Proposed Treaty Turns Internet Into a Virtual Police State
Written by Ben Jones on May 24, 2008Leaked documents are one of the banes of modern western politics. They reveal exercises and actions being proposed that are generally objectionable to the public. Such a leak occurred with the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) which seeks to turn the internet into a virtual police state.
Again, it’s one of the few bastions of anti-corruption, Wikileaks, that has spilled the beans on this unsavory topic. Yesterday the site revealed a document proposing a treaty that will significantly limit the privacy and rights of Internet users, to the benefit of multimillion dollar companies.
“ACTA” is basically an attempt to criminalize the Internet, thus allowing a virtual police state to occur by the selective prosecuting of crimes. In short, it’s an international treaty, or hopes to be, that will greatly increase already draconian copyright measures, in a poor attempt to appease the copyright and patent industries.
The proposal is based on the assumption that ‘intellectual property rights’ (a term used nine times on the first page of the proposal, and 24 times over the entire 3 ½ page document) trump personal privacy, data protection, probable cause, and lots of other important principles in western democracies.
The measure which has received wider publicity is the so-called ‘Pirate Bay killer’. At the end of page two, there is a list of things that should be included in a signee’s legal framework, and in the section about criminal sanctions it states “significant willful infringements without motivation for financial gain to such an extent as to prejudicially affect the copyright holder (e.g., Internet piracy)”. Think non-profit, personal use file-sharing.
Of course, this could go two ways, as the MPAA, for instance, has been guilty of ‘Internet piracy’ in the past, with it’s university toolkit.
Worst of all though, are the following two points speaking of “establishment and imposition of deterrent-level penalties” and “ex-officio authority to take action against infringers”. It is argued that the current level of penalties aren’t harsh enough (“people are still doing it, so they’re no deterrent”), so there should be room for harsher punishments. Combine this with the ability to prosecute without a rights holder complaint, which means that people could be liable for millions, or imprisoned (they are talking about CRIMINAL enforcement) for sharing Steal this Film, or Paulo Coelho’s books. So, these people actively want you to share would have no say in any such prosecution.
There are some other pure gems proposed, such as “ex officio authority for customs authorities to suspend import, export and trans-shipment of suspected IPR infringing goods”. Given that copyright law is so complex and convoluted, and that judges make mistakes in the cases they hear, this is worrying.
Unsurprisingly, the US patent office is backed up beyond belief and dominated by patent trolls that wait until a successful business is established, before pouncing to clean up. This would mean the death for any new and innovative products, or art. If that wasn’t bad enough, there is a further provision for rights holders to prod customs officials into suspension. Thus, a company can make an allegation, forcing a competitors products to be held in limbo until sorted.
Protest has been swift. TorrentFreak occasional contributor Jamie King wrote on his own blog: “In the form that it currently appears to exist, ACTA would ratchet-up further the rights of Hollywood and Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) at the expense of all of our civil liberties. It provisions to criminalize information use practices currently allowed under U.S., European, and international law are completely disproportionate to the ‘problems’ it claims to address.”
Andrew Norton, chairman of the American Pirate Party was much less restrained: “The very existence of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) – be it in policy or just planning, sends one definite message to people around the world; Corruption is rife in the interested countries. There can be no other reason for yet another ‘intellectual property’ (itself a misnomer) law aimed at protecting business interests and expanding government intrusion into the private affairs of it’s citizens, in the name of ‘protection’.”
Of course, the other area most affected by this would be whistle-blower sites like Wikileaks itself. The owner of any leaked document can claim copyright infringement on its publication, and have it pulled. In this, ACTA is a very effective censorship tool. For some reason, though, this aspect has not been widely reported, or even mentioned.
Previously: Bell Opens Video Download Store, but Continues to Throttle BitTorrent
Next: BitTorrent Tracker Insider Infiltrates Anti-Piracy Lobby
140 Responses
If this goes through
the world is screwed.
