block access to DistroWatch, or
\nprevent you from downloading the latest Ubuntu or Fedora release.<\/p>\nCOPE<\/p>\n
“If we fail, the Internet will deteriorate to the point of near
\nuselessness.”<\/p>\nIf the COPE Act is passed, the USA – which likes to boast of being a
\n“bastion of freedom” – could ironically wind up with an Internet
\nbefitting a Third World dictatorship. However, the damage would not be
\nlimited to residents of the USA. The fact is that about 50% of the
\ncontent on the Internet originates in America, even more if you’re
\ntalking only about English-language content. Do a Google search on
\nalmost any topic – from “motorcycle repair” to “allergies” – and see how
\nmuch of the hits are American-based web sites. The web sites themselves
\ncould be hosted on servers outside the USA, but server location is not
\nthe issue. Rather, deprived of their US-readership or US-based
\nadvertising revenue, many sites would have to fold. Would the Internet
\nbe as useful to you if Wikipedia or Google folded? For that matter, it’s
\nhard to see how DistroWatch (which is not US-based) could survive if we
\nlost our American audience and advertisers.<\/p>\nThere is a lot more I could write about on this topic, but there are
\nothers who have already done so (and do it better than me). Some
\nexcellent articles about this brewing fiasco appeared recently in The
\nNation, Raw Story and The Free Press. Sadly, I have seen nothing
\nmentioned on the popular geek web sites that I visit everyday (which is
\nwhy I’m writing this article).<\/p>\nCan anything to done to prevent this disaster (especially since the COPE
\nAct seems to have the support of the Bush administration)? Fortunately,
\nin this case I believe there is hope, though it’s going to be a bitter
\nfight. Although we are up against powerful, well-moneyed lobbyists from
\nthe telecom industry, we also have some heavyweight supporters, among
\nthem Amazon and Google. Opposition to the COPE Act is being coordinated
\nby Save the Internet. If you are a US resident, you should visit their
\nweb site and sign their petition. Even more important, they also have a
\nneat little form for sending a message to your representatives and
\nsenators – just type in your message, zip code and address, and it will
\nget sent to the proper person (you needn’t even know who your
\nrepresentatives are). All such messages should be short and to the
\npoint. Basically, what I said in my message was:<\/p>\n1. I oppose the Communications Opportunity, Promotion, and
\nEnhancement (COPE) Act of 2006 in its present form.
\n 2. I support the efforts to amend the act by Representatives Markey,
\nBoucher, Eshoo and Inslee, and Senators Olympia Snowe and Byron Dorgan.
\n 3. I am in favor of Net Neutrality.<\/p>\nThe telecom\/cable industry is pulling out all stops to polish this turd.
\nTheir “coalition” has the Orwellian title Hands Off the Internet – their
\nthoroughly misleading web site can be found here.<\/p>\nThe telecoms have lots of cash, and are handing out campaign
\ncontributions (otherwise known as “bribes”) by the bucketful in order to
\nget the COPE Act passed. Geeks of the world – especially US-based geeks
\n– need to put down their cups of espresso for a moment and get busy
\nfighting this thing. If we fail, the Internet will deteriorate to the
\npoint of near uselessness and we might as well put our computers in
\nstorage. In that case, we’ll have to all find new hobbies. Possible
\ncandidates include knitting and flower arranging.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As seen on hacker’s mailing lists all over the web. US plans to ‘fight the net’ revealed (2006-01) http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/2\/hi\/americas\/4655196.stm From influencing public opinion through new media to designing “computer network attack” weapons, the US military is learning to fight an electronic war. The declassified document is called “Information Operations Roadmap”. Wrecking the Internet: Turning Gold […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[30,33,59,68],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geeklife","category-gubatron","category-opinions","category-random-stuff"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5Unzf-5f","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":249,"url":"https:\/\/www.gubatron.com\/blog\/warner-bros-starts-a-paid-p2p-service-in-germany\/","url_meta":{"origin":325,"position":0},"title":"Warner Bros starts a Paid P2P service in Germany","author":"gubatron","date":"January 30, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"So I read an article on the Wall Street Journal about WB starting a paid P2P service in Germany, they'll be charging per download (how stupid) almost the cost of a DVD (yes, and they'll be doing this using