* * * http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2009/07/the-last-frontier-of-free-speech-gagging-surveilling-the-internet.html *
* * Friday, July 17, 2009 The Last Frontier of Free Speech: Gagging, Surveilling the Internet *It's coming folks, sooner than later. This bodes most ill. Free speech is our most unalienable right. I repeat what Ayn Rand said: "the principle of free speech is not concerned with the content of a man's speech and does not protect only the expression of good ideas, but all ideas. If it were otherwise, who would determine which ideas are good and where forbidden? The government?" Rand further said at a lecture, "Political Vacuums of Our Age", presented to a group of women in journalism in Indiana in 1961: "Once a country accepts censorship of the press and of speech, then nothing can be won without violence. Therefore, so long as you have free speech, protect it. This is the life-and-death issue in this country: do not give up the freedom of the press - of newspapers, books, magazines, radios movies, and other other form of presenting ideas. So long as that's free, a peaceful intellectual turn is possible."* *Who decides what is criminal speech and what is not? Who is doing the policing? * *GAG THE INTERNET!<http://www.nypost.com/seven/07112009/postopinion/opedcolumnists/gag_the_internet__178749.htm>NY post hat tip Jane AN** OBAMA OFFICIAL'S FRIGHTENING BOOK ABOUT CURBING FREE SPEECH ONLINE *** *When it comes to the First Amendment, Team Obama believes in Global Chilling.*** *Cass Sunstein, a Harvard Law professor who has been appointed to a shadowy post that will grant him powers that are merely mind-boggling, explicitly supports using the courts to impose a "chilling effect" on speech that might hurt someone's feelings.** He thinks that the bloggers have been rampaging out of control and that new laws need to be written to corral them.*** *Advance copies of Sunstein's new book, "On Rumors: How Falsehoods Spread, Why We Believe Them, What Can Be Done," have gone out to reviewers ahead of its September publication date, but considering the prominence with which Sunstein is about to be endowed, his worrying views are fair game now. **Sunstein is President Obama's choice to head the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. It's the bland titles that should scare you the most.*** *"Although obscure," reported the Wall Street Journal<http://www.nypost.com/topics/topic.php?t=Wall_Street%20Journal>, "the post wields outsize power. It oversees regulations throughout the government, from the Environmental Protection Agency<http://www.nypost.com/topics/topic.php?t=Environmental_Protection%20Agency>to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Obama aides have said the job will be crucial as the new administration overhauls financial-services regulations, attempts to pass universal health care and tries to forge a new approach to controlling emissions of greenhouse gases." * *Read it all. And then check out<http://westernstandard.ca/website/article.php?id=3007>what our neighbor to the north is up to. *** *Government of Canada moves to monitor Internet users **Western Standard*** *The Canadian Government has introduced legislation to expand its surveillance of Internet users. Find out what it means to you. <"margin-left: 40px;">Jesse Kline - July 15, 2009* [image: Surveillance Camera]*In the spring, the Government of Canada introduced two pieces of legislation that would greatly expand the power of the state to monitor its citizens online activity. **The legislation, known as the Investigative Powers for the 21st Century (IP21C) Act, would force Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to install costly surveillance systems on their networks and give police wide ranging new powers that do away with judicial oversight.*** *According to University of Ottawa law professor Michael Geist<http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/4069/125/>, the legislation would create additional requirements for ISPs and expand police powers. These ISP requirements can be broken down into two components. First, ISPs will be required to install costly surveillance equipment on their networks. Part of the cost will fall to taxpayers while the remainder will be carried by the companies themselves. Some smaller ISPs will be exempt from this requirement for a period of three years, creating an unfair burden on the larger, more successful companies. Second, the legislation would require that all ISPs give personal information to the government, including the names of their customers, as well as their IP, e-mail, and mailing addresses—on demand and without any judicial oversight.* *Police will also gain expanded powers under this legislation. First, they will be able to obtain information about Internet-based messaging, including tracking what sites people are visiting and who they are communicating with. This information will be subject to a judicial order. Second, police will be able to order ISPs to preserve data on their customers. Third, police will be able to obtain a warrant to remotely activate tracking devices in technologies such as cellular telephones. Fourth, the legislation also deals with computer viruses and makes it easier for the government to coordinate its efforts with international governments.* *There are numerous problems with the proposed legislation that should be alarming to freedom loving Canadians. It forces private business to not only be complicit in the government's attempt to spy on its citizens, it also forces them to shoulder much of the financial responsibility for the new policy. As such, some ISPs may be forced out of business<http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2009/06/18/tech-internet-police-bill-intercept-electronic-communications.html?ref=rss>. In addition, the legislation gives law enforcement officials unprecedented access to private communications and forces ISPs to preserve private data and disclose subscribers identities. "This is now a formal way in which the government will determine who you're in contact with, how often and for what purpose. If identified that someone or some area you're in contact with as being a danger, you're then connected to that," said UBC professor and civil libertarian Richard Rosenberg in an interview with Vancouver's News1130<http://www.news1130.com/more.jsp?content=20090617_213536_8084>. Moreover, the legislation does away with the principles of judicial review, probable cause, and our constitutional right<http://laws.justice.gc.ca/fr/charte/1.html#codese:8>"to be secure against unreasonable search or seizure." * *Currently, police can obtain subscriber information by getting a warrant from the courts. Under the new law, however, police would no longer require the permission of a judge<http://www2.canada.com/montrealgazette/features/viewpoints/story.html?id=a8e6e866-370f-4876-b32c-9a936f4efcd3>to obtain such information. This represents a reversal of the pledge by Stockwell Day <http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/2250/125/>, the government's previous Public Safety Minister, that the government would not seek "extra powers to police to pursue items without a warrant."* *Read the rest. Big bruthuh is here.* __,_._,___ --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more. -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
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