Web inventor Berners-Lee shoots down CISPA

This week the inventor of the internet Tim Berners-Lee spoke on several subjects involving data sharing on the web – perhaps most important of all on CISPA, a bill currently up for review in Washington. We’ve spoken about CISPA before – also known as the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, and have gotten some positive and very negative feedback on it from you, the readers, and groups like Facebook – who say it’s great. Berners-Lee, generally considered an expert on how the web works since he invented it, after all, is worried about the bill’s implications.

Speaking this week with The Guardian, Berners-Lee expressed his worry on the CISPA bill passing through our government right this minute. Unlike Facebook, Berners-Lee doesn’t have as much hope for the future of this and other similar bills attempting to add rules and regulations to the way the web works. Heed is words:

“[It] is threatening the rights of people in America, and effectively rights everywhere, because what happens in America tends to affect people all over the world. Even though the Sopa and Pipa acts were stopped by huge public outcry, it’s staggering how quickly the US government has come back with a new, different, threat to the rights of its citizens.” – Berners-Lee

What do you think, citizens of earth? Especially you US citizens who will almost certainly be directly affected by such bills in the future unless you mobilize to take them down in situations like SOPA and PIPA. Have a peek at the timeline below to see the history of these most recent rumblings in Washington on web freedom via government-made bills.