Patrick, Nice!
To other state's WISPs... Reminder: a senator represents his constituents. We need each senator on the Judicial committee to be contacted, and it will help if the contact is from an ISP that is a constituent of that specific senator. Both Email and Fax, since on such short notice, before the vote. Tom DeReggi RapidDSL & Wireless, Inc IntAirNet- Fixed Wireless Broadband ----- Original Message ----- From: "Patrick Shoemaker" <shoemak...@vectordatasystems.com> To: "WISPA General List" <wireless@wispa.org> Sent: Tuesday, September 28, 2010 4:55 PM Subject: Re: [WISPA] Fwd: EFF needs your help to stop the Senate's DNScensorship bill And here are mine, in case anyone wants to copy and modify: Mr. Cardin: I am writing as a Maryland resident, an Internet user, and the owner of a Maryland-based Internet Service Provider that serves Maryland businesses. I would like to voice my opposition to S. 3804, the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act. I realize that combating software piracy, copyright infringement, and counterfeit material is an important goal given the increasing prevalence of these nefarious activities in today's online world. However, the methodology proposed in this act to fight these disreputable activities is not aligned with the best interests of Internet users and network operators worldwide. Of particular concern is the proposed ability of the US government to make alterations to the Internet's Domain Name System (DNS) in order to limit access to domains that are deemed to be supporting copyright infringement, software piracy, or other illegal activity. Please consider the following when voting on S. 3804 tomorrow: -Allowing government control of DNS adds a layer of censorship to the Internet as a whole. The commercial and public success of the Internet is based in no small part to its open nature. Adding government censorship to a key component of the Internet goes against the principles that led to its success. -Implementing government-based DNS censorship will add significant administrative burden to network operators. This will result in increased cost to consumers for their residential Internet connections. Additionally, this burden will be particularly onerous for smaller ISPs that can't leverage the economies of scale that nationwide operators enjoy. -Censoring the Internet's DNS will surely result in the development of alternative name-resolution services that circumvent the goals of COICA. This will not only negate the purpose of the act, but will add an unnecessary layer of complexity to the Internet as a whole. The net result will be decreased network reliability and increased cost. I would encourage the Senate Judiciary Committee to pursue alternate means to limit illegal Internet activity. Thank you for your consideration. Sincerely, Patrick Shoemaker Vector Data Systems, LLC http://www.vectordatasystems.com On 9/28/2010 4:19 PM, Tom DeReggi wrote: > If anyone interested, these are my comments that I sent to my Maryland > senator. > > Dear Senator, > > My understanding is that the Senate Judiciary Committee is currently > considering the newly proposed Internet Censorship and Copyright bill. I > am a Maryland ISP, and writing this letter to strongly appose this bill. > Implementing this bill, would force Internet Access Providers to > compromise their DNS (Domain Name System) to blacklist and censor > Internet Domain Names. Such an act could destroy the USA’s dominant > ownership and control position of the Internet, both in the US and World > Wide, for numerous reasons. > > 1) If DNS censorship were to be implemented, the US would look like > Hypocrite. How can we promote an open and free Internet, and then > simultaneously mandate practices that do the opposite, and censor > content and content providers. > > 2) ISPs are accountable and liable to their customers, both ethically > and contractually. It is inappropriate for an ISP to block content or > compromise their customer’s Internet experience, based on the claims > made by third party blacklisting companies, because the ISP would have > no reasonable way to verify the accuracy of the provided blacklist data. > Simply asking ISPs to trust the data is inappropriate. > > 3) ISPs should not be forced to determine what is and what isn’t legal > content. That is the job of the courts and/or trained law enforcement. > Access Providers have systems in place to “pass data”, and in most cases > are agnostic to the actual content that passes. In some cases, privacy > policies prevent ISPs from even looking at it. It therefore is > inappropriate for ISPs to be forced to blacklist domains in DNS, when > they may not have a reasonable way to verify whether content is legal or > not. > > 4) What’s most important is that we do not lose sight that we play in a > GLOBAL market place, not only a US market place. The US currently has > the majority market share of in Internet hosting collocation, and > hosting Broadband traffic. This market share leverages the US to > maintain significant control of the Internet, both politically and > competitively. If the US were to impose anti-neutral conditions on > broadband providers and ISPs, such as to force them to censor domains in > the DNS system, Content providers would likely move their servers > oversees. If the US loses its hosting market share, it could result in > the US and US carriers losing control of the Internet, both politically > and competitively. > > 5) The US is a World Wide symbol of Freedom and Openness. The US must > continue to live up to the standard that we preach to the world, if we > want to be respected by the world as a leader. To lead the Internet, we > must stay Neutral, if we expect the World to trust us as the leader of > the Internet. I just don’t see the world taking it well, for the US to > self-elect themselves to be the one passing judgment on what is and > isn’t legal content on the world wide web, considering that many > blacklists today prematurely and overzealously block non-US content. > > 6) Lastly, forcing Censorship of the DNS system in the US will not help > solve the problem anyways, since it’s a global market place. If DNS > becomes compromised and censored, the world will just turn to > alternative Name Resolution services or providers. There is no technical > limitation that prevents Internet users or Internet Content providers > from turning to use new protocols for name resolution, or preventing > consumers and ISP from turning to unregulated ISPs operating in other > countries to perform their DNS resolution. > > For the above reasons, we strongly urge that you vote against the bill. > Thank you for your consideration. > > Tom DeReggi > RapidDSL & Wireless, Inc > IntAirNet- Fixed Wireless Broadband > > ----- Original Message ----- > *From:* Bret Clark <mailto:bcl...