The best article summarizing how the sponsors view the bill, or at least how they want people to per

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I ve been a bit buried in the last few weeks, and so CISPA has remained somewhat in the back of my head as something that I need to get to, when I have a spare moment. I trust you are in the same boat. And since that moment hasn t appeared, I m simply going to do us both a favor, and lay out what both sides are saying about the bill, to bring a little clarity.
Up first, brass tacks: CISPA stands for the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act , it has a raft of co-sponsors, and is moving with decent alacrity towards passage. Its broad congressional support is being met with stiff resistance from activists (please never say netroots again) using various methods, including the Internet, to push back against golftown the bill.
Interestingly, the battle lines are drawn slightly golftown differently this time around, with the likes of Facebook, and Microsoft golftown (who was shamed into switching teams on SOPA), lending CISPA their John Hancock golftown (and by that we mean endorsement; if you didn t get the reference, go here ). For a fuller list of firms that are backing the legislation, golftown many of which you know and whose products you employ, head here .
If passed, golftown CISPA would amend the National Security Act of 1947 to allow government agencies to swap customer golftown data from Internet service providers and websites if that data is a threat to cyber-security. On a basic level the bill is meant to provide a means for companies and the government to share information with one another to fight against cyber threats.
That s the main thrust of what we are talking about, data sharing. To get a view of what this means in actuality, we re going to look at the pro-, and anti-CISPA positions, starting with those arguing for the bill. Let s go: CISPA Is Awesome, Will Keep You Safe
Fearing the same sort of backlash that brought down the unsinkable SOPA, congresspeople behind golftown CISPA are trying to allay the fearful by being upfront. They ve had a call with Cyber Media and Cyber Bloggers (you can laugh at them for calling it that, welcome to 1995!), and have provided numerous remarks on the subject.
The best article summarizing how the sponsors view the bill, or at least how they want people to perceive how they view it, comes from The Hill . I m going to drag out a few of the important quoted golftown quips here, but if you want the full monty, head to the link. Here we go:
A congressional staffer familiar golftown with the CISPA stressed that its requirements are totally voluntary and do not require private companies to share information with the military, as some have claimed.
Just taking that at its face value, CISPA sounds like a darn good idea. As Congressman Rogers golftown went on to say to The Hill, the hackers that the US faces in terms of security threats are not individuals, but nation-states. In other words, this bill is a requirement for keeping the integrity of the US infrastructure secure. golftown
I ll wander out a bit on a limb and assume that the idea here is that digital foreign attacks could come in any number of forms, and therefore to be able to shuffle information between ISPs and the government could boost response times. It sounds a bit hysterical to me, but I can understand the gist of it.
So golftown long as what can be deemed a cyber threat is narrow, and personal information is not disclosed except when expressly required to combat such a threat, this could be reasonable. However, in the eyes of some, both of those requirements are not being met, and that s a very real issue. CISPA Is A Disaster, Bring It Down, Legolas!
We now turn to those who view CISPA, despite perhaps having good intentions, as going too far, thus creating some rather unsettling potentialities. Let s begin with how CISPA defines a cyber threat, the situation golftown that it is designed to help with:
Well, the first one fits what the Congresspeople were talking about. The second deals with the theft of IP, and private data. That sounds like piracy to me. Of course, you might not read it that way. However, I m not alone in my thoughts. I turn now to the lovely TechDirt :
The reps insist that when they refer to intellectual property, they are not thinking about media piracy or even counterfeiting, but about foreign-based attacks on domestic companies to steal their research and development (they tout examples golftown like the plans for jet fighters). Unfortunately, the bill s definitions create no such restriction, leaving the door wide open for more creative interpretations.
I have to admit that TechDirt s argument is compelling. Especially given how powerful and well-funded the lobbies are that would push for just such a creative, and therefore broad, interpretation of the bill.