The FCC’s Plan To Take Over The Internet Has Begun

“It’s not a government takeover of the Internet.” That was the mantra of those who backed the Federal Communication Commission’s “net neutrality” rules, which the FCC approved a little over a year ago.
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Official: North America is COMPLETELY OUT of new IPv4 addresses

North America has officially run dry of new IPv4 addresses, the numbers that computers use to find each other on the internet.
This means the region can allocate no more of the 32-bit network addresses to web hosting companies, cloud providers, organizations and individuals: they're all taken. The space is full, and it's being heralded as a key milestone in the internet's growth.


Read more at The Register Read More......

GOP Senators Lead Push to Allow States to Impose Internet Sales Tax

Republicans in the Senate are leading efforts to pass legislation that would allow the states to impose a sales tax on online transactions.
Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY) has proposed the Marketplace Fairness Act (MFA), which would allow states to "collect and remit sales and use taxes with respect to remote sales.” The bill includes an exemption for companies whose gross remote sales are less than $1 million per year. The legislation enjoys support particularly among legislators in rural states who believe that online retailers are encroaching on sales made out of traditional storefronts.


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Terror suspect Christopher Cornell: "I'm so dedicated that I risked my whole life"

CINCINNATI, OH (FOX19) - The Green Township terror suspect has opened up about his plot to attack the U.S. Capitol. ✧ During the hour-long conversation with Tricia Macke, Cornell, 20, referred to himself as Raheel Mahrus Ubaydah. ✧ "I'm with the Islamic State," Cornell said. "I'm very dedicated to establish the Sharia in America, to wage war on the kafr (an Islamic term for ‘unbeliever') and raise the word of Allah above all." ✧ "I'm so dedicated that I risked my whole life," Cornell said.

Visit Fox 18 Now for videos, interviews and commentary on home-grown terrorists. Read More......

The End of a Free Internet?

It's time to mobilize Congress against Obama’s plan to relinquish our authority over the Internet. When the new Congress shows up on Tuesday, it’s going to have lots to worry about, but there’s one serious problem at risk of being overlooked. And that really can’t be allowed to happen; it’s much too important:In 2015, the Obama administration plans to hand over control of ICANN — the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers — to international governance. ICANN oversees the superstructure of the Internet, and the American Department of Commerce oversees ICANN. The plan for handing our authority to the global community would mean oversight by censors and despots in China, Russia, and Iran. American governance of the Internet has been incredibly benevolent and altogether hands-off. Which other countries would you trust not to interfere with the free exchange of ideas?

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John Kerry: 'This Little Thing Called the Internet ... Makes It Much Harder to Govern'

Speaking to State Department personnel at the U.S. Embassy in Brasilia, Brazil, on Tuesday, Secretary of State John Kerry said that "this little thing called the Internet ... makes it much harder to govern."

He also said that "ever since the end of the Cold War, forces have been unleashed that were tamped down for centuries by dictators."

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Feds tell Web firms to turn over user account passwords

The U.S. government has demanded that major Internet companies divulge users' stored passwords, according to two industry sources familiar with these orders, which represent an escalation in surveillance techniques that has not previously been disclosed.

If the government is able to determine a person's password, which is typically stored in encrypted form, the credential could be used to log in to an account to peruse confidential correspondence or even impersonate the user. Obtaining it also would aid in deciphering encrypted devices in situations where passwords are reused.

"I've certainly seen them ask for passwords," said one Internet industry source who spoke on condition of anonymity. "We push back."

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Contentions: Senate Republicans Turn Against SOPA/PIPA

Commentary Magazine/Contentions, 1/18/2012 by Alana Goodman - Today’s [Wednesday's] Internet blackout protesting the SOPA/PIPA bills – which would allow the federal government to shut down accused copyright violators online without due process – is already making an impact. Legislators who support the bills are being barraged with angry phone calls, and this morning Sen. Marco Rubio withdrew his co-sponsorship of the PIPA legislation...
[...]
This comes after six Republican senators sent a letter to Sen. Harry Reid distancing themselves from the bill and asking him to postpone the vote:

“We have increasingly heard from a large number of constituents and other stakeholders with vocal concerns about possible unintended consequences of the proposed legislation, including breaches in cybersecurity, damaging the integrity of the Internet, costly and burdensome litigation, and dilution of First Amendment rights,” said Sens. Chuck Grassley​ (R-Iowa), Orrin Hatch​ (R-Utah), Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), John Cornyn​ (R-Texas), Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Tom Coburn​ (R-Okla.) in the letter.

Sens. Cornyn, Sessions and Coburn previously backed the bill, and Sens. Grassley and Hatch are co-sponsors. Read more at Commentary... (may require a subscription) Read More......

Obama's ID card for the Internet

WASHINGTON TIMES/Editorial, 1/13/2011 (Hat tip: AFA Action Alert) - The Washington Times is warning that the White House cybersecurity adviser and Commerce Secretary Gary Locke are drawing up "ObamaNet," President Obama's mandate for what amounts to a national ID card for the Internet. Read more at the Washington Times... Read More......

