The i-Patriot Act is coming
Posted on August 6th, 2008 by bile Tags: Al Qaeda, California, Center for Internet and Society, Creative Commons, Department of Justice, Electronic Frontier Foundation, government, internet, Lawrence Lessig, NSA, Richard Clarke, Software Freedom Law Center, Stanford University, The PATRIOT Act, wiretapLawrence Lessig, a respected Law Professor from Stanford University told an audience at this years Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech conference in Half Moon Bay, California, that “There’s going to be an i-9/11 event” which will act as a catalyst for a radical reworking of the law pertaining to the internet.
There’s going to be an i-9/11 event. Which doesn’t necessarily mean an Al Qaeda attack, it means an event where the instability or the insecurity of the internet becomes manifest during a malicious event which then inspires the government into a response. You’ve got to remember that after 9/11 the government drew up the Patriot Act within 20 days and it was passed.
The Patriot Act is huge and I remember someone asking a Justice Department official how did they write such a large statute so quickly, and of course the answer was that it has been sitting in the drawers of the Justice Department for the last 20 years waiting for the event where they would pull it out.
Of course, the Patriot Act is filled with all sorts of insanity about changing the way civil rights are protected, or not protected in this instance. So I was having dinner with Richard Clarke and I asked him if there is an equivalent, is there an i-Patriot Act just sitting waiting for some substantial event as an excuse to radically change the way the internet works. He said “of course there is”.
Skip to 4:30:
Lessig is the founder of Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet and Society. He is founding board member of Creative Commons and is a board member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and of the Software Freedom Law Center. He is best known as a proponent of reduced legal restrictions on copyright, trademark and radio frequency spectrum, particularly in technology applications.
Anyone who doesn’t think the Internet as we know it can be controlled by the government is missing the obvious. The telecoms, which own all the major hubs and backbones, are in bed with the government. They now have immunity from instances where they work with the government to spy on subjects. They work with the NSA to tap major internet hubs with machines able to do realtime analysis of all traffic passing through it. The government even provides them with monopoly status in many parts of the country isolating them from competition. Just like all large corporations which are regulated… they are in bed with the corporatists running the government.
4 Responses to “The i-Patriot Act is coming”
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August 6th, 2008 at 9:29 am
…to do realtime analysis of all traffic passing through it…
Shout out to my man, Rob at the NSA.
Question for you, bile. As a proponent for privately owned roads, what degree of inspection (or spying if you will) would be permitted by the owner of the road? What expectation of privacy does our law supposedly set when acting on private property? (Ignoring for now that the state actively manages who can own this property.)
August 6th, 2008 at 10:14 am
An individual driving on a private road would be trespassing if there was no explicit agreement. Therefore they can make any demands they wish for you to utilize their services. In that case there is no spying. It’s no different from today and government. They make rules you have to follow to use their roads. It’s just that they can change the rules at will and also is the enforcement and arbitration for those who don’t follow them.
Now-a-days? Very little. The 4th Amendment means almost nothing now. You’d need to be more specific really to comment further.
August 6th, 2008 at 11:01 am
So if monitoring and reporting of traffic were in the service agreements of an ISP, or upstream connection, what can be done? Are you simply lamenting the fact that government has whittled down the number of players that it can effectively lobby them to do as they please?
August 6th, 2008 at 12:56 pm
Show me in the contract where giving data to the government is. Show me where the government has the authority in the Constitution to do these things. You act as if government is just another player in the field. They are the refs with guns pointed at everyone. They are not supposed to nor should they be treated the same. I don’t care about the number of players… i care about the men with the guns.