News Internet Kill Switch: Addressing Cyber Threats or Expanding Federal Power?

[Proton Soup]

related?

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jul/01/business/la-fi-ct-piracy-20100701

Feds shut down nine websites in movie piracy crackdown
The sites had made pirated versions of 'Toy Story 3' and 'Iron Man 2' available within hours of their release in theaters. The crackdown is part of a renewed effort to curb film and TV piracy online.
July 01, 2010|By Richard Verrier, Los Angeles Times

Adding some swashbuckling to its tough talk on fighting piracy, the federal government on Wednesday seized several websites that had offered downloads of pirated movies such as "Toy Story 3" and "Iron Man 2" within hours of their release in theaters.

Federal authorities announced that they had seized domain names from nine websites engaged in the "criminal theft of American movies and television." The websites include TVShack.net, PlanetMoviez.com, ThePirateCity.org and Ninjavideo.net. Combined, the sites drew 6.7 million visitors a month, authorities said.
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Officials also seized assets from 15 bank, investment and advertising accounts and executed residential search warrants in North Carolina, New York, New Jersey and Washington, according to a statement from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which coordinated its investigation with the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies.

The crackdown, which involved 100 agents working in 11 states and the Netherlands, was part of a renewed campaign dubbed Operation in Our Sites by federal authorities to curb Internet counterfeiting and piracy. The announcement comes a week after the Obama administration unveiled a detailed plan on how to tackle global piracy, including targeting illegal websites.

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[Office_Shredder]

Nope

 

[mgb_phys]

related?

surely you can't be suggesting that democratically elected politicians would use the threat of terrorism to further the aims of industry groups that had funded their election?

 

[Newai]

What kind of attack are they expecting? Flipping a switch on the Internet would cause more problems than simply dealing with the attack, which is a daily thing anyway.

Cracked has something to say about it: http://www.cracked.com/blog/the-world-without-the-internet/

 

[nismaratwork]

Why do people find it hard to understand why elected officials, who above money and other motivators tend to want power, would not simply want the option to fully control this? If you can't have it, having the ability to kill it is the next most powerful option, and these are a bunch of borderline psychopaths.

 

[Proton Soup]

surely you can't be suggesting that democratically elected politicians would use the threat of terrorism to further the aims of industry groups that had funded their election?

fine patriots, every one. there could stenographically-coded messages in those pixels.

 

[Office_Shredder]

Have we come to the point that we're suggesting the government is going to turn off the internet so people stop pirating movies?

 

[Proton Soup]

Have we come to the point that we're suggesting the government is going to turn off the internet so people stop pirating movies?

Nope

 

[nismaratwork]

Have we come to the point that we're suggesting the government is going to turn off the internet so people stop pirating movies?

I believe we've come to the common realization that no one appreciates powerlessness like those in some kind of power. The internet and all TCP/IP based communication transcends the ability of even highly motivated entities such as China to fully control it. Governments are used to being able to turn off electricity, or water, or phones or telegraphs. I believe the most plausible reason for this irrational desire for a "kill switch" is a misguided desire for control.

Obviously greater control would be amazing, and desirable in some areas, but as spam shows us, control is HARD.

 

[brainstorm]

wouldn't shutting down the internet be as easy as flooding as much bandwidth as possible with useless data? Isn't this already being accomplished by youtube and other data sharing?

If the concern is enemies obstructing communication, couldn't the government simply send out bots that neutralized recognizably large file packets by looking for certain kinds of tags? That would free up bandwidth in the event of it being flooded, wouldn't it?