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Assuring potential critics that the government doesnt need to take over the Internet in order to protect it, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., joined a bevy of other Republican committee leaders on Thursday to introduce cybersecurity legislation.

The only government actions allowed by our bill are to get information voluntarily from the private sector and to share information back, McCain told reporters. We have no government monitoring, no government takeover of the Internet, and no government intrusions.

Lawmakers working on bills relating to the Internet are walking a fine line after the backlash over controversial antipiracy measures scuttled two bills in January. But McCains comments were also aimed at the Cybersecurity Act of 2012, recently introduced by the top members of the Senate Homeland Security, Intelligence, and Commerce committees.

McCain and the seven other cosponsors of the Strengthening and Enhancing Cybersecurity by Using Research, Education, Information, and Technology Act (SECURE IT) criticized the Cybersecurity Act as too heavy-handed and said their alternative bill takes a more industry-friendly approach to cybersecurity.

Now is not the time for Congress to be adding more government, more regulation, and more debt especially when it is far from clear that any of it will enhance our security, said Senate Intelligence Vice Chairman Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga. Our bill offers the right solution to improving our nations cybersecurity by encouraging collaboration, investment, and innovation.

Specifically, the SECURE IT Act would allow companies to voluntarily share information about cyberthreats; limit liability for companies that take steps to protect their networks; and limit the type of information that can be shared in order to protect privacy. The bill would also reform federal cybersecurity standards.

The proposals earned praise from some industry groups like USTelecom and the Internet Security Alliance, which called the bill not just a step in the right direction but several steps in the right direction.

McCain said he plans to offer his bill as a substitute when the Cybersecurity Act is brought to the floor sometime in the next few weeks. The extent of support for either bill is not clear, but the dueling legislation could split support from industry as well as complicate efforts to pass a matching bill in the House.

Homeland Security Chairman Joe Lieberman, ID-Conn., spearheaded an effort to develop and draft the comprehensive Cybersecurity Act of 2012, which, in addition to increasing information sharing, would give the Homeland Security Department more authority to make sure certain critical infrastructure is protected.

Lieberman and his cosponsors, Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., Homeland Security Committee ranking member Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said they welcome the new proposals.

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McCain: No Internet Takeover in GOP Cybersecurity Bill

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) The Florida House on Thursday voted to shut down more than 1,000 storefront operations known as Internet cafes that sprouted across the state in the last five years.

Backers of the legislation say the measure will eliminate gambling operations that exploited a loophole in the law to set up shops that target the poor and the elderly in the state.

"These are truly the crack cocaine of gambling," said Rep. Scott Plakon, R-Longwood and sponsor of the bill (HB 3).

Internet cafes sell customers either phone cards or Internet time. But they also offer customers a chance to redeem electronic sweepstakes on computers that use software that mimics casino-styled games.

Sweepstakes such as those handed out by fast-food restaurants like McDonald's have been legal for decades. But the explosion of Internet cafes has triggered a debate about whether or not they are actually a form of illegal gambling. Some counties have tried to shut down the operations completely, while others have chosen to pass ordinances that regulate them.

Gov. Rick Scott, Attorney General Pam Bondi as well as prosecutors and sheriffs across the state have called for legislators to ban the operations.

But the push to ban the Internet cafes may go nowhere.

So far the Florida Senate has refused to move a Senate bill that calls for a ban.

Senators instead say they want to pass a bill that would regulate the cafes instead. They contend that banning the cafes now would result in the loss of thousands of jobs for those who now work at them.

But Plakon and other supporters of the ban warn that regulating the operations could threaten payments the state is now receiving from the Seminole Tribe of Florida.

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Fla. House votes to ban so-called Internet cafes

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 29, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Internet marketing is a growth industry; unfortunately, it is an industry dominated by too many companies that offer only cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all approaches for their clients. There is a serious dearth of creativity and originality within this industry, but one Internet marketing company is taking great strides to change all that. At Cyberset, a full-service Internet marketing company in Los Angeles, President and CEO Shahab Saba has assembled a diverse team of talented professionals under one roof, creating a one-stop shopping destination for all the Internet marketing services that a business could possibly need. Their track record speaks for itself. With a long list of satisfied clients who have seen their businesses climb to the top rankings on major search engines like Google, Yahoo!, and Bing, this imaginative Internet marketing company has managed to consistently deliver results that exceed even the loftiest expectations.

Cyberset has enjoyed a meteoric rise above its competition primarily because of its visionary leadership. When Mr. Saba first opened the doors to Cyberset a decade ago, he was committed to offering clients a custom tailored approach to boosting their online profiles. Refusing to ever cut corners, he and his team carefully analyze every client's needs and aspirations before comprising an Internet marketing strategy perfectly suited to the task. From search engine optimization (SEO) to local Internet marketing, mobile marking, e-mail marketing, pay per click advertising, and so much more, Cyberset's bag of tricks encompasses a wide range of essential Internet marketing services. The diversity of their Internet marketing services is impressive in and of itself, but the deliberative way that they bring those services to bear on behalf of their clients is what truly sets them apart from the competition.

Another quality that distinguishes Cyberset from the rest of the industry is their willingness and capacity to continually adapt. As Mr. Saba eloquently puts it, "Technology changes, the online landscape changes, our clients' business priorities change. And all the while, Cyberset maintains its position at the leading edge of Internet marketing services because we never stand still, and we never stop looking for ways to improve." That dynamism is rare in the world of Internet marketing, but here's hoping more companies start to follow Cyberset's example.

If you would like to learn more about the various Internet marketing services available at Cyberset, contact them at 818-883-7277 or visit online at http://www.Cyberset.com.

