(NaturalNews) As part of a new expansion of government power over information, the Department of Homeland Security has begun seizing and shutting down internet websites (web domains) without due process or a proper trial. DHS simply seizes web domains that it wants to and posts an ominous "Department of Justice" logo on the web site. See an example at http://torrent-finder.com
http://www.naturalnews.com/030542_ce..._internet.html
Over 75 websites were seized and shut down last week, and there is no indication that the government will stop such efforts. Right now, their focus is websites that they claim "violate copyrights," yet the torrent-finder.com website that was seized by DHS contained no copyrighted content whatsoever. It was merely a search engine website that linked to destinations where people could access copyrighted content. Google also links to copyrighted content -- does that mean the feds will soon seize Google, too?
These seizures were conducted on the basis of language in the DMCA law, which is vastly overreaching in its powers (it was passed to appease the music recording industry and the RIAA). Even so, the U.S. Senate is right now considering passing yet another law -- COICA -- the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/11/...), a new law that would give the federal government even more power to shut down websites it opposed.
Read more about COICA here: http://www.usa-anti-communist.com/w...
And here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris...
Here's the list of 19 US Senators who voted to censor the internet via the COICA bill: http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20...
Government could shut down alternative health websites
Where is all this going? Today the U.S. government is targeting websites focused on copyright violations, but if the public tolerates this government-sponsored censorship of the web, it's only a matter of time before these government powers are expanded to control the content of the internet.
Over the last few years, several U.S. Senators have already attempted to outlaw vitamins and nutritional supplements. One lawmaker even suggested that "alternative health" information should be outlawed on the internet in order to "protect" people from information that isn't aligned with the drugs-and-surgery approach to sick care. It's only a matter of time, it seems, before the U.S. government uses its new power of seizing internet websites as an information warfare weapon.
In fact, under these new laws, there's no limit to what websites theto silence anyone who opposes FDA and the Big Pharma agenda.
U.S. government could choose to seize and shut down. This is the beginning of the federal takeover of the internet, where all websites that don't fall in line with "official" government-approved information are now potential targets of DHS seizures.
One music website seized by DHS -- RapGodFather.com -- was seized merely because its users posted comments linking to file-sharing websites (http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/11/...). The site had 150,000 members, but as of today, it is the property of "Homeland Security http://rapgodfathers.com/) Investigations." (
See the TorrentFreak.com news report on this important story here: http://torrentfreak.com/music-linki...
All websites using the word "Face" could soon be seized.
The reach of tyrants knows no limits. As widely reported throughout the popular press last week, the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has assigned Facebook a trademark monopoly over the word "Face." (http://techcrunch.com/2010/11/23/pa...) This means that any website using the word "face" could theoretically be seized by the DHS under the DMCA.
Lest you think this is some impossible exaggeration of the law, keep in mind that governments always misuse laws to go far beyond their original intended purpose. The RICO Act, for example, which was originally passed in 1970 to combat the mafia, is now used nearly every day against individuals and small businesses (http://www.ricoact.com).
Similarly, the Patriot Act signed into law by President Bush after the 9/11 attacks was originally intended to be applied to international terrorists. But now in the United States, it is routinely used against animal rights activists and environmental protection groups (http://www.aclu.org/national-securi...).
These rogue abuses of federal law create a pattern of expanding government powers that increasingly threaten the Constitutional rights of American citizens. To seize a person's website without due process is both a violation of that person's First Amendment rights (Free Speech) as well as their Fifth Amendment rights.
The Fifth Amendment states:
No person shall be... deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
And yet this seizure of websites by the DHS is doing precisely that -- depriving people of property without due process of law.
The U.S. federal government, as we have increasingly seen through the actions of the TSA, DEA and DHS, does not recognize nor honor the Bill of Rights. Nor does it believe the U.S. Constitution has any authority whatsoever. The upshot of this is that all Americans citizens are now living under a system of government tyranny, where government agents may molest you at the airports or seize your website if they don't like what you're saying online.
Comment:
This is the best way for totalitarian communism to take hold, little by little. They take away one or two freedoms here, and another there. People will grumble and complain, but that's all. It doesn't seem enough to them to really stand up and do anything about it. Then they get used to those freedoms being gone, and the grumbling ceases. Then the government takes away a few more. More complaining, then it stops. And so forth and so on until so much freedom has been lost, the people couldn't do anything about it even if they wanted to. After all, it's all for our safety, right? YEAH, SURE IT IS! I'm sure Mao Tse Tung said the same thing to the people of China, and Castro to the people of Cuba. The Union of Soviet Socialist States Of Amerika is here. AMERICA AWAKE, BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!
You are absolutely right Dan, and his is exactly how it starts, first its for the sake of protecting artists and copy written material, and then as the sheeple accept this - just like they seem to be accepting having their children and wives either groped or irradiated by naked body scanners in our airports - then incrementally the erosion of our rights begin as we gradually accept more intrusion of the Government where it has no right being in the first place and then the control over the most powerful communications medium we have today THE INTERNET, no different than any other dictatorship that seeks to subdue its citizenry and control the flow of information.....
ReplyDeleteI posted a follow-up article on my blog:
http://newsthatmakesyoumad.blogspot.com/2010/12/obama-socialist-regime-moves-for.html
Now the fed is at it again full force, they are calling it "Net Neutrality" - Allow me to ask this: How are conservative or white nationalist bloggers going to feel when they are ORDERED by the FCC to place links to opposing viewpoints, espoused by some drooling left-wing socialist, on their blogs? Oh, its coming......Dark times beacon my friends - unless the incoming CON-gress stops this push, freedom as we have known and enjoyed it is about to radically be redefined! I SURE HOPE NOT!
They definitely won't stop. The trend is toward bigger and bigger government. It's to protect us, right? We're all a bunch of children and we all need our big UNCLE SAMuel Cohen to look after us, right? That's a load of manure. You know it, I know it, and ZOG knows it. The trouble is the majority either believes it, or feels the sacrifice of freedom is a reasonable price to pay for our safety.
ReplyDeleteThose who trade their freedom for safety deserve neither. - Benjamin Franklin.
The sheeple will surely get exactly what they bargained for. Unfortunately, the rest of us will have to suffer as well.