Beware! The future of internet is at stake

Internet has become an integral part of our lives. Have you ever thought about a world sans internet. It’s a freaking thought, Right? But it might be just true. The future of internet is at stake.

In the wake of increasing online piracy threats, it seems that the lives of ‘online pirates’ will become more precarious. The anti-piracy grip is tightening around their necks now.

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and Motion Pictures Association of America (MPAA) – the two staunch anti-piracy advocates – have finally come up with suggestions to control online piracy and copyright infringement within the United States. MPAA has repeatedly called for search engines to ban online pirates.

These suggestions will be included in the U.S. government Special 301 report. There is twist there as well. The Internet Infrastructure Coalition (I2C) has requested the American government not to take these MPAA and RIAA suggestions regarding online piracy threats too seriously.

I2C is a representative group of tech companies, with coveted organizations like Amazon, Google, Verisign and Dreamhost as members has called out on the American government to think before including the suggestions put forward by the two firms that are known as the torch-bearers of anti-piracy movement. The internet infrastructure industry rakes up profit in billions of dollars and shows a 20% per year growth rate.

Both MPAA and RIAA have found domain name registrars as possible facilitators for online piracy. The anti-piracy firms and copyright holders have also  pressurized Google to take down pirate websites in the past.   

On the contrary, the I2C is not in favor of including the ‘suggestions’ as they are deemed harmful for the entire internet world. The organization has filed a rebuttal to United States Trade Representative (USTR) in this regard.

“Certain submissions favor an approach to intellectual property and infringement protections that would be harmful to the Internet infrastructure marketplace, and therefore to the Internet itself, as well as the global U.S. and global economies,” they write”, the rebuttal states.

It is to note that both MPAA and RIAA want all pirate domains to be banned. But I2C holds the point of view that this approach is not correct.

“Both the vilification of technology, and misconstruing of the RIAA have one goal in common: forcing Internet infrastructure companies to act as intermediaries in intellectual property disputes,” the group writes. “This is not the answer to intellectual property infringement, is not the purpose of the Special 301 process, and proposals to expand the use of these companies as intermediaries are misguided.”

The I2C has also shown its concerns about the legal consequences of incorporating MPAA and RIAA suggestions in the Special 301 Report.

“Creating regulatory and legal hurdles to the industry’s progress will not only negatively impact the architecture and viability of the global Internet, it will also impact the overall economy, which is dependent on the continued growth of the Internet infrastructure industry.”

The Special 301 Out-of-Cycle Review of Notorious Markets, will be released by the American government early next year.

Are you ready to cope up with an internet-less world? Well, let’s keep fingers crossed and hope for the best.

[Note]: Are you worried about your deserved online freedom? Don’t worry at all! You can browse internet anonymously and with complete privacy and security. You can use the best anonymous VPN service and access any restricted website from any corner of the world without any hassle.

** This news was first published in Torrent Freak.