Proposed Bill Would Allow President to Seize the Internet

Huh, this reminds me a little of a novel I wrote once.

Seems that there's a bill that was introduced last spring in the US Senate that would allow the USG, specifically the POTUS, to disconnect private computers and/or networks from the 'net. The bill's been revised, but it still doesn't sound so hot. Here's how an August 28, 2009 article at Cnet.com explained it's current form:

The new version would allow the president to "declare a cybersecurity emergency" relating to "non-governmental" computer networks and do what's necessary to respond to the threat. Other sections of the proposal include a federal certification program for "cybersecurity professionals," and a requirement that certain computer systems and networks in the private sector be managed by people who have been awarded that license.

So, now the government wants to license network IT guys. In other words, you'd need permission from the USG to run a computer network that extended beyond your house (by the sound of it, anyway). Juuust great--it's vaguely possible that such a measure might cut down on spam or hacking-related crime, but it'll make a lot of IT people's lives harder. That'd be one less thing I would be able to do for a living since I'm broke and couldn't afford a license.

But it's the "do what's necessary to respond to the threat" part that I love the most. What the hell does that mean?

Anything.

That's what's so scary. The original bill made it sound like they could come into your house, unplug your wifi router and walk off with it. I use Skype, talk about an abridgment of free speech!

But in the new version of the bill it sounds like literally anything could be done to your computer. I LOVE power grabs like this because people don't think the worst of government until it's too late (or if it's about something irrational like death panels).

Back in the late Clinton years, the USG passed a law called the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). In short, it banned the discussion of hacking digital copyright methods online. Think of it like someone telling you that you're not allowed to talk about safe cracking.

Yeah, people didn't think it would be a big deal back in the day because it seemed like the Internet might still be a fad. Well, it wasn't.

Likewise, this S.773 bill scares me because it was developed behind closed doors and we don't really know why it would even be necessary unless Senator Jay Rockefeller, the author of S.773, knows something we don't.

I just love it when politicians think they deserve to know things that we don't. It was a politician who once expressed that the Internet was "a series of tubes," or "a truck" or something. I really don't like trusting these besuited morons with our tax dollars, our country AND our Internet.

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