New World Order
“slaves of Big Companies” end of “democracy”
Revolution ..
If that document is real (ACTA) then there is no hope for “the people” to be free from the money hungry bastards who are in charge :(
scary. but does the every day joe even have the ability to try and stop it? sadly i don’t think so.
Ok, ok.. So, lets say we set copy right on a torrent, should be legal like a newspaper can have copyright on a review. Then, add following Terms of use agreement:
1. Torrent is free to use for private use and sharing only.
2. It’s not allowed to be used in any form of economical way, that be in any way of suing or econimical pressure.
Etc…
Well, look at the good thing that came of this… its been leaked! It didn’t come up behind all of us and suddenly handcuff us then pull our pants down and screw us… but thats exactly what its going to do unless people stand up, make a noise about it… blogs, voices, talk, rally, email… get the word out.
Sadly, looking at history even that may not do as these scum are just too powerful… what may happen even if all the above is done is, a water ed-down version will pass with most of the meat still in there, first in the US of course (as thats the MAFIAA’s base) and then in a lot of the world.
Oops, long post, will continue the rest on my blog as I need to follow my own advise about blogging and making a noise about this :)
Cheers!
Jag
http://www.ezee.se
The international civil liberties group IP Justice has published a White Paper analyzing ACTA and much more information about the proposal. Check out: http://ipjustice.org/campaigns/acta
Ok. I got only one question: what are they smoking?
sure, harsher punishments, let’s put people against the wall
nice democracy
do we feel sorry for the law makers and controllers of this crap when someones life is totally screwed up by them and his family leaves him because of finacial troubles etc and he starts to think whats the point of living and thinks a eye for a eye ? but i hope the anti pirating lawyers etc that probably read this it wont be you, but at the end of the day when your home at night and you hear a little noise out side, it could just be that persons life you distroyed coming to get even….Have you checked the children ? but dont worry, when they make a movie of it you’ll be remembered when everyones downloading it :-D
US meh.
“Fewer than 0.1% of documents that pass initial triage fail subsequent analysis” - http://www.wikileaks.com
We sooo need a new internet not controlled by the gov.
This world is in dire need of a couple of anti-corporate superheroes - either that, or a few determined nutjobs replete with AKs, Glocks, etc…
[q]We sooo need a new internet not controlled by the gov.[/q]
wrong. we need new goverment, that is not fucked up
Wikileaks promotes transparency and is anti-corruption, so Implidely it can be read into Fundamental / basic rights enumerated in the constitutions of various countries.
Hence it can to some extent put up a good defence
“We sooo need a new internet not controlled by the gov.”
Got one already, it’s called Freenet.
Isn’t this old news (not the actual contents, but the proposal)? I googled it, and its been about in blogs since October of last year.
“This world is in dire need of a couple of anti-corporate superheroes”
Try Marx, Benn, Negri, Pilger, Klein, Monbiot, J. Gray, C. Hill, and Chomsky.
There are a few such superheroes you might like in that Lot.
If they ruin my life (internet) ill ruin theirs for sure..
There are thousands of proposals in the works at all times all over the world in every Government, some far less harsh than this, and only about .05% of all of them go through in one way or another.
I’m not to worried about it.
get out of my world fascism!!!!!!!!
@17 While people were aware of the document, attempts to obtain it through Access to Information Act only resulted in an entirely blacked-out document. The news is that it’s now been leaked entirely.
While the fact that only a small part of proposed laws actually make it, this one seems to be different since it seems to be a proposal that is being worked on together by all the G8 nations, specifically for the next G8 summit. I’m still not worried, not only the agreement ridiculous, even if some bizzare circumstances it was accepted, they’d still drag their feet to implement it.
For those who read the document, I urge you to re-read it and notice what *is not* being said. While you might think some of the proposals are already in effect in many contries, they still have to be done through the regular law system. However the proposal makes no mention of law. In fact, it specifically implies that this would be a system above regular courts.
