CISPA is the big one that is coming up, far more dangerous than SOPA.

and SOPA is getting re written and is coming in for another pass. SOPA v 2.0 is coming around apparently

CISPA is deadly since it allows congress to monitor and block sites like wikileaks on the grounds that it is 'disruptive' to government. that is why this is world events, as the internet is a global community. wikileaks provides documentation for many countries.

ACTA already has many signatories which cover north america, europe and australia.

in short, get informed (there is a reason why CISPA, SOPA and ACTA all lack information here, i encourage you to seek and learn), get passionate. it looks like the final corner of free speech, the internet, is under fire.

You can access anything you want on the internet regardless of what the governments try to do.

really now? but soon they can legally request ISPs block certain sites or shut down sites hosted in the US that are considered 'disruptive' to the public or government. im not saying that they will, but could you imagine this battledawn forum being shut down because of 5 posts that are critical of government's management of an issue?

they monitor the posts, they are allowed to view your mail here.

these 5 posts were deemed to incite unrest and thus disruptive, they then go to phpBB and instruct them that they are legally required to shut down the site spreading hate messages. they can stop any online communication deemed disruptive to the government or private parties.
http://rt.com/usa/news/cispa-bill-sopa-internet-175/
this is actually quite serious. wikileaks, a site that has an important purpose in releasing information the public wants to hear but isnt allwoed to, can get shut down.

ACTA, what it involved, its signatories, etc. was completely hidden away until it was exposed on wikileaks.

the last free domain of communication is under fire.

maddox has an excellent page regarding internet censorship, unfortunately its language is highly... provocative (so i wont link it) all i can do i encourage those old and mature enough to go to 'thegreatestpageintheuniverse.com' and find it there. it encourages the legalisation of SOPA just so people will get off their complacent behinds and do something or a change.

Well in a way what Diazepam said is right. What if wikileaks keeps coming up with new websites. How many would they keep shutting down. But anyway, Id love to know the nitty gritty of these laws. I never much got around to reading about them, because frankly they seem too tedious, but probably thats what the law makers are counting on

Wikileaks is still up and running. You need to know where to look though. Which is pretty much the point I'm making. These efforts from the government may take this kind of information away from the mainstream viewer. But for those who actually want to seek out the stuff the government doesn't want you to, there will always be a way to get to whatever it may be, whither it be copywrited material, ilegal porn, "top secret" info, drug markets, etc.

The harder they try to restrict what content people can access, the harder people will try to access the content. They are wasting their time, and making themselves look evil in the process.

Agree completely. Especially the last part. The harder they try, the harder its gonna get for them.

I mean its like the drug war. It will be never ending.

but it would become increasingly difficult for the mainstream, the majority of the population to get the info.

wikileaks presents something the government doesnt want you to hear. if it is muffled, some might still get the messages, but the vast majority will be in the dark.

ACTA again, no one knew what it was, wikileaks comes along and boom, public outrage. imagine if there is no public outrage, just 6 people in darkened rooms who have the technical know how to get the info? what if legislation moves about without information about it being released?

its nice to think 'oh, they can just get another site up and running' but the damage is beyond the mere fact that its main page isnt working. the damage is the stifling of internet freedom.

Obviously it is indeed, curbing freedom on the internet, and most importantly, forcing us to know only what "they" want us to know.

My point is, you can make life difficult, but cannot completely curb internet freedom. So ultimately fighting it would become a costly rhetoric, much like the war on terrorism.

Because with increasing dependence on the internet, even corporations will be against it.

not necessarily, piracy is big losses. BIG.

wikileaks often leaks corporate secrets, espcially if it ties them to governmental corruption or government shiftiness.

there is money to be gained and money to be taken. corporations have already and will continue to have lobbyists push certain things such as SOPA and etc that will make it far more difficult for the average joe to get what they want.