qwerty
If You Thought SOPA Was Bad, Just Wait Until You Meet ACTA
Posted on: 01/27/2012 18:29
When sites like Wikipedia and Reddit banded together for a major blackout January 18th, the impact was felt all the way to Washington D.C. The blackout had lawmakers running from the controversial anti-piracy legislation, SOPA and PIPA, which critics said threatened freedom of speech online.
Unfortunately for free-speech advocates, these pieces of legislation are not the only laws which threaten an open internet.
Few people have heard of ACTA, or the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, but the provisions in the agreement appear quite similar to – and more expansive than – anything we saw in SOPA. Worse, the agreement spans virtually all of the countries in the developed world, including all of the EU, the United States, Switzerland and Japan.
Many of these countries have already signed or ratified it, and the cogs are still turning, with the final real fight playing out in the EU parliament.
Avaaz the internet activist site is circulating a petition. Maybe you should pop over there and see what they have to say and sign their petition ...
http://www.avaaz.org/en/eu_save_the_internet/?cl=1539117725&v=12285
Here is a link to a good article in Forbes magazine that explains this latest witches brew which was originated by the Bush administration and has, like other of Bush's obscenities, been perpetuated by President Obama. The article contains other links to articles and videos. Check it out ... but prepare to be outraged and appalled.
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qwerty
Posted on: 01/27/2012 18:47
... and yes, Canada has signed on so you better hope that the Europeans kill it.
qwerty
Posted on: 01/27/2012 19:03
Here are two other articles outlining the problems with ACTA. It has been signed by EU members but it is yet to be ratified.
The first article outlines its problems.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/01/we-have-every-right-be-furious-about-acta
The second highlights why a last ditch effort by people like us is required. I urge you to read them and GET YOUR NAME ON THAT PETITION!
http://www.openrightsgroup.org/blog/2011/acta:-signed,-not-yet-sealed-now-its-up-to-us
We are rapidly moving to a condition of corporate feudalism and this moves us a long way in that direction. The very existence of this "treaty" (and the fact that until now you have likely never heard of it) attests to the fact that democracy is a dead and dying thing, that your vote in the next, or any, election is likely of little value and that you must make your voice heard through other more direct channels such as the Avaaz petition.
Alex
Posted on: 01/27/2012 21:48
Alarming
Today Twitter also announced it is changing it's policy and will allow each countr2y to determine what is allowed on twitter and what will be censored on a country by cioun=try basis.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/twitter-faces-accusations-of-censorship-users-plan-saturday-boycott/2012/01/27/gIQAJ8dHWQ_story.html
Twitter’s new ability to selectivity block tweets may help the company gain the goodwill of foreign countries where it is seeking to open new offices and it may even allow it reenter the biggest online market of all — China — where it has been blocked by the communist regime.
But the new policy has not gone over well with some of its users. Twitter, which played a key role in the Arab Spring uprisings last year and the Wikileaks document dumps, had previously been held up as a champion of free expression.
Now some of its users are accusing it of being a censor.
Posting messages with the hashtags “#TwitterBlackout” and “#TwitterCensored,” tweeters writing in a range of languages told the company they oppose Twitter’s decision and that they are worried it will destroy the service’s capability for starting impromptu social movements.
Alex
Posted on: 01/27/2012 21:49
Is this the begining of the end of the internet as we know it?
InannaWhimsey
Posted on: 01/28/2012 00:14
Whoah! :3
I noticed something was wrong when I tried uploading a vid of my own creation to youtube and it said I couldn't make it a creative commons license because of 'third party copyright'. I wonder what that is? The light in the video? Sheesh.
LBmuskoka
Posted on: 01/28/2012 07:08
To understand the importance of Internet Users speaking out, please read this article ....
Who Really Stopped SOPA, and Why?
On Wednesday, the rebels detonated their nuclear option. Wikipedia and Reddit, along with other popular websites, went black, generating thousands of calls and millions of emails, many from constituents who had likely never heard of the legislation the day before. Online petitions picked up 10,000,000 signatures, members of Congress received 3,000,000 emails and a still-unknown number of phone calls. Thirty-four Senators felt obliged to come out publicly against the legislation. That night, all four Republican candidates condemned the bills during a televised debate.
It wasn't just politicians who were roused to change their attitudes, it was the Internet's backbone businesses that were also moved. As the campaign against both SOPA and PIPA ramped up, companies like Google who had remained silent suddenly acted.
The Net or Web, whatever one likes to call it, is a business and no one should forget that because what propels business is consumers and that gives consumers power. 10 million angry consumers moved the US Congress, they can move the EU but people have to sign up and speak out.
Governments of the Industrial World, you weary giants of flesh and steel, I come from Cyberspace, the new home of Mind.
On behalf of the future, I ask you of the past to leave us alone. You are not welcome among us. You have no sovereignty where we gather.
John Perry Barlow,
A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace, 1996