House Fast-Tracks CISPA Vote, Passes it with Horrible New AmendmentsApril 26, 2012
In what can only be described as a dirty hat trick, U.S. House of Representatives quickly amended the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act(CISPA) and then brought the bill to the floor for a vote a day earlier than was scheduled. The fast and dirty vote on the bill led to it being approved by a vote of 248-168 (15 no votes). You can see if your representative voted for the bill by checking out this document. Pushing the bill through at mach 10 is bad enough, but what's worse are the amendments that Rep. Ben Quayle (R - AZ) managed to get added. These amendments make CISPA infinitely worse than it already was. Here is what TechDirt says the amendments add to CISPA: Previously, CISPA allowed the government to use information for "cybersecurity" or "national security" purposes. Those purposes have not been limited or removed. Instead, three more valid uses have been added: investigation and prosecution of cybersecurity crime, protection of individuals, and protection of children. Cybersecurity crime is defined as any crime involving network disruption or hacking, plus any violation of the CFAA. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has a lengthy write-up on the other amendments that made it into CISPA here. If you want to see exactly what this bill is all about you can read the entire thing here. Finally, if you want to stop this bill, visit the ECA's Action Page to send your elected representatives a letter strongly expressing you opposition to CISPA. Ultimately this is a setback for opponents of CISPA, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the this bill will make it to law. In order for it to pass it has to make it through the Senate, and then the President has to sign it into law. The White House has already promised to veto CISPA. Let's see if they keep their word. Source: Boing Boing, Gizmodo |