Is CISPA the new SOPA? We’re not sure yet.

• sopa…was a bill with the purported intention of helping intellectual property holders crack down on copyright infringement online. It was killed in the Senate in the face of widespread opposition from many, many people.
• cispa…is a different bill, currently making its way through Congress, with the purported aim of combatting cyberterrorism and lubricating the flow of potentially helpful cyber intelligence between the private and public sector.  source

» The key word here is “purported.” Critics of SOPA alleged that the text of the bill was too draconian, and would have allowed for shutting down entire websites for questionable infractions (for example, linking to a message board with a comment that directed users to a site with copyrighted material). Opposition to CISPA, however, comes due to privacy concerns: Critics say the bill allows private companies (such as Facebook and Microsoft which opposed SOPA but support CISPA) to exchange personal information and private data with the government a bit too easily. We’ve still got to delve into the nitty-gritty here, but we recommend you seek out a few different takes on the legislation. TechDirt and Geekosystem are both opposed, GigaOm is so-so, and Lifehacker has a nice rundown as to why Facebook and Microsoft opposed SOPA but support CISPA.

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