SOPA Stop Online Piracy Act will be killing the Internet and the world's largest Social and Cultural Revolution

Say no to SOPA now here! 

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

SOPA stands for "Stop Online Piracy Act" or "H.R.3261". The world should join together and get the word out to prevent the approval of such a bill. Why? Its going to destroy social and cultural innovation online across the world and most importantly, prevent developing countries from growing and participating in the today's Information and Knowledge economics of the globe..

SOPA is Unilateral, Single-sided control of the World Wide Web, Domain Names and IP Addresses!

SOPA noticeably promotes unilateral censorship:

"To promote prosperity, creativity, entrepreneurship, and innovation by combating the theft of U.S. property, and for other purposes." —H.R. 3261

If passed, the SOPA Bill will damage the Internet and World Wide Web:

1. SOPA infringes Human Rights in an Internet, World Wide Web and online world. 
2. SOPA is Internet censorship. 
3. SOPA will cripple the Internet
4. SOPA will threaten whistle-blowing and other free speech.
5. SOPA may be replicated by other authoritarian governments of the world thus threatens the very notion of freedom of expression. 
6. SOPA will prevent developing countries to create any intellectual ideas, products or content that is already copyrighted and protected in the US.
7. Despite the fact that the U.S. has been very vocal against censorship in other countries, it is attempting to censorship itself and will create the wrong example for other countries to follow and implement against their own citizens.

A vote is presently scheduled for Wednesday, 21st December, 2011 this week!

Please sign the petition against SOPA by clicking here

You must understand that:

1. The SOPA bill was introduced in the United States House of Representatives on 26th October, 2011, by Representative Lamar Smith and a bipartisan group of 12 initial co-sponsors. 
2. This bill stifles Internet and Web based Social and Cultural Innovation and Free expression as it expands the ability of U.S.only law enforcement and U.S. only copyright holders to fight online trafficking in U.S. copyrighted intellectual property and U.S. counterfeit goods.
3. It would allow the U.S. Department of Justice, as well as U.S. copyright holders, to seek court orders against websites accused of enabling or facilitating copyright infringement and if the court orders, the actions could include barring online advertising networks and payment facilitators such as PayPal from doing business with the infringing website, barring search engines from linking to such sites, and requiring Internet service providers to block access to such sites. 
4. It makes unauthorized streaming of copyrighted content a felony. 
5. It gives immunity to Internet services that voluntarily take action against websites dedicated to infringement, while making liable for damages any copyright holder who knowingly misrepresents that a website is dedicated to infringement.

You must acknowledge that:

1. SOPA is an example of a narrow elite taking central control of Social and Cultural Expression. 
2. The global Internet and Web Citizenry have to be always vigilant of these threats that the web might become frightening to use. 
3. Online Freedom of Expression is breaking down hierarchical assumptions that some do not like. 
4. The web has already changed, improved or threatened the way society, economy and politics and cannot function like the old days of the Industrial Revolution.
5. The Internet and Web has given everyone connecting online the opportunity to be anyone, anywhere and anytime. 
6. The Internet and Web has given everyone the opportunity to be read, heard or seen thus promote themselves in a system that was controlled by corporations and monopolists. 
7. The Internet and Web have been providing opportunities that have never been provided to the individual human being before. 
8. User generated self promoted online content is shattering global commercial hierarchies. 
9. The old hierarchies want to sustain their way to discover new talent, content and opportunities through the network and prevent the individual opportunity to blossom.
10. The World Wide Web is being colonized by gate keepers and new elites and a handful less than 1% elite would like to control the future of the World Wide Web and free expression.

SOPA will break the Internet and the
World Wide Web!

WE, citizens of the world must help and encourage our policy makers to keep the Internet and World Wide Web free, equal and open for me, you and the entire human race! 

