Irony Alert: Hollywood Howard Berman To Introduce 'Internet Freedom' Bill

from the are-you-serious? dept

Fri, Mar 12th 2010 5:28pm — Mike Masnick

Earlier this year we noted this was likely, but now it appears that Rep. Howard Berman is getting ready to introduce an "Internet Freedom Bill," that would limit how US companies could operate in "internet-restricting countries." Now, we've already pointed out that it's odd to see politicians pushing such bills when the US itself is pushing to restrict the internet in similar ways -- but it's particularly ironic with Berman. In supporting this new legislation, Berman notes:

He's trying to figure out "what's the most effective thing we can do to help people in countries where the government is" seeking to restrict Internet freedom.

But, here's the thing. Howard Berman, who literally is the Representative for (part of) Hollywood, has been a very, very, very strong proponent of restricting internet freedoms any chance he gets -- as long as those restrictions are part of Hollywood's plan to prop up its business model. Berman famously proposed letting companies hack into file sharing networks to break them a few years back. He's also been a major proponent of turning ISPs into copyright cops, and (of course) was actively involved in the initial planning for ACTA. He's also sought to limit the ability for people to access publicly funded research, claiming that he didn't want the "N" in NIH to "stand for Napster."

Perhaps before passing legislation to try to punish other countries for their internet restrictions, Berman should take a long hard look in the mirror, at his own long and detailed history of supporting internet restrictions in the US.

Separately, with the news coming out that New Zealand has just started rolling out its own internet censoring system, it will be interesting to see if Berman's legislation includes "friendly" countries like New Zealand and Australia that push internet censorship.

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Filed Under: censorship, copyright, howard berman, internet freedom, internet restrictions

19 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 12 Mar 2010 @ 5:43pm

"Freedom is important except when it's not." - V.I.P.
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Ministry of Truth, 12 Mar 2010 @ 5:53pm

war is peace
freedom is slavery
ignorance is strength
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NAMELESS.ONE, 12 Mar 2010 @ 6:05pm

@2 TRUE FREEDOM
bullshit is said by people like you

freedom is as i said as much a state of mind as it is a word and is somehting one SHOULD NOT have to fight for. IT should be a sovereign right of all persons of all races and creeeds

war is terrible
freedom is peace of mind and truth of knowledge
ignorance is no excuse FOR people like you and it sad for as a wise man once said:

The sign of a civilized man is his ability to have compassion and forgiveness.

NONE of which the last 25 years of USA politics have shown.
They have lost the mason ideals which have founded there nation on freedom of thought expression and truth and justice.

NOW its freedom as long as they make a buck
no more thought unless you make a buck
truth in only what they say not what facts are
and no justice unless you can afford it.

Hollywood has been used by the USA govt in past for propoganda and lies , how did people think those doing this would go before they realized a Orwellian universe where they could try and be the masters of you all.

YA know when it started?
Ronald Reagan
1984
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- Any Mouse, 12 Mar 2010 @ 6:32pm
  
  Re: @2 TRUE FREEDOM
  Wow. 1984? Are you sure? I could have sworn that Hollywood was making propaganda during WWII, if not earlier.
  
  Then again, you just like spouting BS and FUD. You could at least learn basic spelling, grammar, and sentence structure.
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  - amaress, 12 Mar 2010 @ 7:03pm
    
    Re: Re: @2 TRUE FREEDOM
    I think he's getting books mixed up with things that actually happened.
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Flakey, 12 Mar 2010 @ 7:05pm

More Hollydud BS
Hollywood Berman was also the one that thought it should be ok for the entertainment industry to write viruses to crater your computer should you be doing unauthorized downloading.

He's sort of like a rabid dog when it comes to IP protection of his home town base. He's got absolutely no common sense when it comes to outrageous proposals for law if Hollydud thought it a good idea.
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- Atkray (profile), 12 Mar 2010 @ 8:19pm
  
  Re: More Hollydud BS
  Not that I like him or anything....but
  "He's sort of like a rabid dog when it comes to IP protection of his home town base."
  
  Perhaps if more of our elected officials were like this for their respective home towns.
  
  Never mind that would be what they are supposed to do.
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  - Designerfx (profile), 13 Mar 2010 @ 1:36am
    
    Re: Re: More Hollydud BS
    please. elected officials are mostly grandfathered in by their predecessors/family/nepotism. you should know that by now.
    
    nepotism is literally the american way, it's disturbing
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NAMELESS.ONE, 12 Mar 2010 @ 7:58pm

no i meant if you consider this
that it was the first time tha hollywood types started to really get political power, just odd that reagan came about in 84 and your thoughts dwell to orwells 1984 book

it might be said that prior to this at least the people running hte country were business men or experienced politicians looking mildy for there people , once hte berlin wall fell in 89 , corproations and hollywood no longer had ot put on an act either of there true natures
and you begin to see the erosion of true freedoms they GAVE us up till that time.
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- Anonymous Coward, 12 Mar 2010 @ 8:40pm
  
  Re: no i meant if you consider this
  What in the world are you even talking about? You post in every thread on techdirt with random gibberish. The Berlin Wall? WTH?
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  - Hephaestus (profile), 14 Mar 2010 @ 6:35am
    
    Re: Re: no i meant if you consider this
    "You post in every thread on techdirt with random gibberish."
    
    So do I ... you got a problem with that ... big Ole GRIN :D
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Anonymous Coward, 13 Mar 2010 @ 6:41am

The United States needs to stop thinking that it’s always right and that everyone else is always wrong when in fact, if anything, the reverse seems to be true.
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Dohn Joe, 13 Mar 2010 @ 11:30pm

Jeebus!
This world is fucked...just fucked...period!
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Mar 2010 @ 3:47pm

To be fair, and irony aside, much of what appears to underlie the proposed legislation is directed to "political censorship".

Of course, such legislation is largely ceremonial since there is precious little that can be done from the US to influence such actions by other countries. Unfortunately, the ceremony would have the untoward effect of placing even greater burdens on sites like Google since each would now have to keep a whole new set of data for regular reporting back to DC.
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- Mike Masnick (profile), 14 Mar 2010 @ 5:04pm
  
  Re:
  To be fair, and irony aside, much of what appears to underlie the proposed legislation is directed to "political censorship".
  
  And what Berman is supporting is not political censorship?
  
  Do explain...
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  - Anonymous Coward, 15 Mar 2010 @ 4:30pm
    
    Re: Re:
    Perhaps I misunderstand, but my read is that the legislation is directed towards censorship imposed by and in foreign countries, and would place a burden (possibly significant) on those here in the US who accede to censorship demands placed on them by foreign countries.
    
    Please correct me if my understanding is off the mark.
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Paul`, 14 Mar 2010 @ 9:57pm

Hey, Australia haven't implemented any of the censorship as of yet.
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Wolfy, 15 Mar 2010 @ 3:58am

The names of these bills kill me... "Clean" Air Act, "No Child Left Behind"... there are others I can't recall at the moment. The resulting laws usually have the inverse effect. The rethuglicans perfected the twisting of the language under Reagan, and have gone on to perfect the technique. Now both parties play the game. I think they should just stick to numbers. It's less oily.
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Wolfy, 15 Mar 2010 @ 4:04am

My bad. It's early, and I'm still waking up. The previous post should have said "The rethuglicans really started twisting the language, invented political spin, under Reagan..."
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