Again, not defending CISPA, but what can the government do to be able to provide cyber defense? This is a rather serious issue, and could be vastly important for national security, so the government does have a role, but any role suggested is automatically demonized and reduced to the same overreaction.
Which is of course where it started. And then they slapped on any other provision that they thought they might like, effectively expanding it to all activities online.
Previously, CISPA allowed the government to use information for "cybersecurity" or "national security" purposes. Those purposes have not been limited or removed. Instead, three more valid uses have been added: investigation and prosecution of cybersecurity crime, protection of individuals, and protection of children. Cybersecurity crime is defined as any crime involving network disruption or hacking, plus any violation of the CFAA.
And now we have that dickhead Obama threatening to veto the thing, thereby taking some of the pressure off of the Senate opposition, and in the end he won't veto it anyway since they'll slip some executive powers in there for him to wield.
Again, are those not valid areas for police powers? Hacking is one of the major problems I was talking about, and can turn into a security threat when we're talking research and development. Protection of Individuals? Sounds maybe more like witness protection? Again, seems like a legitimate area for government activity. Protection of children? I don't think it's some "epidemic," but there are obviously area's where child sex trafficking
is happening, and I have no problems with trying to put a stop to it (though, I would also say legalize prostitution, which is probably much more effective than anything like CISPA).
I won't defend CISPA, because seeing as how it's passing through
this Congress, it's almost assuredly corrupt, and therefor contains loopholes and provisions that go too far. However, people don't attack those, they attack even the general idea of the Bill, and that seems very wrong to me.