Related articles

• SOPA Stop Online Piracy Act will be killing the Internet and the world's largest Social and Cultural Revolution (internetsgovernance.blogspot.com)
• SOPA vote delayed indefinitely (digitaltrends.com)
• Anti-SOPA Movement Picks Up Steam, With Assist from Laurence Tribe (news.firedoglake.com)
• House Panel to Move Forward on Stop Online Piracy Act (pcworld.com)
• Founder of Internet Fears 'Unprecedented' Web Censorship From SOPA (tarpon.wordpress.com)
• The Elders of the Internet Take a Last Stand Against SOPA (techie-buzz.com)
• What SOPA means for business & innovation (infographic) (venturebeat.com)
• A Spark of Sanity: SOPA delayed as more Internet experts are needed (thenextweb.com)
• If you hate Big Government, fight SOPA. (blogs.law.harvard.edu)
• Strike! Wikipedia founder floats idea of site blackout to protest SOPA (venturebeat.com)

Pakistan Bans Porn as 150,000 explicit content website addresses are officially blocked on social and moral Ground

The Pakistani Internet and Web Scene witness one of the largest filters in the region after China as a bans comes forward imposed under the supervision of the leadership of the Pakistan Telecom Regulatory Authority.

This ban comes after the VPN Tunneling Ban was imposed. Various sources have further shared that there may be further plans to implement blocking on various other keywords that affect the social and moral values of Pakistani citizens.

Such bans are underway without consulting a multistakeholder committee. A total of 150,000 website addresses were added to the filters at the ends of ISPs, Content Providers, Cellular Operators etc. According to a reliable source, the PTA leadership carried out certain meetings to reach this decision at PTA without informing the public at large. PTA has yet to publicly announce the list of blocked websites for transparency purposes.

Propakistani.pk had originally reported such a possibility here earlier this month that has now been formally implemented.

Access Denied in Pakistan is officially confirmed and implemented due to social and moral pressures.....!

Related articles

• Pakistan May Have to Abandon Cryptography Ban (technologyreview.in)
• PTA prepares ICT Security Guidelines for Stakeholders (blogpost.pk)
• Internet Users in Pakistan Cross 20 Million Mark (techtelco.com)
• .pk State of the Pakistani ccTLD Domain Report from Pakistan (internetsgovernance.blogspot.com)
• SHC Gives 10 Days to PTA for Filing Comments On Explicit Websites (techtelco.com)

Egypt and Internet Revolution 2.0 - Did Wael Ghonim trigger an Internet Revolution 2.0? What are the implications for Internet Governance?

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

The Google Egypt executive that was detained for over 10 days by the Egyptian authorities, then release to find so much change already taken place including human casualties amidst the protests taking place in the country has appeared amongst the protesting Egyptians as their leader and to what Wael termed as the Internet Revolution 2.0.

 Wael Ghonim is originally a Google executive living in Dubai with his wife and two children. He had gone to Egypt to participate in the protests but was arrested. The reason for his arrest according to the media (CNN here), Wael Ghonim was the trigger point for launching and organizing the initial protests against police brutality and human rights violations happening on Egyptian citizens. This effort evolved the protests in to the present form that have convulsed Egypt for more than over two weeks now. Wael facilitated the protest by creating and administering a Facebook page and/or Facebook group that the media reports is widely credited for calling the first protest on 25th January 2011.

The abrupt reaction of the Egyptian Authorities to clamp down on Wael Ghonim resulted in his being recognized as one of the young revolutionaries and leaders of an emerging youth opposition protesting against the Egyptian Government in the current circumstances. Wael called the Internet as one of the key catalysts and trigger point for the revolution and uprising of the citizens in Egypt terming it as an Internet Revolution 2.0.

AS Wael Ghonim, now being termed as the Che Guevara of the Internet and Web age coins the term with reference to the Egyptian uprising against the authorities, what are the implications for a possible Internet Revolution 2.0 for the rest of the world?