I’m not worried about that fact that this might pass more about the fact that they are even thinking about it.
What kind of world do we live in?
Everything is copyright…how long will it be before we have to pay for the air we breath?
You know there is 1 way to defeat the NWO. Every 1 quit there jobs and plant seeds.Thats right lets do what we where doing before this whole shitfest called “the industrial revolution”
Mankind has survived hundreds of thousands of years w/o this bullcrap.And once it has fallen away mankind will still survive,hell I say then it will Thrive.
The entire system depends on the Majority keeping there slaves “employees” in there dead end Just Over Brokes (jobs).No one work = no taxes collected=system FAILS.
We can go hungry now for a bit,or we and our children can starve to death later.
Your choice.
Birth is free and death is free the lies in between enslave us for this life. Wake up and realize that Business is nothing more than the justification of greed.How many times have you been told “Nothing personal its just business”while a supposed friend or family member SCREWS you over in there greed?
This world and all therein Truly belongs to ALL PEOPLE UNDER THE SUN.
It is the acceptance of lies that we pass to our children that enslave us all!
Yes you and every 1 you <3 is under an illusion of lies.
We the people GIVE THEM THEIR POWER!
Its time we STOP!
Either we the people force the change ,or change will be forced upon us the people!
If one would like to know what the future holds ,all one must do is understand the past,lest they repeat it,like we are now.
From now on I am using tor and tor only. So they can trying to spy on me noone know what I am doing online.
Please don’t use Tor. That is not what they system was made for.
Get relakks or something but don’t waste people’s bandwidth for your stupid bittorrent needs.
We can still get guns and defend ourselves. That will not be virtual like an intellectual property.
citizens freedom must not be in any circumstance questionable especially when it comes from minorities like NGO’s who have their own interest before anything else.
i wonder what their kids will do in tha world they try to create.
i really hope one of the democratic states will take action against these diseases that shameless attack masses of citizens, be that by harassing them with lawsuits or verbally aggression.
http://www.FreeTheScene.net
This is what I thought last time I heard of this type of insanity:-
I have a cruel streak and want to see this and all their other plans enacted.
Seriously, ISP’s attempt to filter everything, Internet slows down, Amazon, EBay, ITunes, all start to be crippled.
Then they start kicking people off the net, in their tens, hundreds, thousands, hundreds of thousands.
ISP’s start to fold as they go from thousands of customers to tens.
Basically my cruel side would like to see the RIAA and the MPAA get what they want, and then prove them wrong.
Sales still tank, and they fuck the Internet as well.
It’s funny that they think we need their internet. As if we can’t peer to peer share a new one.
We’ll mod out their DRM and wardrive our own underground internet. It’ll be spread out like a torrent swarm. Too numerous to take down. They’ll resort to attacking the electromagnetic spectrum it’s self. But we will shield our selves with faradays cages. Eventually they will mod the entire ionosphere to keep us under-control with ELF frequencies.
I will download one final torrent, carve the McDonalds logo into my chest, and kill my self.
Who, by name, are the individuals who are working on creating ACTA? Which companies, by name?
Only by “enforcing” individual responsibility can we hope to save ourselves from this without an actual war.
ok if you download something maybe we should pay for it… do’h! what am i saying their trying to screw us all. its time for a new revolution ppl i say we throw them all out and start anew….. after all we are the ones that put them in….
peace!!
1984
Suing for sharing free, independent works shall be possible without limits or interference by the owners? What the… is everyone now totally out of their mind!?!
And Wikileaks going down, I couldn’t imagine this… that would feel like a global nuke on people’s right to share and live like they want… (since the internet is now a vital part of many of us)
I got nothing else to say… I just can’t think of any more words to describe this terrible… ’stuff’…
@24, yeah that makes a LOT of sense. How many times do you think humanity would have to hit the proverbial reset button to realize its not the PRACTICES that “corrupt” life but our own NATURE. Apparently you got screwed out of the brain gene.
