In short, reserving the right to build a Great Firewall around the US.
targeted only at sites beyond the reach of current U.S. law
A gap exists in current law, and new laws should be aimed at that gap instead of at increasing penalties for existing law.
cover activity clearly prohibited under existing U.S. laws
The new law should not criminalize things that are not already illegal.
with strong due process
It shouldn't give the government the right to take away property without trial.
focused on criminal activity
Rather than, for instance, speech the government doesn't like.
You can disbelieve the statement, but I don't see a way to read this as an implicit reservation of the right to China-style censorship. It is in fact claiming exactly the opposite.
I'm not saying that I totally trust the Administration's motives, or that I believe they will necessarily do the right thing, but I don't think this sentence has any sinister undertones. What do you see in here that says otherwise?
Once we establish harm, then we can propose solutions. Once we propose solutions, we can see if any solution actually cures the problem, and doesn't cause more problems than it solves.
That's basic policy making 101. Don't make everyone look at your Beautiful Assistant while you shove the problems induced by the solution behind the black curtain.
My dad works in public health, and counterfeit drugs do a lot of harm.
I think SOPA, etc, is bad, but I also think the reaction of the geek crowd has been monumentally ineffective. These laws are all ultimately drafted by policy wonks. They actually do have the statistics on the prevalence of counterfeit drugs if you take the time to do the research. You can't oppose bad laws by pretending the political process doesn't exist, by dismissing off-hand what other people consider to be legitimate grievances, especially without having studied the subject.
It's true, in many ways US law is much more just than Chinese law. But that doesn't mean that walling off US citizens from the rest of the Internet in any way is a good idea.
Yes, but the statement refers to existing US law, not Chinese law. In the US, speech is protected.