1. The Internet's evolution, penetration and adoption is triggering new forms of social and economic changes.
2. These new forms of changes in human society and organization may be termed as Internet Revolution 2.0 that allows human beings from any corners of the world to connect, collaborate, share and organize from anywhere facilitated by various social media tools and platforms to come together and trigger or catalyze change.
3. This change may be productive or counter productive for historic, traditional or prevailing forms of democratic, dictatorship or monarch governance systems.
4. The capability for any human being to 'become aware' of his or her negative circumstances and any violations of their basic human rights may be the pressure breaking points to turn towards the Internet and the World Wide Web to connect with other human beings that may in similar conditions within the same community, society, country or region resulting in mutual sharing, finding solutions to common problems or organizing into new groups to seek change.
5. This new form of networked social organizing to lead, trigger or catalyze change brings new implications for the existent socio, economic and political governance systems.
6. The Internet Revolution 2.0 is about human rights, mutual human respect, transparency and accountability and moreover, openness and acceptance of change.
7. For Internet Governance, Internet Revolution 2.0 is an evolving phenomenon especially when the governments, private sector, civil society, researchers and academia across the world have not reached any consensus on the governance of the Internet Revolution 1.0.
8. Internet Revolution 2.0 has only become apparent with the current affairs of human uprising, protesting, activism, freedom of expression, demand for basic human rights and awareness of their needs in the North African Arab and Middle Eastern countries but what form is this taking remains both a question and challenge.
9. Some countries are moving towards more openness in governance and government using the Internet and World Wide Web through the phenomenons of Open Government, Open Governance and Open Government Data but it is yet to be determined if Internet Revolution 2.0 will be the reason for wider spread and adoption of such openness through the global network at the speed we are witnessing today.
10. Yes, an Internet Revolution 2.0 may actually be evolving here....................how will we as human beings connected to each other respond to this new global change..........remains the primary question!

Related articles

• Egyptian Protest Leader Wael Ghonim Tells CNN's Ivan Watson Time For Negotiations "Is Over" (mediaite.com)
• Powerful Interview of Google Executive/Egyptian Activist Wael Ghonim (disquietreservations.blogspot.com)
• Wael Ghonim Interview (offonatangent.blogspot.com)
• Egypt: Google's Wael Ghonim likely to see release tomorrow (shortformblog.com)
• Watch: Google Exec Jailed By Mubarak Government Inspires Egyptian Protesters (alternet.org)
• Google Exec Jailed By Mubarak Government Inspires Egyptian Protesters (alternet.org)
• You: Wael Ghonim anointed voice of Egyptian revolution (guardian.co.uk)
• Wael Ghonim anointed voice of the revolution by Tahrir Square faithful - The Guardian (news.google.com)
• Detained Egyptian Google Exec Wael Ghonim Released (readwriteweb.com)
• Recently-freed Egyptian protester Wael Ghonim inspires many (shortformblog.com)
• Egyptian Google exec is "ready to die" for change - CNN International (news.google.com)
• Egyptian Google exec is 'ready to die' for change (cnn.com)
• Google's Egypt Executive, Wael Ghonim, Should Be Released From Egyptian Custody Now (searchengineland.com)
• Subtitled Video of Wael Ghonim's Emotional TV Interview (thelede.blogs.nytimes.com)
• Google Executive Wael Ghonim Admits He Was El Shaheeed (newsweek.com)
• You: More Egypt protesters turn out, drawn by Google's Wael Ghonim (latimes.com)
• Google exec in Egypt freed, admits protest role (sfgate.com)
• "From Protests To Strikes; Egyptian Opposition Takes New Tact" and related posts (lawhawk.blogspot.com)
• Analyst: Egyptian Protesters Angered Over Economic 'Bribe' - Voice of America (news.google.com)
• Freed Google exec breathes new life into anti-Mubarak protests as he tells 250,000 wildly cheering Egyptians the fight goes on (dailymail.co.uk)
• Egypt: Freed Google executive Wael Ghonim's breathes life into anti-Mubarak protest (dailymail.co.uk)
• Freed Young Leader Energizes Egyptian Protests (current.com)
• Egyptians renew appeal for Mubarak to resign now on biggest day of protest (redantliberationarmy.wordpress.com)
• Suleiman Says Government Will Not Tolerate Prolonged Cairo Protests - Voice of America (news.google.com)
• Amb. Marc Ginsberg: "Mabruk' (Bless) Wael Ghonim -- Omar Suleiman's Worst Nightmare (huffingtonpost.com)

Egypt Crisis - Egypt is burning and the Internet is burning with Surveillance, Spying and Tracking citizens and Internet users.