And this is disturbing, things like this seriously shouldn’t even be considered, lest not enough to have an official outline of a proposition. What I really want to know is who is pushing this through? I mean, really, there’s gotta be some MAFIAA-esque force behind this. Show me the money trail.
EU will never allow our rights to be violated this bad. Thank god I’m European…
Oh wait… I’m atheist.
ha ha ha.. another feable attempt to strike fear into the hearts of pirates and thinkers around the world. I’d LOVE to see them try and censor what we have build up as a community. It simply can’t happen at the rate we are growing in number.
For every security measure, there is an equal vulnerability.
For every mode of sensorship, there are cloaks to hide us.
For every country enforcing internet policia, there will be lawless havens in other countries.
If i could give you all one bit of advice.. don’t stop pirating. there simply arent enough jails to fit the entire internet community in. WE OUTNUMBER THEM.
Our name is legion… for we are many. Like the hydra, our heads will multiply against them.
I say we all move to the land of piracy and bootlegs (Russia) :p
@24
Ah, so with the economic collapse that would come if even 1/2 the workers of the world did what you said, there would be no money for police or firefighters, leaving open many ripe opportunities for more violent forms of criminals to forcefully take control of areas and use intimidation to create even worse life styles for the people they conquer as the entire network that created the internet breaks down.
there are consequences for actions. Think that through before proposing something THAT radical. Collapse of governments leads to violent anarchy, look at what happened when we invaded Iraq. Idealistic-anarchy is not a natural state for humans. Nor is communism. So deal with what we are.
I actually hope it does go through as I’m totally fucking bored here. With any luck it would help spice things up a bit, ya know, make things slightly challenging at least…
@32/36 Cassy/EpochOne
The actual wikileaks page lists a number of names openly supporting (helping to create) this. It even has a section titled “Who is really behind ACTA?” which details to some degree some of the money behind one of the people pushing it. Just look deeper…
Just a minute folks while I load my gun, cos the only thing that those proposing this deserve is a bullet between the eyes. And God damn them all too.
I have to admit something - I’m scared for the future of humanity. This isn’t just a buzz-phrase to make me seem funny on the internet, it’s truly how I feel. I am literally FRIGHTENED.
“Wake up and Quit” is right. I actually have already quit my job. I quit a few years ago. I broke as fuck but I reassure myself that it’s the right thing to do. How can we continue to feed this beast? Once you realize what I have realized, it should make you sick to your stomach. Go watch Mario SAvio’s 1963 speech. He was right all along.
“Andrew Norton, chairman of the American Pirate Party”
Dude, if you’re reading this, we need to gather people in the U.S for such a rally also, and fast. We also need this to be co-ordinated with the other PP groups the world over. I don’t want the peoples internet to be destroyed. This will be the end of the internet as we know it, if it goes through.
Get organized people, we need to rally.
Canadians, go to the Net Neutrality rally on May 27th, if you can.
http://www.netneutralityrally.ca/
Tor, Freenet etc. Will become illegal if this passes. We will all be screwed.
We have to take a stand, it’s not a maybe, if you love the internet, take a stand!
““This world is in dire need of a couple of anti-corporate superheroes”
Try Marx, Benn, Negri, Pilger, Klein, Monbiot, J. Gray, C. Hill, and Chomsky.
There are a few such superheroes you might like in that Lot.”
Superheroes don’t just sit around jawing all day long.
These fuckers need (at the very least) a good knuckle sandwich - can you really see Chomsky doling out the lumps?
Mheh-heh
Well they cant imprison all of us for sharing. So all, Keep up the good work. Ill take one for the team, Will you
I agree with Andrew Norton that corruption is rife in our western governments.
This treaty is clearly biased towards the protection of big business interests at the expense of so many of our principles of democracy.
