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from www.skyvalleychronicle.com – SOPA author Lamar Smith [pictured] is sponsoring a bill named the “Protecting Children From Internet Pornographers Act of 2011″ (H.R. 1981).
And while the bill is not new, like “so many other oppressive attempts by the government to invade privacy and control the Internet lately, it has managed to slip by relatively unnoticed until now,” says a new report in venturebeat.com
The bill, which can be read here [cut & paste: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c112:2:./temp/~c112HUExKG::] would alter U.S. code Chapter 18 section 2703 “Required Disclosure of Customer Communications or Records” so that all Internet service providers would need to store your IP address for at least 12 months, along with any highly sensitive personal information such as credit card data.
IP (Internet service provider) addresses are assigned to devices connected to the Internet and used to identify and locate that device. Most users are assigned a dynamic IP address, which is only temporary.
Static IP addresses, which are permanent, are much less frequent. H.R. 1981 would require all IP addresses to be stored by Internet service providers.
“Not only does that treat everyone who uses the Internet (slyly referred to in the bill as “unregistered sex offenders”) like a criminal under the transparent guise of stopping child pornography, but it also puts your personal information at risk, while legally protecting service providers. Previously this information could only be obtained with a subpoena; that would no longer be the case,” says the report in venturebeat.
“The fact that H.R. 1981 — where everyone who uses the Internet is treated like a suspect — even exists is mind-boggling, and more than a little scary,” says the report.
The piece in venturebeat says the bill, submitted last year, is drawing attention now not only because of the potential breach of constitutional privacy, but also due to the existence of a Canadian equivalent, C-30, which has been making headlines lately.