@spectraaccess.com> > *To:* WISPA General List <mailto:wireless@wispa.org> > *Sent:* Tuesday, September 28, 2010 10:42 AM > *Subject:* [WISPA] Fwd: EFF needs your help to stop the Senate's > DNScensorship bill > > This came on the NANOG list for those who don't subscribe to that > list...thought I'd pass it along here. Looks like you need to > respond to Peter by today 4PM EST. > > Bret > > -------- Original Message -------- > Subject: EFF needs your help to stop the Senate's DNS censorship bill > Date: Mon, 27 Sep 2010 16:40:25 -0700 > From: Peter Eckersley <p...@eff.org> > To: na...@nanog.org > > > > Dear network operators, > > I apologise for a posting that contains some politics; I hope you'll > agree > that it also has fairly substantial short-to-medium term operational > implications. > > As you may or may not have heard, there is a > censor-DNS-to-enforce-copyright > bill that is going to be passed by the Senate Judiciary Committee this > Wednesday. It will require service providers to censor the DNS > entries of > blacklisted domains where piracy is deemed too "central" to the site's > purpose. > Senators are claiming that they haven't heard any opposition to this > bill, and > it is being sponsored by 14 of the 19 committee members. We believe > it needs > to be stopped, and we need your help. > > What EFF needs right now is sign-ons to an open letter, from the > engineers who > helped build the Internet in the first place. The text of our letter > is > below. If you agree with it and would like to sign, please send me an > email > at...@eff.org, with your name and a one-line summary of what part of > the > Internet you have helped to design, implement, debug or run. > > This is URGENT. I need your sign-ons by 4:00pm, US Eastern time (1pm > Pacific), tomorrow. Unfortunately, the civil liberties community has > been > ambushed by this bill. > > You can find out more details on the bill here:https://eff.org/coica > > --------------------------- > > Open letter from Internet engineers to members of the Senate Judiciary > Committee: > > We, the undersigned, have played various parts in building a network > called > the Internet. We wrote and debugged the software; we defined the > standards and > protocols that talk over that network. Many of us invented parts of > it. We're > just a little proud of the social and economic benefits that our > project, the > Internet, has brought with it. > > We are writing to oppose the Committee's proposed new Internet > censorship and > copyright bill. If enacted, this legislation will risk fragmenting the > Internet's global domain name system (DNS), create an environment of > tremendous fear and uncertainty for technological innovation, and > seriously > harm the credibility of the United States in its role as a steward of > key > Internet infrastructure. In exchange for this, the bill will introduce > censorship that will simultaneously be circumvented by deliberate > infringers > while hampering innocent parties' ability to communicate. > > All censorship schemes impact speech beyond the category they were > intended to > restrict, but this bill will be particularly egregious in that regard > because > it causes entire domains to vanish from the Web, not just infringing > pages or > files. Worse, an incredible range of useful, law-abiding sites can be > blacklisted under this bill. These problems will be enough to ensure > that > alternative name-lookup infrastructures will come into widespread use, > outside > the control of US service providers but easily used by American > citizens. > Errors and divergences will appear between these new services and the > current > global DNS, and contradictory addresses will confuse browsers and > frustrate > the people using them. These problems will be widespread and will > affect sites > other than those blacklisted by the American government. > > The US government has regularly claimed that it supports a free and > open > Internet, both domestically and abroad. We can't have a free and open > Internet > without a global domain name system that sits above the political > concerns and > objectives of any one government or industry. To date, the leading > role the US > has played in this infrastructure has been fairly uncontroversial > because > America is seen as a trustworthy arbiter and a neutral bastion of free > expression. If the US suddenly begins to use its central position in > the DNS > for censorship that advances its political and economic agenda, the > consequences will be far-reaching and destructive. > > Senators, we believe the Internet is too important and too valuable to > be > endangered in this way, and implore you to put this bill aside. > > -- > Peter eckersley...@eff.org > Senior Staff Technologist Tel +1 415 436 9333 x131 > Electronic Frontier Foundation Fax +1 415 436 9993 > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > > > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > WISPA Wants You! Join today! > http://signup.wispa.org/ > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org > > Subscribe/Unsubscribe: > http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless > > Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ > > > > > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > WISPA Wants You! Join today! > http://signup.wispa.org/ > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org > > Subscribe/Unsubscribe: > http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless > > Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wants You! 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