<div class="story"><div class="item"><div class="fn"><h1 class="entry-title"><a href="http://www.digitaltrends.com/opinion/cispa-is-not-the-new-sopa-heres-why/" rel="bookmark">CISPA is not the new SOPA: Here’s why</a></h1>
</div></div><div class="byline"><a href="http://www.digitaltrends.com/users/andrew_couts/"><img src="http://cdn.digitaltrends.com/wp-content/uploads/cache/2012/04/Couts-headshot-1/2950941959.jpg" alt="Andrew Couts"></a> <span class="time updated dtreviewed">April 6, 2012</span><cite>By <span class="vcard"><a href="http://www.digitaltrends.com/users/andrew_couts/" rel="author" title="Posts by Andrew Couts" class="fn url author">Andrew Couts http://www.digitaltrends.com/opinion/cispa-is-not-the-new-sopa-heres-why/</a></span> </cite><div class="fb-subscribe fb_iframe_widget">
<span></span></div> <span id="logged-in-component-edit_link_single"></span></div></div><div id="overview"><div><p><a rel="post" href="http://cdn3.digitaltrends.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/cispa-sopa-2.png"><img class="size-medium wp-image-343004 alignright" title="cispa-sopa-2" src="http://cdn3.digitaltrends.com/wp-content/uploads/cache/2012/04/cispa-sopa-2/651585312.png" alt="cispa-sopa-2" height="300" width="300"></a></p>
<p class="excerpt"><strong>The
Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) is being compared
to SOPA for the outrage it's generating online. But a few key
differences between the fight against SOPA and the fight against CISPA
should give any opponent pause.</strong></p><p>Yesterday, I <a href="http://www.digitaltrends.com/web/watch-out-washington-cispa-replaces-sopa-as-internets-enemy-no-1/">wrote</a>
that “the Internet has a new enemy,” and its name is CISPA, short for
the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act of 2011. And it’s
true: this poorly crafted piece of “cybersecurity” legislation is irking
concerned Web citizens the world over.</p><p>Using our Chartbeat
analytics tool, I saw wave after wave of users flood into the article,
from all parts of the globe. North Dakota, Sweden, Portugal, Mexico, New
York — everybody, it seems, is interested and concerned about this bill
that critics (rightly) believe could threaten the types of information
we can access online, as well as our privacy and freedom of speech.</p><p>In less than 24 hours, a <a href="http://www.avaaz.org/en/stop_cispa/" rel="nofollow">petition on Avaaz.org</a>
entitled, “Save the Internet from the US,” has racked up more than
300,000 signatures, asking the federal government to drop CISPA. By the
time you read this article, that number will likely be well over half a
million, or more. And the anti-CISPA movement already has <a href="https://twitter.com/#%21/search/%23StopCISPA" rel="nofollow">its own hashtag</a>, a sure sign of meme-ability, which is vital to any online campaign.</p>
<p>And
yet, I can’t shake the feeling that the Internet community will lose
this battle, that CISPA will pass — that there will be no blackout, this
time around.</p><p>The first problem is the nature of the threat this
bill poses: At its core, CISPA is about companies and the government
sharing information. Now, to anyone concerned with privacy, this is a
big issue, especially considering that CISPA places absolutely no
explicit limits on the type of information that may be shared with the
government, or between private companies, as long as it is somehow
related to cyber threats. To me, and a lot of you, that’s terrifying.</p><p>For
most people, however, sharing information about ourselves is just the
way things work nowadays. We post every aspect of our lives online, from
what we’re eating to our location to all the gritty details of last
night. These companies already know all our secrets. In other words:
privacy just ain’t what it used to be. And I just don’t see every Jack,
Jill, and John getting their knickers in a knot over something that
sounds like what they do on a regular basis — share information — or
which many people believe is already happening: that Facebook, Google,
Twitter, and every other Web company out there hands over our private
information the second Uncle Sam looks at them funny. We are in <em>Brave New World</em>, not <em>1984</em>.</p><p>Second
— and this is the real problem — the CISPA opposition does not yet have
the technology industry on its side. In fact, many of the most
important players, the ones with the big scary guns, have already
embedded themselves in the enemy’s camp. Facebook, Microsoft, Oracle,
IBM, Intel, AT&T, Verizon — all of them (and many others) have
already <a href="http://intelligence.house.gov/bill/cyber-intelligence-sharing-and-protection-act-2011" rel="nofollow">sent letters to congress</a> voicing <em>support</em>
for CISPA. And that should come as no surprise. Whereas SOPA and PIPA
were bad for many companies that do business on the Internet, and
burdened them with the unholy task of policing the Web (or facing
repercussions if they did’t), this bill makes life easier for them; it
removes regulations and the risk of getting sued for handing over our
information to The Law. Not to mention doing what the bill says it’s
going to do: protecting them from cyber threats.</p><p>In short: Supporting CISPA is in these companies’ interest. Supporting SOPA/PIPA was not.</p><p>This means that the Internet community is on its own. No technology company is going to <a href="http://www.digitaltrends.com/web/internet-titans-fight-sopa-with-full-page-ny-times-ad/">buy a full-page ad</a>
in The New York Times and the Wall Street journal condemning CISPA by
their own volition— unless we somehow force them to. And the only way to
do that is to set our sights on them first, and on the actual bill
second.</p><p>Unfortunately, such a scenario creates a political problem
for the CISPA opposition. By scrambling to get the Internet and
technology industries on the side of the Internet users, it creates an
opportunity for the bill’s many supporters in Washington to push forward
without the hassle of a concerted resistance.</p><p>Now, I could very
well be wrong about this. I hope I’m wrong — I hope all of you reading
this prove me wrong. I would be absolutely giddy if everything I’ve just
said is rendered moot by the shock and awe with which the CISPA
opposition fights against this bill. CISPA is a terrible piece of
legislation, one that very well could result in the government blocking
access to websites on the basis of copyright infringement, or sites like
Wikileaks under the guise of national security. And just because I’m
playing the defeatist doesn’t mean that the masses are incapable of
rising up against CISPA, and bury it away in the catacombs of
legislative hell — they, we, absolutely are. But until I see more than
online petitions and Twitter hashtags, my bet is on the bad guys.</p></div></div>