Yep, the Star Spangled Banner originally came from a poem called “Defence of Fort McHenry” as written by Francis Scott Key while imprisoned on a British Ship during the battle. The Poem was later set to the music of a British Song called To Anacreon in Heaven. This simple act would have gotten Key locked up for criminal copyright infringement. Just like hundreds of others that took an idea from something they saw or heard to foster innovation and move society along.

Now we find that the content “owners” and technological inventors want to hold on to their ideas for ever. The thought of a copyright or a patent is a good and solid one. You get to reap the benefits of your hard work and creative instincts. The concept of the perpetual copyright or patent is simply wrong. It is anti-competitive and anti-consumer at its core.

The problem is; the people that make and interpret our laws are so immersed with the wealthy corporations that they can no longer tell the difference between good for the few and good for the nation. At the same time the House of Representatives was talking about CISPA and how America is weak in Cybersecurity they are also working to allow more corporations to farm out Information Systems jobs to other countries to save them money and while Universities are cutting back on their Computer Sciences departments.

Even when confronted by members of the House Select Committee on Intelligence and Oversight the backers of CISPA refused to listen to reason and moderation. They voted down several amendments that would have more clearly defined CISPA and limited the surveillance powers of the government and the sharing allowed between companies. It was painful to watch as we saw the truth twisted and abused in order to push a law that is little more than an abandonment of Civil Right guaranteed by the Constitution. It is also a very poorly disguised method to protect corporate interests and their Intellectual Property (which has NOTHING to do with National Security).

We are at a turning point here; if CISPA passes the liberties that we have enjoyed will be washed away in one sweep of the pen. If anyone out there doubts that corporations will not share the massive amounts of data that they “require” to set up accounts (as more force you to use online services) you are sadly mistaken. After all many already sell information to other companies in the form of mailing lists, marketing studies, and worse.

If our nation is so fragile that we need to watch everything on the Internet then that is a problem with the way we have allowed corporations to ignore basic security. There is no need to monitor everything on the internet. How about a law that makes corporations responsible to their customers? Make them liable for security breaches. Next why don’t we promote IT jobs and put money in to educational programs along with money to encourage companies to hire more IT staff to properly deal with these threats. If you look at the breaches for the last few years you will see that it is not sophisticated intrusions, these are simple things like simple passwords, using the default password, unpatched servers, exposing confidential systems to the internet. CISPA will not protect these blunders nor will it make them go away. It will also NOT stop piracy. To do that the big content companies have to begin to provide their services for a reasonable price. To Fix security we need to improve the level of education and technical skill of the IT workers in the US.

All CISPA will do is create more unrest, stifle innovation, restrict freedoms and oh yeah… it will make the likelihood of attacks from groups like Anonymous much, much more likely.

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