House Republican Introduces Bill to Block FCC's Internet Grab

Rep. Marsha Blackburn [R-TN] introduced legislation Wednesday to deny the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulatory oversight over the Internet, which the Tennessee Republican insisted was the “sole prerogative of Congress” to administer. Read more at BIG GOVERNMENT... Read More......

Arrogant FCC Takes Control Over Internet

iT&Telecom News, 12/28/2010 by Bruce Walker of Heartland.org - "By a 3-2 vote, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski’s latest network neutrality iteration came to pass [before Christmas break], reeking of bureaucratic arrogance. ∴ Arrogance not only toward the majority of the public who expressed their contentment with the Internet without government intrusion, but also toward a Congress that refused to relinquish any statutory authority whatsoever to the FCC, and toward industry stakeholders warning of the negative economic and employment impact of the maneuver. The prolonged uncertainty injected into an industry known for rapid advancements will most certainly stifle innovations and investment. ∴ Perhaps most damning, the FCC is showing arrogance toward the U.S. Appeals Court, which told the FCC to back off last April because only Congress has the authority to implement rules over the Internet. The court’s finding was unanimous." Read more at iT & Telecom News...

What others have to say...

The Internet has taken our basic Freedom of Assembly right and adapted itself beautifully to the 21st century – a sensational transition our Founding Fathers would have been proud of. To believers in freedom, the Internet is a Godsend – the modern-day equivalent of the printing press. --Lee Bellinger

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iT News: UN talks on Internet Regulation labelled "offensive"

iTnews (au), 12/20/2010 - US Congresswoman offers resolution: Hands off the internet! ∴ US politicians have responded to moves from within the United Nations to form an inter-Government panel to regulate the internet, putting forward a resolution demanding the UN maintain a "hands-off approach". ∴ Responding to an exclusive iTnews report on the United Nations discussion (which overnight became the most read story in iTnews' history), California Congresswoman Mary Bono Mack has put forward a resolution that the United Nations and other international governmental organisations take their hands off the Internet. ∴ Introducing House Resolution 1775 [see full text at link], Mack argued that "the Internet has progressed and thrived precisely because it has not been subjected to the suffocating effect of a governmental organization's heavy hand. ∴ "The attempt of the United Nations to overtake something that is so central to our economy-like the Internet-is offensive and completely out of line," she said. ∴ "We have a hard enough time keeping the Federal Communications Commission's hands off the Internet; imagine having to convince governments like Syria, Iran and Venezuela." Read more at iTnews... Read More......

The Vast Majority of Americans Like the Internet Just the Way It Is

BIG GOVERNMENT, 9/29/2010 by Seton Motley - Even Obama voters think Net Neutrality is a solution looking for a problem ∴ Free Press, Public Knowledge and the rest of the ever-dwindling Media Marxist “Save the Internet” contingent incessantly assert that they are pushing their government regulatory Web agenda in the “public interest” – to protect consumers from the Big, Bad Telecom companies. ∴ Well it turns out – yet again – that the public isn’t interested in what Free Press & Co. are offering – perhaps because they rightly realize that the “reformers” are looking to burn down the Internet in order to “save” it.

There is a new poll... (Read more at Big Government) Read More......

Surrendering Internet to Foreign Powers

NEWSMAX, 1/31/2010 by Bradley A. Blakeman - Without the ingenuity of America’s brightest minds and the investment of U.S. taxpayer dollars, there would be no Internet, as we now know it today. ∴ Now, the Obama administration has moved quietly to cede control of the Web from the United States to foreign powers. Read more at Newsmax... Read More......

SEC and Homeland Security need Web backup, GAO says

REUTERS, 10/26/2009 by Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor - WASHINGTON: Securities exchanges have a sound network back-up if a severe pandemic keeps people home and clogging the Internet, but the Homeland Security Department has done little planning, Congressional investigators said on Monday. ∴ The department does not even have a plan to start work on the issue, the General Accountability Office said. ∴ But the Homeland Security Department accused the GAO of having unrealistic expectations of how the Internet could be managed if millions began to telework from home at the same time as bored or sick schoolchildren were playing online, sucking up valuable bandwidth. Read more at Reuters...

Is this a lead-in to giving the President authority to control the Internet in case of an 'emergency?' --bc Read More......

AFP: Is a Washington takeover of the Internet next?

To Do Item: VIA EMAIL FROM PHIL KERPEN OF AMERICANS FOR PROSPERITY (AFP), 10/20/2009 - As important as all the fights are that we're in right now, perhaps the biggest of all is the fight over whether the government will take over the Internet. That's because as long as the Internet is free, we can use it to communicate, educate, and organize. Tea parties, townhalls, and AFP events would be very difficult to organize if government owned and controlled the Internet and chose to interfere with it. That's what's at stake this week as the Federal Communications Commission decides on Thursday whether to move forward with so-called "net neutrality" regulations.

