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Why the US needs to blacklist, censor pirate websites

Ars Technica: "Piracy runs rampant on the Internet, but Daniel Castro says it doesn't have to be this way. He wants the US government to start creating a blacklist of Internet sites; once approved by a judge, each site would be cut off from American Internet users at the Domain Name System (DNS) level, where readable locations like "arstechnica.com" are turned into numerical IP addresses. US-based credit card companies would be forbidden from doing any business with the site, and US-based advertising networks couldn't serve ads to the site.

Sound familiar? It should—this is the basic outline of the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA) legislation first introduced in Congress last year. Castro, a senior analyst at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), coauthored a 2009 paper on Internet piracy (PDF) that included many of the ideas that found their way into COICA.

He testified this month before Congress about the need for such measures, and I spoke to him recently about Web blocking, censorship, and why he believes that deep packet inspection (DPI) of Internet traffic by ISPs is more like Gmail than wiretapping. As for due process, Castro says COICA is fair—but he's open to some tweaks."

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arstechnica.com
Syko4827d ago

While clearly this is aimed at piracy. This is a slippery slope to say the least. This is dipping into Internet censorship territory, and as they say...The road to hell is paved with good intentions. This will not go over well for the Government in the end as there will be a lot of pissed off people with an axe to grind over something like this.

hazelamy4827d ago

i agree, for the most part it will be used to try to stop piracy, but it will also be abused by other to shut down websites that say things they don't like.
there was one story about i heard of where some site showed evidence of something somebody was doing that they shouldn't have been and they tried to get the website shut down claiming that the evidence was copyrighted material.

listen to a cory doctorow lecture where he talks about the real abusers of copyright law, it'll be a real eye opener.

it'll be a sad day if something like this becomes law in a country that values freedom of speech like the us.

INehalemEXI4826d ago

There is always people that will get clever despite what laws on the netz are passed IMO.

Mmmkay4827d ago (Edited 4827d ago )

everything is possible in the free world......
if this happens i'm gonna move to pakistan and make the population eat pork and convert to zen buddhism.

ATiElite4826d ago

NO NO and Hell No.

I really believe piracy is promoted as a way so Congress can point the finger and censor the Internet. Once you ban one thing then it opens up the flood gates to ban something else so I say No. We have already seen countries shut down the Internet to try to stop Freedom fighters from organizing and showing a inhumane government in action.

We live in the greatest era in Mankind ever. We have knowledge and Worldwide information instantly at our finger tips. controlling the flow of Information has always been an evil tool of Evil Dictators to impose their will on an enslaved population. Freedom of Information is power to the people.

undercovrr4826d ago

HELL NO! i need my daily fix of pirating.

AuToFiRE4826d ago

No. not only is it a waste of taxpayers money but all it will do is push pirates to become smarter and find a new way that will not be able to be shut down

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