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Cyberset Demonstrates Vision That Other Internet Marketing Companies Lack

The Internet is more like real life than the 20th-century media was.

When news of Andrew Breitbart's death first rumbled across Twitter this morning, the initial reaction was one of skepticism: Could this just be a prank? A stunt to gin up traffic and prove a larger point about the glee with which "the media" -- that is, the left-wing cabal that Breitbart envisioned -- would celebrate the conservative pundit's death?

Alas no. Not much later, Breitbart's death was confirmed by the Los Angeles coroner's office. Dead at the age of 43.

Those early moments of uncertainty illuminate what will surely be Breitbart's legacy, or, at least, part of his story. Andrew Breitbart was a man who understood the power of the Internet -- how stories could spread and inspire -- and who had figured out how to use it. He didn't fake his death, but had he done so, it would have been another genius, mischievous, and slightly mad demonstration of his ability to light up the hive mind with a headline, a video, and even a tweet.

Here's what Andrew Breitbart got about the Internet (or "grokked," as Felix Salmon put it in a tweet earlier this morning): A story's power comes from its emotional resonance more than its "minutiae" (his word). The web loves big personalities, and the big battles they fight. And, perhaps the most important lesson of Andrew Breitbart's life: The Internet is a place where you can build your own home, from scratch. Breitbart didn't fit into the older media ecosystem, so he went online an built his own.

Taken together, what Andrew Breitbart intuited is that the Internet is more like real life -- the way people consume and spread information in their personal lives -- than the institutional media of the 20th century: People love a good story, they love a character, and there is room for you to tell your stories in your own voice. And journalists' prized ethics and "objectivity"? Yeah, well, that's nice, but it's not what gives a story its "pop."

In a 2010 New Yorker profile of him, Breitbart explained to Rebecca Mead the moment when he realized this possibility.

In the early nineties, a friend, Seth Jacobson, who was studying astrophysics at Harvard, paid Breitbart a visit. "He came to my house, and he said, 'Andrew, we need to go take a walk,' and we took a walk," Breitbart told me. "He says, 'Your brain works differently from most people's. And there is this thing called the Internet that is your brain.' " Breitbart, who was an early user of Prodigy and CompuServe, recalls, "I said to him, 'Yeah, I'm on the Internet.' And he said, 'No, that's not the Internet. You can create your own path. You can create your own environment.' It was almost like a dare." Soon afterward, Breitbart went out and bought a six-pack of Pilsner and a rotisserie chicken. "I said to myself, 'O.K., you are going on a date tonight, and you are not going to bed until you have gone all the way.' And I remember hooking up to the World Wide Web that night, and it was a revelation. It was just like shooting yourself into outer space, and trying to latch onto anyone else who was out there. ..."

And that's how he began, latching himself onto Matt Drudge, and later Arianna Huffington, and then, finally, striking out on his own. He went on to build his own little empire of "Big" blogs: Big Hollywood, Big Government, Big Journalism, and the youngest, Big Peace. It was fitting that Breitbart took on the "Big" brand, though he surely meant it as an attack on the powerful reach of these institutions he so hated. Because Breitbart embodied big: Everything he did was suffused with the bigness of his ideology, his conviction, and his willingness to battle it out with anyone who disagreed.

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What Andrew Breitbart Got About the Internet

GENEVA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Speaking this week at the Human Rights Council panel on the right to freedom of expression on the Internet, Markus Kummer, Internet Society Vice President for Public Policy, emphasized the importance of a multistakeholder dialogue to further this objective. In the Internet Societys first statement in the Human Rights Council, Kummer emphasized that the same standards should be applied to both the online and offline worlds.

The high-level panel discussion focused on the ways and means to improve the protection of freedom of expression online in accordance with international human rights law. Kummer remarked, There is no doubt that the unique characteristics of the Internet have empowered individuals to seek, receive, and impart information and opinion in unexpected ways and scale. This success is based on an open and collaborative approach to technology development. The core values of the Internet pioneers were deeply rooted in the belief that the human condition can be enhanced by removing barriers to communication and information.

The success of the Internet is based on an open and collaborative approach to policy, standards, and technology development, as carried out by the engineers of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and other Internet organizations. Without the open standards development, the Internet would not be the powerful catalyst that it is today for access to information, freedom of expression, and innovation. These unique enabling qualities of the Internet must be preserved.

Kummer stated that from the point of view of the Internet Society, Article 19 of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR), which includes the right to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers, almost reads like a definition of the Internet, even though it was written a quarter of a century before the development of the Internet Protocol (TCP/IP).

The Internet Society expressed concern over increased attempts by some governments to control their citizens' access and use of the global network. While governments have the responsibility to enforce the laws that are in place, they also have the obligation to guarantee fundamental rights. There are many examples of technological measures used to restrict access to content deemed undesirable, without due regard to the potential impact on an individuals capacity to exercise their fundamental rights.

Kummer continued, It is our firm conviction that technological shortcuts should not be used to solve societal problems. We would like to re-emphasize that the same rights apply to all individuals, whether online and offline, and that there should not be differentiated treatment depending on the medium used to exercise these rights.

The Internet Society applauds the Human Rights Council on its efforts to raise awareness of this important issue, and commends the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and its co-sponsors for the successful panel on Freedom of Expression on the Internet at the 19th Human Rights Council.

Mr. Kummers full statement to the Human Rights Council panel is available on the Internet Society website, http://www.internetsociety.org/humanrightscouncilstatement

For more information on the Internet Society and the importance of preserving an open Internet, visit: http://www.internetsociety.org/internet-invariants-what-really-matters

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Internet Society Delivers Statement at the 19th Session of the Human Rights Council