After a blatant dismissal of the White House’s request that the photo of Obama firing a rifle not be altered or copied, a popular pro-copyright group is planning to assist the Obama administration in seeing that request to fruition.

In a daring move for total domination, lobbyists for the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and pro-copyright supporters nationwide are trying to fast-track a bill through congress that says it would become a crime to use the “Print Screen” button on your computer if the content you were saving contained copyrighted material.

The suggestion the lobbyists have made would require Microsoft and other manufactures of computer electronics to abstain from selling keyboards that have a Print Screen button.

Republican Congressman Pete Sessions of Texas said that it’s a step in the right direction to getting people to stop taking photos of everything, including police. “If we can stop them from pushing that button on their computer, we can stop them from taking pictures of government webpages and, hopefully, government employees. That includes police officers.”

An ACLU spokeswoman voiced her opinion on this issue today safely tucked away in an underground bunker - free from the prying eyes of US surveillance drones. Lindsay Baker of the ACLU told reporters, “They want to take pictures of us, but they don’t want us to take pictures of them. Now they’re trying to take away my Print Screen button.”

According to official sources, the FBI could be deployed with pliers nation-wide to inspect, and remove, any Print Screen buttons found in the United States.

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Starting next month the file-sharing habits of millions of BitTorrent users in the United States will be monitored as part of an agreement between the MPAA, RIAA, and five major ISPs.

The parties launched the Center for Copyright Information (CCI) last year which will be responsible for the implementation of the plan.

To guarantee the accuracy of the evidence behind the copyright infringement accusations the parties agreed to hire an impartial and independent technology expert. However, their commitment to this promise was questioned last week when the expert turned out to be Stroz Friedberg, a former RIAA lobbying group.

The CCI is clearly well aware of the sensitivities generated by this particularly unfortunate pick.

Read More: https://torrentfreak.com/six-strikes-evidence-re-reviewed-to-fix-riaa-lobbying-controversy-121031/

The RIAA has submitted its latest tax filing to the IRS, covering the fiscal year ending March 31, 2011.

Despite the long reporting delay, the figures are well worth a look as they show a massive decline in revenue for the music group. In just two years the RIAA’s entire budget was almost cut in half.

The total revenue in the latest filing is $29.1 million, down from $51.35 million two years earlier.

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Across the world initiatives are appearing with an aim to increase Internet monitoring. In the U.S. file-sharers will soon be monitored and reported on behalf of the MPAA and RIAA, and in the UK there are plans to monitor and store all Internet communications. Countering this increased surveillance people are turning en masse to VPN services to ensure their privacy. This begs the question; how long before VPNs become illegal?

In the coming decade there will be an avalanche of initiatives to regulate and monitor the Internet.

The freedom, privacy and relative anonymity that people experience today will only be short-lived if the copyright lobby and intelligence agencies have their way.

In the U.S. there is CISPA, a bill that would put an end to people’s privacy on the Internet by allowing companies to spy on Internet users. Despite fierce opposition from the online community, the bill was approved by the House of Representatives in April.

Another example of increased monitoring in the US is the “six-strikes” anti-piracy agreement, in which alleged ‘pirates’ will be tracked down and punished as part of an agreement ISPs signed with the MPAA and RIAA.

In the U.K. there are similar developments. Not only are there plans to monitor and warn file-sharers, a draft of the ‘Communications Data Bill’ that was posted yesterday shows that the U.K. government wants to monitor and store the Internet activity of its citizens.

A scary prospect for many, but as always there are plenty of ways to circumvent these spying efforts.

Privacy conscious Internet users could simply switch to one of the many VPN providers and bypass all of the above. Since VPN providers in the U.S. and many other countries are not required to log any user information (some do), these users can’t be easily monitored.

But for how long?

Research has shown that people are increasingly turning to these anonymity services, partly in response to new surveillance initiatives. Millions already hide behind VPNs when they go online and this number will only increase in the coming years.

Intelligence agencies and the copyright lobby are not happy with this development, and it would come as no surprise if they began lobbying for a ban on VPN usage. After all, these pesky VPN users are obstructing the law.

“If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear,” they’ll say, adding that your car also requires a readable license plate.

While a ban on VPNs might sound rigorous, it’s by no means unthinkable. In Iran, where a quarter of all Internet subscribers use VPNs, the government has already announced a crackdown on privacy-enhancing tools that bypass local law.

Luckily for privacy advocates, however, not all is lost. The architecture of the Internet is flexible so even in the event VPNs were banned there would still be alternatives to guarantee people’s privacy. But there is little doubt that there will be a huge fight over these issues in the years to come.

So for now, enjoy your privacy for as long as it lasts.

Source: How Long Before VPNs Become Illegal?