Randomize

Ok, this is really just pissing me off.

ISPs being required to track and store the online activities of innocent citizens is just beyond the pale for a free country.

Would you allow the police to install cameras in your car or home and track your movements? Under this administration’s definition of freedom, you should, because child molestors and serial killers and drug dealers and terrorists all use cars and houses. After all, what do you have to be scared about if you are innocent?

But you aren’t innocent. Most of you speed, fail to use blinkers, don’t stop in time, run yellow lights, illegally use a cell phone, play your music too loud, stop-and-go at red lights on empty roads, forget the seat belt on occasion, pass on the right, proceed over a train track when lights are flashing, etc.

The point isn’t that the government would start sending everyone tickets for these actions, its that people in power could use their control to “randomly” prosecute those who they disagree with. If you don’t believe me, ask Valerie Plame. Or anyone who has truly experienced “driving while black.”

Now, consider that most of you (let’s be honest) are also Internet criminals, especially if you have a technical bent. Have you ever: - Played online poker? (illegal in most of the US) - Downloaded an MP3, movie, or TV show? (copyright infringement) - Said something mean in an email about someone else? (libel) - Played with a URL to see if you can get to something unlinked? (hacking) - Searched for a serial key so you can bypass registration on some software? (software piracy) - Emailed a serial number to someone so they can install software? - Visited a porn site? (might be “obscene” under city ordinances or state laws) - Downloaded a program so you can back up DVDs or rip CDs to a portable music player? (DMCA violation) - Guessed someone else’s account password? (computer tresspass) - Scanned and emailed a professional portrait? (copyright infringement)

I’m not justifying any of the above, but I am saying that many of these are the criminal equivalent of turning without a blinker. Only now the government wil be making a record of all of these infractions without a search warrant (and many more). When every citizen is a one FBI search query from being a criminal, there will be no free speech, no freedom of religion, no freedom of press, no freedom of association, they are all chilled for fear of prosecution from our many little sins.