everybody's bandwidth... oh god) Here's what I think... (get ready old\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Gubatron"","block_context":{"text":"Gubatron","link":"https:\/\/www.gubatron.com\/blog\/category\/gubatron\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2664,"url":"https:\/\/www.gubatron.com\/blog\/the-tables-are-turning\/","url_meta":{"origin":325,"position":1},"title":"The tables are turning","author":"gubatron","date":"February 15, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"The internet already allows for zero cost content distribution to large amounts of people with technologies like BitTorrent. As the time goes by, labels will be lucky if they're still getting artists signed, sites like Bandcamp and YouTube empower artists to go directly to their fans. The tools at hand\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Creative Commons"","block_context":{"text":"Creative Commons","link":"https:\/\/www.gubatron.com\/blog\/category\/creative-commons\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":860,"url":"https:\/\/www.gubatron.com\/blog\/fight-for-empty-tv-channels-to-connect-new-yorkers-to-the-internet\/","url_meta":{"origin":325,"position":2},"title":"Fight for empty TV channels to connect New Yorkers to the Internet","author":"gubatron","date":"September 26, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I just received this from the Free Press organization, warning me about how New Yorkers won't be able to use the whitespace signals next year for Internet Connectivity, given the Wireless communication mafia is trying to get a hold of the spectrum, and if we don't do something about it,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Geeklife"","block_context":{"text":"Geeklife","link":"https:\/\/www.gubatron.com\/blog\/category\/geeklife\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3663,"url":"https:\/\/www.gubatron.com\/blog\/code-detecting-if-a-vpn-connection-is-active-programatically-jan2017\/","url_meta":{"origin":325,"position":3},"title":"[CODE] Detecting if a VPN connection is active programmatically (Jan\/2017)","author":"gubatron","date":"January 24, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"This method of programatic detection works as of January 24, 2017 with the latest versions of Express VPN and PIA (Private Internet Access) On Mac OSX\/ This works for Mac OSX 10.2.2. The trick is to request your ip routing table and examine through which network interface your default traffic\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Code"","block_context":{"text":"Code","link":"https:\/\/www.gubatron.com\/blog\/category\/code\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2100,"url":"https:\/\/www.gubatron.com\/blog\/water-as-a-medium-of-intercontinental-data-transfer\/","url_meta":{"origin":325,"position":4},"title":"Discussion: Water as a medium of Intercontinental High Speeds Data Transfer","author":"gubatron","date":"November 21, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"If water can transfer sound (low frequencies) 4 times faster than air, can it do the same for higher frequencies? could you encode megabits\/s at an ideal physical frequency range and transmit it over rivers, seas, or even oceans? I'm thinking that the Air is probably one of the worst\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Ideas"","block_context":{"text":"Ideas","link":"https:\/\/www.gubatron.com\/blog\/category\/ideas\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1198,"url":"https:\/\/www.gubatron.com\/blog\/the-good-and-bad-of-my-first-iphone-skype-experience\/","url_meta":{"origin":325,"position":5},"title":"The Good and Bad of my first iPhone Skype experience","author":"gubatron","date":"March 31, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"That's a screnshot of my wife's iPhone finally running skype. We just tried it for a few minutes and: Good Looks and feels like skype. It evens has all the sounds you'll hear on the desktop client There's no lag when it comes to Instant Messaging Sound Quality is Great\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Opinions"","block_context":{"text":"Opinions","link":"https:\/\/www.gubatron.com\/blog\/category\/opinions\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gubatron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gubatron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gubatron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gubatron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gubatron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.gubatron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gubatron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gubatron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gubatron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}