sailingaway
04-22-2013, 12:17 PM
or at least contains provisions taken from CISPA to make CISPA more likely to pass - like US web censorship: http://t.co/fKkBSkfri7
Enter this session’s House Energy and Commerce Committee, who last week advanced a similar bill: the aforementioned H.R.1580, or “a bill to affirm the policy of the United States regarding Internet governance.” But less than a year after Rep. Mack made Washington’s intentions clear with her attempt at putting that policy on paper, the 113th Congress has come to a slightly different conclusion this time around:
Nowhere in H.R. 1580 does it say that governments should be forbidden to restrict and regulate the Internet [PDF].
That wording has been rightly removed from the newest bill, and where it once was sits just a shadow of what the last body of elected lawmakers agreed to. The United States’ policy regarding Internet governance, according to the latest attempt to add it to the books, reads:
“It is the policy of the United States to preserve and advance the successful multistakeholder model that governs the Internet.”
According to Gautham Nagesh of the DC-based website Roll Call, the absence of that “Internet free from government control” language isn’t just a coincidence. Nagesh writes that an April 11 markup of the draft performed by the Subcommittee on Communication and Technology was nearly derailed until that part was omitted. The new draft, Nagesh writes, was agreed on in order to address Democratic concerns.
“Soon after the Dubai conference, House Republicans began using the rhetoric of Internet freedom to frame some of these domestic issues, and it was in that context that Walden held his April 11 markup,” Nagesh writes, referring to Rep. Greg Walden, a Republican from Oregon who serves as chairman of that subcommittee.
Nagesh says Walden authored the newest governance bill and included the phrase “promote a global Internet free from government control” in the final clause during his first draft. When it went before committee, though, things got a bit hairy.
He continues:
“Democrats immediately objected to the phrase ‘free from government control,’ arguing it could undermine the US government’s ability to enforce existing — or future — laws online.”
That’s right: according to sources speaking to Roll Call, language ensuring that the US won’t impose any restrictions on domestic Internet access were purposely rescinded so that the federal government is given the option of doing such should the need arise.
Subcommittee ranking member Rep. Anna G. Eshoo (D-Calif) adds to Roll Call that four federal agencies intervened as well, asking Congress to come up with different language over the concern that H.R. 1580 may be passed and, Gagnesh writes, “affect federal litigation and undermine flexibility in foreign policy.”
more at link
Enter this session’s House Energy and Commerce Committee, who last week advanced a similar bill: the aforementioned H.R.1580, or “a bill to affirm the policy of the United States regarding Internet governance.” But less than a year after Rep. Mack made Washington’s intentions clear with her attempt at putting that policy on paper, the 113th Congress has come to a slightly different conclusion this time around:
Nowhere in H.R. 1580 does it say that governments should be forbidden to restrict and regulate the Internet [PDF].
That wording has been rightly removed from the newest bill, and where it once was sits just a shadow of what the last body of elected lawmakers agreed to. The United States’ policy regarding Internet governance, according to the latest attempt to add it to the books, reads:
“It is the policy of the United States to preserve and advance the successful multistakeholder model that governs the Internet.”
According to Gautham Nagesh of the DC-based website Roll Call, the absence of that “Internet free from government control” language isn’t just a coincidence. Nagesh writes that an April 11 markup of the draft performed by the Subcommittee on Communication and Technology was nearly derailed until that part was omitted. The new draft, Nagesh writes, was agreed on in order to address Democratic concerns.
“Soon after the Dubai conference, House Republicans began using the rhetoric of Internet freedom to frame some of these domestic issues, and it was in that context that Walden held his April 11 markup,” Nagesh writes, referring to Rep. Greg Walden, a Republican from Oregon who serves as chairman of that subcommittee.
Nagesh says Walden authored the newest governance bill and included the phrase “promote a global Internet free from government control” in the final clause during his first draft. When it went before committee, though, things got a bit hairy.
He continues:
“Democrats immediately objected to the phrase ‘free from government control,’ arguing it could undermine the US government’s ability to enforce existing — or future — laws online.”
That’s right: according to sources speaking to Roll Call, language ensuring that the US won’t impose any restrictions on domestic Internet access were purposely rescinded so that the federal government is given the option of doing such should the need arise.
Subcommittee ranking member Rep. Anna G. Eshoo (D-Calif) adds to Roll Call that four federal agencies intervened as well, asking Congress to come up with different language over the concern that H.R. 1580 may be passed and, Gagnesh writes, “affect federal litigation and undermine flexibility in foreign policy.”
more at link