NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] Irony of the Year? - Senator who created PROTECT IP keynoting at CFP "Freedom/Privacy" conference
Irony of the Year? - Senator who created PROTECT IP keynoting at CFP "Freedom/Privacy" conference http://bit.ly/m10qCI (This message on Google Buzz) - - - If it weren't for the fact that I'm on the CFP 2011 program committee, I would have thought that I was reading a satirical report from "The Onion" or some such. I've just learned that (first I've heard of this) Senator Patrick Leahy will be keynoting at the Computers, Freedom & Privacy Conference on June 16. The Senator has done an enormous amount of good work over his very long Senate career. But there's no getting around the fact that his enthusiastic pushing of PROTECT IP -- the "Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property" Act that he himself introduced, is a travesty. PROTECT IP is among the most dangerous, perverse, anti-privacy, anti-freedom legislation related to the Internet that has ever been proposed, particularly due to its extension of liability to linking, search engines, and other "intermediary" concepts and entities. The Kafkaesque nature of Leahy keynoting at CFP while actually engaged in the active promotion of PROTECT IP -- a nightmare of his own creation -- is decidedly intense. References (via Lauren's Blog): Why the Internet is the Most Important Thing in the World http://bit.ly/ixeLqr The New Campaign to Demonize Google for Their Protection of the Constitution http://bit.ly/jLDmLU Knowledge as Sacrilege: The Criminalizing of Links and Search Engines http://bit.ly/mqpFF3 "Free Speech Be Damned!": Congressional Bill Would Censor Search Engines http://bit.ly/jCbZxY Censorship, Governments, and Flagellating Google http://bit.ly/l9SKEU --Lauren-- Lauren Weinstein (lauren@vortex.com): http://www.vortex.com/lauren Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org Founder: - Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org - Global Coalition for Transparent Internet Performance: http://www.gctip.org - PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/laurenweinstein Google Buzz: http://j.mp/laurenbuzz Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com