Canadian MP Calls For ISP Licenses, Content Blocks

An anonymous reader writes "A member of Canada's ruling Conservative party has pledged to "clean up" the Internet with new bill that would mandate ISP licensing, know-your-subscriber rules, and allow the government to order ISPs to block content. ISPs that fail to block would faces possible jail time for the company's directors and officers."

Comments

what's happening

[Hognoxious]

Is it me, or is Canada going completely mad?

Re:what's happening

[Opportunist]

In other words, a backbencher trying to catch some limelight.

Please move on, nothing to be seen here.

Re:what's happening

[Lumpy]

you don't understand though. these annoying flies that do t his crap need to be smacked down HARD. Honestly leaders in office need to be treated as uneducated children and spanked on a regular basis.

for some reason, all over the world we stopped electing the best and brightest to power and started electing the mentally retarded that have lots of money.

This needs to be smacked down hard. Canadians need to write scathing letters to their representatives saying how bad the idea is.

These scumbags do this crap as litmus tests to see if they can get away with bigger things. They gauge the reactions to this stuff to see how they can make their real plans fly.

Re:what's happening

[voice_of_all_reason]

Politicians that desire to plunge headlong into tyranny are always something to worry about.

How long...

[Mukunda_NZ]

Were Australia not building up a filter service to allow customers to block porn sites a while ago? What is to stop this technology being used to filter out political writtings that they don't want people to be able to access?

It's not up to government to decide what we can and can't see, and I feel it is a very bad idea to build them the weapons to do so, no matter how much they promise to not use them for their own advantage.

This is like world domination

[wannabgeek]

Just as every villian dreams of world domination, I guess every government keeps dreaming of controlling the internet.

paranoid ++

[witte]

Yet another attempt to curb criticism on governments? How can we protest or criticize when we are no longer anonymous ? I don't mind spewing vitriolic comments on slashdot under my account because IRL I remain anonymous. It wouldn't surprise me if this legislation is being pushed under the guise of protecting us from evil terrorists and child pron. I'd rather have those in need of such protection be kept off the net than exposing everyone's private information to government officials. To be honest, I don't trust any govt to have its people's best interests as their first priority.

Does she not understand

[themusicgod1]

that a good portion of internet traffic is encrypted, and that ISPs cannot know what is contained within it? How can an ISP living under this bill possibly coexist with encryption? And if we outlaw encryption, how can we possibly compete on the global marketplace?

And because it hasn't been said yet; it's violence against women and child porn now; but before the ink on this bill dries, it will be turned toward copyright enfringers, and peole who promote the end of marijuana prohibition.

Fuck Godwin

[Jaysyn]

It just amazes me that a generation of politicians whos parents grew up fighting WWII seem to want to emulate the Nazi's as much as they can get away with. It's not just Canada, it's everywhere.

Genie is out of the bottle

[Billosaur]

Perhaps Joy Smith does not understand, but the Internet is a global system, i.e. most of the content exists somewhere else than Canada, eh. She can try to regulate ISPs all she wants, but she can't actually touch most of them, and those that don't want to be bothered simply won't operate in Canada, or will flout the law and dare the Canadian government to come after them.

I hate news like this

[rinkjustice]

it makes us Canadians look like a bunch of jackasses (I fear I've left an opening for mockery here). Anyhow, I'll be writing my MP about this (again).

Not even remotely constitutional.

[Hamster Lover]

It doesn't take a law degree to understand that almost nothing in this bill would pass constitutional muster. Besides, this is a private members bill meaning it was introduced entirely on the volition of the MP in question and without the support of cabinet or caucus. Without that support, it has zero chance of passing and amounts to nothing more than grandstanding for their constituents. It should also be noted that several private member bills along the same lines have been introduced in years past, all without success.

That doesn't mean we shouldn't be concerned or silent. Concerned Canadians should write their MP and the author of the bill, Joy Smith.

Re:Yeah, right...

[drsmithy]

Right now there is a push to force ISPs to use content filtering, in fact the Fed Govt has a tender out now to evaluate effectiveness or otherwise of filtering technology.

Unfortunately the problem isn't just the right-wing Family First wackos, it's also the plethora of unethical IT consultants in search of a good pork barrel telling them: "Censor the Internet ? Sure, no worries, we can have that up and running in 6 months if you just give us $millions".

The more they try to muzzle the Internet public, the more foolish they look.

Only to the tiny minority of people who realise how impossible it is.

Unbelievable...

[FunWithKnives]

We can't get politicians to do a goddamn thing to owners and managers of corporations when their companies kill and exploit other human beings, but now they suddenly want owners and managers of ISPs to be held accountable and face jail time for content? What in the fuck? They're not even really attempting to hide the fact that this is really about censorship.