It doesn't stop there. USA has been known to curb Internet Freedom by threatening foreign governments in private despite their hypocritical attitude of condemning censorship regimes.

You can see the list of governments whose policies is controlled by USA with the signatories of ACTA.

"hell-bent on turning the internet into a read-only device"

well put

Agreed. Quote of the fucking year.

It's only February. Or is the fucking year on a different schedule?

>> read-only devices like TV and newspapers

Their beauty is not only in their read-only nature, but also in the fact that their number and content can be controlled.

Losing control of the narrative means the end of the narrative.

In our case, the concept of centralized power is dying, because the tales that justify it are dying in unwatched TV programs and unread newspapers.

Unfortunately, their dying will take some time.

Fortunately, any measure taken to save a dying narrative hasten its end.

As someone who has been in the Internet business from the beginning with a number of startups under my belt and who "migrated myself to a non-US controlled country" (East and SE Asia) 25 years ago I would offer my the following formula for happiness:

1. Set up your company outside of the US.

2. Don't keep a bank account in the same country that your company is in.

3. Don't have customers in the same country that your country is in or where your bank account is.

4. Don't live in the country where your company, bank account or customers are.

5. Don't live in the same time zone as your in-laws.

I live in Thailand (for 13 years now) and have a company in Singapore. We are opening companies in Laos this year then Cambodia and then Burma over the next two years. My Bank Accounts are in Hong Kong. I try to find customers in any country other than those listed above, and the States.

Bandwidth is better out here than in most places in the States. And hardware is cheaper because you're buying closer to the source. And as long as you aren't living in Singapore, Hong Kong or Toyko, the cost of living is far cheaper than in the States.

This is not as difficult as it might seem. It's great living out here, and I would encourage everyone to do the same.

BTW our latest startup is an infrastructure for the semantic Web and about as cutting edge as you could hope for, so don't whine about how you can only do your startup in Silicon Valley. The future is here, not in the States.

"hell-bent on turning the internet into a read-only device like TV" At the behest of mostly the music and movie industries - who are so dead set on their antiquated business model, who see the free and open internet as a big big threat on all fronts. On one side you have this so called "rampant piracy problem" (lol) but on the other side you have the internet as a medium for artist to create, distribute, advertize, and sell their work without any need for the big players in the industry. This is what scares them most.. How dare this free and open thing put a chink into our profits, and forcing us to come up with a different way of thinking about the future. But instead their plan is to assault it, with the help of our bought lawmakers, and bring it under their control.

This case has everything to do with GoDaddy, and probably nothing to do with the US government.

I like to bash GoDaddy as much as anyone else, but it's not only their fault if they obeyed a law enforcement agency that issued an ilegal order. I'd like to see government officials being punished for that kind of authoritarian atitude more frequently (we have plenty of that here in Brazil too).

A tax audit is crippling enough for business. Registrars like GoDaddy are exposed to a huge vulnerability in the form they don't know exactly with whom they do business. All you need is a credit card.

A well response but possibly a useless one. I could not put this in words like you did but I believe, this process we are going through is not only US related.

It is by no means limited to the US, but various sources (such as wikileaks cables) make it clear that it is mostly the US government pushing for such draconian measures worldwide. So moving your business away from there to make it clear that you don't agree is a good thing.

You might find step 4. a bit difficult, finding a "non-US controlled country" isn't easy these days, and I'm not sure I'd like to live there.

Much as I like my country (Uruguay), I know we'd cave in faster than New Zealand did with Kim Dotcom.

China might not be US-controlled, but they have their own issues. And a smaller country means it's probably going to be bullied by the US. Maybe Switzerland? (that does sound like a nice place to live :) ).

How about Iceland? At least this web hosting company http://www.orangewebsite.com/ is touting "better level of privacy and lower censorship" as a selling point. (Although, I note it itself is using .com) Anyway, I think it won't be long until some countries or territories will wisen-up to create internet freedom friendly jurisdictions as a competitive advantage to lure tech capital and talent away from the increasingly hostile US with its IP and military industrial complex weapons of wealth destruction.

Where would you suggest moving to? Hong Kong, South Korea?

What about the good old Swiss? Probably one of the strongest tech industries on the planet and (apart from banks doing biz in the good ol' US of A) rather uninterested in listening to other govt's.

Plus the skiing's great here :)

Bankers have more power and influence in Switzerland than in the US. UBS handed Phil Gramm a vice chair position. They've bought into Casino Capitalism hook, line, and sinker.

I am of two minds about these draconian attempts to maintain IP laws. Although, I abhor the corporatist position that they need harsher more invasive tools to maintain their IP claims against piracy, the creation of such laws and enforcement tools will push the wider public to understand and perhaps embrace tools that make them free. Free software and practices that enforce one's own privacy and free will might only became widespread when the average citizen understands in a personal way the need for a free and open set of tools for living in an information based culture. On the other hand, it is only rational to look at the history of oppression and see the harm this pattern of legislation can foster. We should, as educated free individuals collectively speak out and act out against legislation which furthers the trading of freedoms for corporate or personal profit.

"Internet Privacy" is an oxymoron. Safety and freedom are incompatable; you can have one or the other but not both. America says "Safety first"; humanity says "No thanks!". Maybe what we need is an intercontinental virtual RAID array so that no one country can shut it down? (Disclaimer: I use Linux, I live in Thailand.)

If Al-Qaeda really wants to piss off the USA they should just open a censorship free anti-takedown compliant web hosting company. They could run it as a non-profit putting most of the profits back into expanding their business and attracting more clients. LOL

People can do that now. Check out "TOR hidden services". Doesn't cost you anything if you already have an internet connect and a machine to run the software.

What would be the optimal freedom combination ie. jurisdiction to domicile, another for hosting? What are the gambling sites doing lately?

The European gambling sites are normally in the Isle of Man, Gibraltar or Malta. Many Caribbean countries have online gambling companies. Belize is another for the more shadier operators.

I wouldn't run a serious web business in the US. The liabilities are just too high.

Regime change

Where would one relocate to? Only real options appear to be a .ru domain and location.

good luck. if any of your users then criticises the kremlin you might be involved in a tragic accident, like countless other people advocating free speech in .ru

"Hopefully the internet will route around the damaged segment"

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

I love it!

Well put. Like some said its not only in the US. Count Europe in also. Perhaps even or more badly. I'm chocking in Europe. Must get rid of their power. The Central Banks

technically, it's not so much of a 'scare' but a fucking pain in the ass we can do without.

good night, and good luck.