Feds Does a Test Run to Take Over the Internet

Just days before the Super Bowl, the Feds conveniently shut down many sport websites. I guess Homeland Security Director Janet Napolitano doesn't like football.

(Politico) The federal government has seized the Web addresses of ten websites that allegedly live stream sporting and pay-per-view events online, shutting them down just days before one of the biggest televised sporting events of the year: the Super Bowl.

The U. S. Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of New York, working in conjunction with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, seized the Web addresses Tuesday. The seizure affidavit was unsealed Wednesday.

The websites, which include channelsurfing.net and Spain-based rojadirecta.org, were said to illegally provide access to content from the major professional sports organizations, namely the National Football League, National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League. The sites do not host the pirated sporting content themselves, but instead provide links to other websites where people can access it illegally.

Government officials argue that the sites are not only distributing pirated content illegally, but in the process, are also denting the revenues of the professional sports leagues and broadcasters as well as negatively impacting viewers.

Another Version of the Fairness Doctrine Coming to You Soon

Do not think that the government had the intention to protect us from the internet. Do not accept the notion that the government wants to control what internet providers charge you. This is a complete disguise to hide the real truth. In ever single terror plot that embarrassed the US government, they had to intervene to save face. From the underwear bomber to the shoe bomber plot, check-in at airports became a visual pageantry. The recent embarrassment of Wikileaks produce another excuse to implement an extreme solution. The real truth is that the FCC wants to control the contents that is being displayed on the internet. This is another version of the Fairness Doctrine. It may not look like it on the surface, but once the FCC becomes the gatekeepers of the internet, conservative talk radio will again be scrutinized. Every content on the web will be filtered. This is a violation of free speech and the FCC is committing an unconstitutional act.

(Wall Street Journal) WASHINGTON—The top communications regulator won support to pass contentious new rules for Internet traffic, a move likely to face legal challenges and create uncertainty about Internet regulation.

The Federal Communications Commission is set to approve on Tuesday Chairman Julius Genachowski's proposed rules governing net neutrality—a concept aimed at preventing Internet providers from interfering with web traffic

The rules are expected to bar providers from discriminating against legal Internet traffic and require more transparency. They also would let broadband providers for the first time charge more to companies that want faster service for delivery of games, videos or other services.

Net neutrality has become a contentious issue as worries grow that large phone and cable companies are growing too powerful as Internet gatekeepers. Start-ups and small businesses that rely on the Internet to provide shopping, information or other services to consumers are particularly concerned.

The FCC has wanted to step in and act as an Internet traffic cop, but Congress has never given it clear authority to do so.

Homeland Security shuts down dozens of Web sites without court order

When the government is given absolute power the Constitution becomes null and void. The Constitution was purpoely written to curb the abusive powers of the government. We live in a country with laws with due process. When the government disregards due process, their intention is very clear. They want to control us in every aspect of our daily life.

(Raw Story.com) The Homeland Security Department's customs enforcement division has gone on a Web site shutdown spree, closing down at least 76 domains this week, according to online reports.

While many of the web domains were sites that trafficked in counterfeit brand name goods, and some others linked to copyright-infringing file-sharing materials, at least one site was a Google-like search engine, causing alarm among web freedom advocates who worry the move steps over the line into censorship.

All the shut sites are now displaying a Homeland Security warning that copyright infringers can face up to five years in prison.

Homeland Security's ability to shut down sites without a court order evidently comes from the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, a Clinton-era law that allows Web sites to be closed on the basis of a copyright complaint. Critics have long assailed the DMCA for being too broad, as complainants don't need to prove copyright infringement before a site can be taken down.

According to a report at TorrentFreak, the search engine that was shut down -- Torrent-Finder.com -- neither hosted copyrighted material nor directly linked to places where it could be found. The owner of Torrent-Finder.net complained that his search engine was shut down without so much as a court order or prior complaint.

President Obama Blames The Internet For Why People Think He Is Muslim

If Obama is threatened that the Internet is causing all these vicious rumors, there may be a chance Obama is trying to imply something to us. Before nationalizing the Internet, Obama has to ask permission to the creator of the Internet, Al Gore.

(Mediaite) — The internet is a powerful thing. So concludes President Barack Obama in an extensive sit-down interview for ABC with Barbara Walters, who ventures to ask the President (and the First Lady) where the rumors the President is Muslim generate their strength.

While he declined to lay blame or assign motive, President Obama asserted, once again, that the rumors are untrue and that both he and his family benefit from their lives as Christians.

Opening with a question about the impact of his faith on his life, Walters asked point-blank why President Obama thought the rumor of his religious background had any staying power.

Declining to address any specifics about the rumors surrounding his religion– like, for instance, how the Muslim and Jeremiah Wright attacks can somehow coexist– Obama laid blame on one particular subset of the media, the internet.

“The internet has a powerful effect these ways,” he told Walters, “so the way rumors can take up a life of their own ends up being very powerfulpowerful