The net neutrality movement is an outgrowth of the larger so-called media reform project of radical left-wing activists like Robert McChesney who seek to destroy private control of the country's communications systems.

I discussed McChesney and the so-called media reform movement last night on the Glenn Beck show, and you can watch that clip here. I'll be on with Glenn again tonight to discuss net neutrality specifically.

As the Internet Freedom Coalition shows on our Net Neutrality Scare Ticket it has now been nearly 7 years since the November 19, 2002 letter that started the net neutrality scare, without a single significant incident of the kind of egregious behavior by evil phone and cable companies we're told require government intervention. It's a solution in search of a problem.

Net neutrality sounds simple--force phone and cable companies to treat every bit of information the same way--until you realize that modern networks are incredibly complex, with millions of lines of code in every router. Making sure services like VoIP, video conferencing, and telemedicine (not to mention the next great thing that hasn't been invented yet) get priority may be necessary to make the Internet work. But the government is working to do just the opposite.

These networks cost billions of dollars to build and maintain, and if there is uncertainty whether there will be a good return on that investment, private investment will dry up. And then government will step in, spending billions of our tax dollars on a government-owned and controlled Internet.

That's their plan.

The push for a Washington takeover of the Internet is coming from the White House. It includes Susan Crawford, the so-called Internet Czar, who told The Wall Street Journal in April that the $7.2 billion of stimulus money for broadband she is helping spend is a "down payment on future government investments in the Internet." She went on to say: "We should do a better job as a nation of making sure fast, affordable broadband is as ubiquitous as electricity, water, snail mail or any other public utility."

It comes right from the top. President Obama himself said on the campaign trail: "I will take a backseat to no one in my commitment to Net Neutrality."

The FCC will vote Thursday on what it calls a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Net Neutrality. If it passes, it will start a public comment period and I'll be emailing you again with instructions on how to file comments. But for the next couple days, we need to make our case against the FCC even taking that first step down the road to a Washington takeover of the Internet.

Here's what you can do to help: The FCC created a website at www.OpenInternet.gov where you can comment on government regulating the Internet under so-called net neutrality rules. The left has been flooding it with comments. Please take a moment to head over to www.OpenInternet.gov and click on "Join the Discussion" to make your voice heard for keeping the Internet in private hands.

Thanks for all you do.

Phil Kerpen
Director of Policy, Americans for Prosperity
Chairman, The Internet Freedom Coalition

P.S. Wanted to remind you again that you can see me tonight on the Glenn Beck program on FOX News at 5PM and 2AM Eastern, 2PM and 11PM Pacific. You can also contact me any time through Twitter (http://twitter.com/kerpen) or Facebook (http://facebook.com/PhilKerpen). Read More......

Net Neutrality now a left wing movement

REDSTATE.COM, 10/3/2009 by Neil Stevens - The Real Net Neutrality Astroturfers: The left is at it again. They know that in a straight-up battle of ideas, their socialist perversion of Net Neutrality could never win out. Nobody but the most blindly partisan supporters of Barack Obama wants a government takeover of the Internet, because everybody knows that when government takes something over, freedom in it tends to die. ∴ That is why Save The Internet is resorting to dishonest smear campaigns in an attempt to shout down and discredit their opponents. They want to win by driving all opposition off the field, turning this debate into the Internet equivalent of the streets of Berlin in Weimar Germany. They must not get away with it. ∴ Save the Internet is a diverse coalition of mostly radical socialist groups like SEIU, ACLU, PIRG, select AFSCME locals, PETA, Democrat Underground, MoveOn.org, AfterDowningStreet.org, and Common Cause, but also a number of corporations and ISPs both foreign and domestic, and even foreign interest groups. There are some mistaken right-wingers and libertarians in there like Glenn Reynolds, the Christian Coalition, and the Gun Owners of America. I would urge them to leave, because the movement has been hijacked, ladies and gentlemen. You are now being used to promote a radical left wing movement. Read more at Red State... Read More......

Bill would give president emergency control of Internet

CNET, 8/28/2009 - Internet companies and civil liberties groups were alarmed this spring when a U.S. Senate bill proposed handing the White House the power to disconnect private-sector computers from the Internet. ∴ They're not much happier about a revised version that aides to Sen. Jay Rockefeller, a West Virginia Democrat, have spent months drafting behind closed doors. CNET News has obtained a copy of the 55-page draft of S.773 (excerpt), which still appears to permit the president to seize temporary control of private-sector networks during a so-called cybersecurity emergency. ∴ 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. Read more at CNet... Read More......

WND: Will bill give Obama control of Internet?

WORLD NET DAILY 4/4 (H/t: Patricia Anderson) - A pair of bills introduced in the U.S. Senate would grant the White House sweeping new powers to access private online data, regulate the cybersecurity industry and even shut down Internet traffic during a declared "cyber emergency." Read more at WND... Read More......