Image by sciondriver via Flickr

Earlier last year, the Network World website revealed an important piece of news here about a US based company called NARUS that develops traffic intelligence technology developing a scary sleuth for social media. The technology code named "Hone" technology worked with an application NarusInsight to connect different profiles to one person.

The company and its sneaky technologies came into world knowledge again as Al-Jazeera's recent report about the recent Internet shutdown in Egypt gives facts about this US based Boeing's sister company called NARUS located in Sunnyvale California played an important role in burning and shutting down the Internet Egypt by providing the DPI Deep Packet Inspection technology to the Egyptian government.

Network World has already shared this information here last year. The technology by Narus involving DPI allows governments to monitor Twitter, Facebook and Cell Phone account users. The tools provide governments the opportunity to surveillance their citizens as well as control the Internet and shutting down the Internet when and where required.

So what is DPI? According to a wikipedia entry here, Deep packet inspection (DPI) is the act of any packet network equipment which is not an endpoint of a communication using non-header content (typically the actual payload) for some purpose. This is performed as the packet passes an inspection point, searching for protocol non-compliance, viruses, spam, intrusions or predefined criteria to decide what actions to take on the packet, including collecting statistical information.

The technology is a bit different from the traditional DPI applications where it also allows governments to monitor criticisms by their citizens against them. This makes it a very dangerous technology and originally Internet Spying is illegal according to the US laws. According to the Huffington Post's article here, the technology is being used in Pakistan, by the Kuwaiti Wataniya Telecom, an Indian Telco, Saudi Arabian authorities etc.....

Timothy Karr of Free Media wrote through Huffington Post that Narus provided Egypt Telecom with the Deep Packet Inspection equipment (DPI) used to shut down the Internet. Naras content-filtering technology allows network managers to inspect, track and target content from users of the Internet and mobile phones, as it passes through routers on the information superhighway. Other Narus global customers include the national telecommunications authorities in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, two countries that regularly register alongside Egypt near the bottom of Human Rights Watch's world report. Huffington Post also shares that Steve Bannerman, Narus' marketing VP shared in an interview with Wired that, "Anything that comes through [an Internet protocol network], we can record. We can reconstruct all of their e-mails along with attachments, see what web pages they clicked on, we can reconstruct their [voice-over Internet protocol] calls."

Well, the Egyptian Internet and communications shutdown also sent a message across the world when OECD reported here that blocking Internet cost Egypt at least $90M. I guess its not only that, it also cost Egypt its reputation in the global communications and Internet arena especially after hosting the Internet Governance Forum in Sharam-El-Sheikh in 2009 and the ICANN Public Meetings!

So the citizens on the Internet across the world have become aware of how they are being spied upon and what is the technology being used to spy on them. This becomes a major issue for discussions during upcoming Internet Governance Forum 2011 in Kenya.

Related articles

• Timothy Karr: One U.S. Corporation's Role in Egypt's Brutal Crackdown (huffingtonpost.com)
• Politicians, Groups Speak out on Egyptian Internet Blocking (pcworld.com)
• Have US companies helped in Egypt Internet crackdown? (zdnet.com)
• Social Media, Facebook Help People Stand Up in Tunisia, Egypt (pbs.org)
• Canada To Mandate ISP Deep Packet Inspection (news.slashdot.org)
• Deep Packet Inspection Set To Return (yro.slashdot.org)
• Deep Packet Inspection Circles Back for a Second Look (gigaom.com)
• Lessons of Egypt's online crackdown (cnn.com)
• U.S., U.K. Companies Help Egyptian Regime Shut Down Telecommunications and Identify Dissidents (gunnyg.wordpress.com)
• Blocking Internet cost Egypt at least $90M, says OECD (networkworld.com)
• Al Jazeera Aims to Harness Twitter Momentum (clickz.com)
• Egypt's internet shutdown sparks a communications battle (venturebeat.com)
• The Al Jazeera Effect (andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com)