Coming Soon to the DarkNet Near You

Thoughtful and creative people should be able to benefit from their talent.

For Brainwashing

PIPA (Protect IP Act) and SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) are two newly proposed bills whose purported aim is to protect copyrighted material, including movies,  music, and other forms of online content from abuse. On its face it seems like a good idea. And those promoting it say that it will protect jobs, and stop ruthless foreigners that benefit from ripping off talented people.

But the true impact of these bills will result in further extending the power of the powerful oligarchy that already controls Washington. It could easily become a system of censorship and thought control. As it is, the government has already been monitoring the online activity of its citizens. And unless you take special measures to browse anonymously the government is capable of finding out everything that you've posted, downloaded, or written in an e-mail.

If enacted, IP providers will be mandated to block all websites which are deemed to be in violation of this new law or be prosecuted themselves. These laws could shut down websites like the Gathering Spot, Youtube, and Facebook because they might be unable to comply with the new laws.   And even Google stands in opposition to these possible new regulations.

Most people who browse the web are probably unaware of the threat SOPA and PIPA will have in relation to their Internet-browsing freedom?

Those who are aware of the threat are generally people who work in the field of technology and those who want to protect the online freedom of expression that the Internet has provided.  Others are concerned with the underlying political consequences of such new laws.

There are those who have been working for years on technology to circumvent these overreaching forms of governmental spying and censorship.  Under the new laws ISPs will be required to block all requests to sites that have been known to provide access to copyrighted material.  However, if one types in a numerical IP into their browser they will be able to access the blocked sites.

The folks in Washington seem unaware of the existence of the DarkNet.  Short for dark Internet, in file sharing terminology, a darknet is an Internet or private network, where information and content are shared by darknet participants anonymously. Darknets are popular with users who share copy protected files as the service will let users send and receive files anonymously — that is, users cannot be traced, tracked or personally identified.  By using encryption technology packets of data circulate through the net without detection making attempts to shutdown file sharing impossible.

So, it is very unlikely these new laws will suppress file sharing for long.  But these laws do give the government an excuse to extend the reach of its spying and interfering in the online activity of citizens.