Is your Senator in Hollywood’s back pocket when it comes to Protect IP?

First there was the COICA bill that failed to pass but it has been replaced by the new and *cough* improved Protect IP Act that admittedly fixed some of the problems with COICA but in return brought a whole slew of new problems.

As with the COICA Act a large segment of those people who actually understand technology have come out against the new Act, including: librarians, public interest groups, human rights groups, and a number of technology groups.

On top of this a group of Internet and DNS specialists have come out and said that the Protect IP Act could actually break the Internet in some pretty significant ways:

• The U.S. Government and private industry have identified Internet security and stability as a key part of a wider cyber security strategy, and if implemented, the DNS related provisions of PROTECT IP would weaken this important commitment. DNS filters would be evaded easily, and would likely prove ineffective at reducing online infringement. Further, widespread circumvention would threaten the security and stability of the global DNS.
• The DNS provisions would undermine the universality of domain names, which has been one of the key enablers of the innovation, economic growth, and improvements in communications and information access unleashed by the global Internet.
• Migration away from ISP-provided DNS servers would harm efforts that rely on DNS data to detect and mitigate security threats and improve network performance.
• Dependencies within the DNS would pose significant risk of collateral damage, with filtering of one domain potentially affecting users’ ability to reach non-infringing Internet content.
• The site redirection envisioned in Section 3(d)(II)(A)(ii) is inconsistent with security extensions to the DNS that are known as DNSSEC.
• The U.S. Government and private industry have identified DNSSEC as a key part of a wider cyber security strategy, and many private, military, and governmental networks have invested in DNSSEC technologies.
• If implemented, this section of the PROTECT IP Act would weaken this important effort to improve Internet security. It would enshrine and institutionalize the very network manipulation that DNSSEC must fight in order to prevent cyberattacks and other malevolent behavior on the global Internet, thereby exposing networks and users to increased security and privacy risks.

Even with all this strong opposition against the Protect IP Act, and because Hollywood wants this, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted unanimously voted to move the Act forward as is.

So who are the Senators that have voted to break the Internet and support the entertainment’s needs over the consumers:

• Patrick J. Leahy — Vermont
• Herb Kohl — Wisconsin
• Jeff Sessions — Alabama
• Dianne Feinstein — California
• Orrin G. Hatch — Utah
• Richard Blumenthal — Connecticut
• Chuck Grassley — Iowa
• Michael Lee — Utah
• Jon Kyl — Arizona
• Chuck Schumer — New York
• Lindsey Graham — South Carolina
• Dick Durbin — Illinois
• John Cornyn — Texas
• Tom Coburn — Oklahoma
• Sheldon Whitehouse — Rhode Island
• Amy Klobuchar — Minnesota
• Al Franken — Minnesota
• Chris Coons — Delaware

If I’m not mistaken the US is coming up on an election year so maybe now would be the time to ask your elected representative if they are supporting this kind of crap, and if so – why?

via Techdirt