The Pauls' New Crusade: "Internet Freedom"

[tsai3904]

http://www.buzzfeed.com/rosiegray/the-pauls-new-crusade-internet-freedom

The Pauls' New Crusade: "Internet Freedom"

Defending the Internet — and the corporations that invest in it — from government regulation is the new “End the Fed,” Paul advisors tell BuzzFeed exclusively. A new Paul manifesto: “This is our revolution.”

Ron and Rand Paul are set today to shift the central focus of their family's long libertarian crusade to a new cause: Internet Freedom.

Kentucky senator Rand and his father Ron Paul, who has not yet formally conceded the Republican presidential nomination, will throw their weight behind a new online manifesto set to be released today by the Paul-founded Campaign for Liberty. The new push, Paul aides say, will in some ways displace what has been their movement's long-running top priority, shutting down the Federal Reserve Bank. The move is an attempt to stake a libertarian claim to a central public issue of the next decade, and to move from the esoteric terrain of high finance to the everyday world of cable modems and Facebook.

The manifesto, obtained yesterday by BuzzFeed, is titled "The Technology Revolution" and lays out an argument — in doomsday tones —for keeping the government entirely out of regulating anything online, and for leaving the private sector to shape the new online space.

"The revolution is occurring around the world," it reads. "It is occurring in the private sector, not the public sector. It is occurring despite wrongheaded attempts by governments to micromanage markets through disastrous industrial policy. And it is driven by the Internet, the single greatest catalyst in history for individual liberty and free markets."

More at link above.

 

[chris41336]

This means they must know shit is about to hit the fan as far as regulating the internet is concerned...

 

[georgiaboy]

How about C4L put together an "Internet Freedom" pledge a la Grover Norquist's "no taxes" pledge.

 

[realtonygoodwin]

Meh, doesn't do much for me.

Ending the TSA would have been a better choice, IMO.

 

[Ethek]

It is important to brand this, The dialog is already confusing enough that it is still up for grabs as far has how it will be portrayed. I would be happy to push some of the branding points from my position on the RNC platform committee

 

[DerailingDaTrain]

Sounds good to me

 

[Sola_Fide]

How about C4L put together an "Internet Freedom" pledge a la Grover Norquist's "no taxes" pledge.

Cool idea.

 

[evilfunnystuff]

Meh, doesn't do much for me.

Ending the TSA would have been a better choice, IMO.

If "They" can own the net, it would put us at a much larger disadvantage.

The biggest reason our philosophies are flourishing, is because of the internet.

 

[jct74]

on Drudge now, top of middle column
http://drudgereport.com/

 

[Indy Vidual]

If "They" can own the net, it would put us at a much larger disadvantage.

The biggest reason our philosophies are flourishing, is because of the internet.

Lot's to do before it gets worse.
Does anyone like the idea of a freedom oriented site similar to Wikipedia?

 

[jct74]

Rand and Ron Paul’s next project: Fracture the Internet freedom movement
By Stephen C. Webster
Thursday, July 5, 2012 16:12 EDT

One of the emerging Internet freedom movement’s greatest assets — the hyper-aware, ever-connected, techno-libertarian crowd that has fervently supported Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) for president — is about to become one of it’s greatest opponents.

Paul and his son, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), are taking up a new project that, according to a report published Thursday by BuzzFeed, will “serve as a counterpoint” to the Declaration of Internet Freedom released this week by some of the Web’s leading activists, journalists and technologists.

Paul and his large, enthusiastic contingency of supporters were a cornerstone in the fight against the draconian Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), joining with civil libertarians on the left to defeat the bill in the largest work stoppage protest the Internet has ever seen*. Paul was also one of the first national politicians to come out strongly against the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), which he said would let corporations “act as government spies.”

In a manifesto obtained by BuzzFeed reporter Rosie Gray, which the Pauls’ Campaign for Liberty organization is expected to release later today, the Declaration is lambasted as “Internet collectivism,” a thing it calls “pernicious” in all forms. It also suggests that using the law to cement the freedom of Internet users to view and interact with any content they desire is, in and of itself, contrary to the cause of freedom.

The document specifically calls out progressives and the very technology companies it seems to praise for bringing about the Internet “revolution,” accusing them of “hijacking the language of freedom and liberty to disingenuously push for more centralized control.”

read more:
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/07/...oject-fracture-the-internet-freedom-movement/

 

[jct74]

Ron Paul group launches campaign against Internet regulation
Manifesto is silent on the dangers copyright abuses pose to Internet freedom.

by Timothy B. Lee - July 5 2012, 5:25pm EDT

The Campaign for Liberty, a libertarian advocacy group founded by congressman and presidential candidate Ron Paul (R-TX), is gearing up for an "Internet freedom" project that focuses on opposing government regulation of the Internet.

A draft of the project's manifesto was first leaked by Buzzfeed. It warns that "collectivist special interests" are pushing for harmful Internet legislation.

According to "Internet collectivists," the document says, "'Net neutrality' means government acting as arbiter and enforcer of what it deems to be neutral." The document criticizes antitrust regulation of successful Internet companies and government micromanagement of everything from the electromagnetic spectrum to tech companies' privacy practices.

