Mass. Pirate Party opposes CISPA, urges supporters to tell Congress

The Massachusetts Pirate Party opposes the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) – H.R.3523 as a violation of our fundamental rights to privacy and freedom of speech.

CISPA is would allow federal and state governments to request detailed records of what we send over the Internet from telecommunications companies. Since the bill is intended for:

“the protection of a system or network from … theft or misappropriation of private or government information, intellectual property”

we believe that CISPA would make it possible for telecommunications companies to actively monitor private communications over their networks in order to detect and censor transfers of copyrighted content. Telecommunications companies would not be required to anonymize the information they gather and so the personal details of users would be handed over to governments to use as they wish.

Additionally, state and federal governments would be allowed to share such personal information with private companies. Because such data would be used to protect against “cybersecurity” threats, should those governments or companies misuse this information, they and their employees would be protected from being sued.

CISPA would preempt state law and prevent states from imposing privacy protections on the data gathered or limiting what data can be gathered.

While this system is voluntary, since the introduction of the PATRIOT Act we have seen the increasing collusion between telecommunications companies and the federal government to spy on people. Giving such broad powers to the government and the corporations helping them will undermine our rights to privacy and freedom of speech.

CISPA is so broad it would give the government and corporations access to what we read, watch or say on the Internet, and would destroy what little remaining privacy we have on the Internet.

We urge our members and supporters to contact their Congressperson and Senators and urge them to oppose CISPA and other bills like it. The EFF has setup a page that helps people contact their Congressperson and Senators via Twitter and email. However, calling them (phone numbers below) is the most effective method.

1. Contact your Senators

Scott Brown
(202) 224-4543
http://scottbrown.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/emailscottbrown

John Kerry
(202) 224-2742
http://kerry.senate.gov/contact/

2. Contact your Congressperson

To find out who represents you in Congress, please visit Where Do I Vote MA and enter your address.