Freedom TO the press

Freedom of the press, freedom of speech. Two basic American rights. The lack of which compelled the founders to form the country.

What if the USA made it illegal to read or listen? For example, you can print your newspaper, but it is illegal for anyone to read it. Or you can say anything you want, but everyone caught listening will be arrested. What if a government tried to deny its citizens freedom TO the press? Or, on the other side of the coin, what if the government tries to control the information you have access to: if you don't want to read THIS newspaper, you can't buy a different one. If you don't like what you hear, you can't listen to something else. If you don't like any of the programs on TV, you can't go rent a movie or watch something on the internet?

To me, it seems possible that this is what the US Government is aiming for.

A lot of people here watched the World Cup on a website, www.atdhe.net. The cable TV showed some of the World Cup Games, but a lot of games were played at the same time. Cable TV here didn't have the capability to show them all, even if they wanted to. ATDHE showed them all. Live. At the same time. Here in this multinational society, there were people watching every game.

Then American football season started. ATDHE showed every game. TV here showed two, or maybe only one game at a time. I watched the game I wanted to watch on ATDHE. But I could tell trouble was coming. The games started getting cut off before they were over. Then there would be a message the stream was stopped because of copyright violations.

In February, 10 sites were shut down by US Homeland Security. Read the article HERE. What does streaming sports on the internet have to do with homeland security? Nothing! I think someone, probably the NFL, "persuaded" homeland security to close the sites. Like the movie industry years ago apparently "persuaded" the FBI to spend their resources tracking down people who copy DVD's.

The NFL broadcasts I was watching weren't pirated, the game was live, there was Norwegian or Finnish or Icelandic or some language I didn't even recognize during the breaks. There were foreign commercials, and foreign commentary. If the NFL doesn't want anyone streaming the football game, why don't they go to the guy with the camera there at the stadium and tell him to stop? It's all crap. The NFL doesn’t want me to watch the foreign streaming video, but they authorized the stream. The foreign broadcaster (apparently) has permission to broadcast the stream, but somehow it becomes a copyright violation simply because I choose to watch?

Apparently nobody got arrested, the websites just got different URLs. Nobody apparently was doing anything illegal, except the Department of Homeland Securitys' seizing of peoples websites. ATDHE is HERE now. In the article, it says another site was already up on a different site by the time the article was printed.

Very recently, Department of Homeland Security asked Mozilla (the makers of Firefox web browser) to remove an app that allows users to bypass the websites the Department of Homeland Security has illegally seized, read that article HERE. Mozilla said no, Hurray! Imagine that: the Department of Homeland Security asking Mozilla to assist them in their illegal activity! It's getting complicated! And you can bet that Homeland Security will pressure Mozilla to comply.

I think the USA is heading down a terrible path to corruption. A long time ago, the movie industry influenced the FBI to spend it's resources on copied CDs and DVDs. And now it seems that someone, probably the NFL or some US sports industry, has influenced the department of homeland security.

I have to say that I agree that the intellectual property issue is a valid concern, but it is not a job for the FBI or the Department of Homeland Security.

Since 9-11, The US Government has the illusion that it has the power to do whatever it wants whenever it wants to whoever it wants. As long as the US citizens allow the government to do this, the illusion is reality. Now it seems the US Government is angling for a way to control the media its citizens have access to. US law enforcement agencies are being swayed by big corporations, (if that's what you call the Movie Industry and the Sports Industries).

It starts small, by testing control of the sports, but this is the beginning of an ever tightening grip on what information sources we have access to.