Libertarians for the public domain

It's not surprising that a libertarian activist organization would denounce government regulation of the high-tech economy. But we were surprised to see the document denounce the "Internet collectivist" view that "what is considered to be in the public domain should be greatly expanded."

We don't see anything "collectivist" about expanding the public domain. Due to repeated extensions by Congress, copyrighted works from the 1920s are still under copyright protection, a situation that has drawn criticism from across the political spectrum. Indeed, a constitutional challenge to Congress's 1998 extension of copyright terms enjoyed the support of the libertarian Cato Institute and Nobel prize-winning economists such as Milton Friedman, Ronald Coase, and James Buchanan.

In a Thursday interview, Campaign for Liberty spokesman Matt Hawes assured Ars that the organization did not intend to endorse today's long copyright terms. "We think the public domain is a terrific part of the Internet," he told us. Rather, he said, the group was worried that "Internet collectivists" would use the phrase "public domain" as "code for getting the government more involved" in copyright issues.

Still, it would be nice for the organization to take a clearer stance against Hollywood-backed copyright legislation that threatens Internet freedom. Ron Paul was an early SOPA opponent, but SOPA is hardly the only example of bad copyright legislation. For example, Congress last added 20 years to copyright terms in 1998. That means we're due for another debate on extending copyright terms between now and 2018. Opponents of that inevitable proposal could use the Campaign for Liberty's support.

More importantly, Congress has already enacted copyright legislation that threatens Internet freedom. Perhaps the most alarming example is the 2008 PRO-IP Act, which gives the federal government the power to seize domain names, servers, and other assets of Internet companies without proving their owners have committed any crime. Libertarians have long railed against the abuse of civil asset forfeiture laws in the war on drugs. There's even more reason to be alarmed about the government using those powers to enforce copyright laws.

A big tent

It's important to remember that the debate over Internet freedom is not strictly a left-vs-right debate. While the left and right are never going to agree on every Internet policy issue, they've frequently found common ground when Internet freedom comes under attack.

In particular, we don't agree with the manifesto's claim that "openness" is an "Internet collectivist" code word for "government control of privately owned infrastructure." Openness is an engineering concept that is embraced by people with a wide variety of political perspectives. There are reasonable arguments against openness being mandated by the government, but there's no reason libertarians should be hostile toward openness as such.

Protecting Internet freedom in the future will require the same kind of ideologically diverse coalition that stopped the Stop Online Piracy Act. Branding left-of-center Internet policy advocates as "Internet collectivists" seems unnecessarily divisive.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...aunches-campaign-against-internet-regulation/

 

[Cody1]

read more:
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/07/...oject-fracture-the-internet-freedom-movement/

Comments are complete trash, what is going on with this article again?

 

[hazek]

Internet private property? Are you kidding me. I'm appalled and disgusted. You can't own an idea, why is this so hard to grasp?

EDIT: Actually wait, what did they mean really? IP or just actual private property in digital form such as bitcoins are?

 

[jmdrake]

Meh, doesn't do much for me.

Ending the TSA would have been a better choice, IMO.

If "They" can own the net, it would put us at a much larger disadvantage.

The biggest reason our philosophies are flourishing, is because of the internet.

You can grope my balls but you can't take away my internet? Hey, the tyranny's getting worse everyday but we can raise millions online. Whoopie!

 

[specsaregood]

You can grope my balls but you can't take away my internet?

For me yes. I make my living from the internet and so do a great deal many other Ron Paul supporters. I can avoid the TSA for the most part.

 

[robmpreston]

You can grope my balls but you can't take away my internet? Hey, the tyranny's getting worse everyday but we can raise millions online. Whoopie!

Are you being obtuse on purpose? If they can own the internet, they can keep us from organizing, they can keep us from working together to end the TSA and the Fed and whatever else plagues us. Is it that hard to understand?

 

[Rudeman]

We saw how powerful the media was this election cycle, we also know that the mainstream media is a dying bread as the youth of this nation get most of their information online. So it's very important to have the internet remain free if we hope to continue our momentum.

 

[jmdrake]

Are you being obtuse on purpose? If they can own the internet, they can keep us from organizing, they can keep us from working together to end the TSA and the Fed and whatever else plagues us. Is it that hard to understand?

A) Such plans can't work. If they did the "twitter revolutions" would have failed and the "great firewall of China" would have succeeded.

B) As they humiliate the American people on a daily basis with NOTHING effective being done about it our ability to "organize and work together" becomes less and less relevant.

C) Why do they need to bother trying to stop us from organizing to end the TSA when we haven't effectively organized to end the TSA? It's not like the TSA was started yesterday.

D) Maybe the whole "the government is out to destroy the internet" scare is to keep people from looking at more direct problems...like the TSA.

E) They can't control the internet because adolescent boys love free porn too much. (That's part of the reason the "great firewall of China" failed).

 

[jmdrake]

For me yes. I make my living from the internet and so do a great deal many other Ron Paul supporters. I can avoid the TSA for the most part.

Yep. All that matters is raising money and donating. Personal freedom for the rest of America be damned.