Bill would give president emergency control of Internet: Internet companies and civil liberties groups were alarmed this spring when a U.S. Senate bill proposed handing the White House the power to disconnect private-sector computers from the Internet.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10320096-38.html

Internet companies and civil liberties groups were alarmed this spring when a U.S. Senate bill proposed handing the White House the power to disconnect private-sector computers from the Internet.

They're not much happier about a revised version that aides to Sen. Jay Rockefeller, a West Virginia Democrat, have spent months drafting behind closed doors. CNET News has obtained a copy of the 55-page draft of S.773 (excerpt), which still appears to permit the president to seize temporary control of private-sector networks during a so-called cybersecurity emergency.

The new version would allow the president to "declare a cybersecurity emergency" relating to "non-governmental" computer networks and do what's necessary to respond to the threat. Other sections of the proposal include a federal certification program for "cybersecurity professionals," and a requirement that certain computer systems and networks in the private sector be managed by people who have been awarded that license.

Shades of '29 from George Ure

Gov't Plans to Seize Internet

I've been telling you for years that one of the surest markers the Second Depression (SD/D2) would be the seizure and/or licensure of the Internet. On Friday the plans started to come into focus as it's being widely reported that in congress a "Bill would give president emergency control of Internet." Just for the heck of it, I dredged up a column I wrote back in 2006 - to underscore the point that this has been in the works for years...

"Tuesday May 1, 2006

Another Driver Toward Internet Regulation One of the hallmarks of the Second Depression (slowly materializing in front of your eyes, e.g. the housing bubble collapse, etc) is the move to regulate communications. Think back to the last Depression and you have the Communications Act of 1934, for example. Make radio a "licensed" activity and thus control access, got it?

So fast forward to present day - the arrival of citizen reporters (see third story down for a fine example) and read the report that nationally, newspaper circulation is down 2.1% and some big papers, like the Boston Globe have dropped nearly 4%.

It doesn't take a rocket surgeon to figure out what's ahead: The newspapers - with their op-ed pages and endorsements pulling the you-know-whats of elected officialdom will shortly find themselves deeply conflicted on the power of the Internet. On the one hand the Constitutionally guarantees of a Free Press mean something. But on the other, as circ falls, so does ad revenue, and soon the major media conglomerates will be begging for protective legislation.

With Internet2 making headlines about bandwidth ("Internet2 Breaks another speed record") the safest bet seems to be that I2 will be the domain of corporate and institutional players while the genuinely free-for-all that is internet1 will be relegated to stepchild status.

Heresy Indicator: I expect newspapers will be all over in support of I2 being restricted to "commercial ventures" That way, they'll be able to speak of "supporting free exchange of ideas" and at the same time, lock up the big pipe for their corporate profiteering. Oh, and you know who pays for the pipe, right? It's more of the "Do as we say, not as we do" approach to controlling society by the uberclassen.

Dynamics of this trend are still in place...Too early to come right out and say "Told you so!" Still, it's getting uncomfortably close. All that separates the working man from a world where the corpgov forces take over the entire internet is a terrorist attack (real or promoted) which utilizes the internet in some way to wreak even a small amount of havoc.