I’m appalled at this blatant attempt to trample over people’s right to privacy. These people exist in an isolated bubble of reality far separate to the rest of us in the real world.
Liberals and leftists need to obtain firearms and learn how to use them. In the US in particular you are heading rapidly towards true fascism. I don’t think it will end without bloodshed.
Anybody have any better way to reduce all the inaccurate junk on the Internet?
HAHAHAHAHA amerikkkunts. enjoy your facism, you voted for it.
Let’s see;
An organization that has no real authority, but which is able to influence the government to pass the laws it wants. Which is able to put pressure on other countries to do what it wants them to do. That portrays its beliefs and problems as being more important than anything else. That wants to criminalize beliefs and actions it doesn’t agree with. That seeks to outlaw any new technology that it doesn’t approve of. That doesn’t mind if it ruins lives in pursuit of its own wealth and will happily stoop to extortion to get what it wants. That started out as a small, good intentioned organization, but which quickly grew to become a power-mad, behemoth intent on controlling people’s lives.
Of course I’m referring to the Catholic church during the middle ages. What did YOU think I was talking about?
This is the US but doesn’t mean other nations will follow suit. If they do it’s time we all moved to Russia or China or some other non-allied country. This all stems from Bush’s patriot act which has encouraged them. Everyone is spied on, well those mongrels wanna follow suit and turn the Internet into a profiteering bonanza, with severe punishment for all who dare even to oppose.
They may carry a big stick, but that can be taken off them and used against them, and it will be.
@23
One might argue that if an individual or entity was entitled to the rights of something like ‘air’ there would be more of an incentive to keep it clean and productive in the future. As opposed to “God is coming, burn it all!” mentality found nowadays.
Rekrul, true Christianity died out before the 3rd century. Catholics are not their descendants. Their start was later and had nothing to do in reality with the Bible or Christianity. Apostate groups which sprang as cults from the first Christians developed their own philosophies which were loosely based on the Bible at best.
Catholicism has remarkable similarities to Buddhism
Jesuit John McKenzie, when professor of theology at Notre Dame, wrote: “Historical evidence does not exist for the entire chain of succession of church authority.”—The Roman Catholic Church (New York, 1969), p. 4.
The New Catholic Encyclopedia admits: “ . . . the scarcity of documents leaves much that is obscure about the early development of the episcopate . . . ”—(1967), Vol. I, p. 696.
Claims of divine appointment mean nothing if those who make them are not obedient to God and Christ
“God is coming, burn it all!” mentality found nowadays.
But that’s why he’s coming, to destroy those ruining the Earth! However the Earth will survive (Psalms 104:5, Isaiah 2:4)
The war has started and its a war we must not lose.
Yawn.
Yet another stillborn proposal foisted by white-collar crimelords.
Even if this treaty was approved, the only thing it would truly accomplish is spurring the development of next-generation filesharing protocals.
When will the MAFIAA and its partners-in-crime learn that the harder they push to criminalize filesharing, the closer they push filesharing to the point where it becomes so obfuscated behind the fabric of the entire Internet, that short of shutting down the entire Internet, it will become impossible for them to even try fighting it?
And contrary to their wet dreams, shutting down the Internet is not and never will be an option.
Although it won’t, if this treaty did pass, these cartel dinosurs would accomplish little more than hastening their own extinction.
I’m so glad to see so many aware of the NWO, and that even others are now aware as myself of basic human rights and how they’ve enslaved us through time, patience, and repetiton of lies. I too refuse it.
As per this article though, please realize, they are only attempting to make legal what they’ve already implemented. Things like deep packet inspection, logging and archiving, throttling, essentially the invasion of perceived privacy on every single level, and they HAVE used it against you in court, and it goes well beyond the torrent and MPAA crap.
We’re already been completely screwed by them on every level, in every aspect of our lives. Governments are just the hand puppets they appease and entertain you with while their other hand is reaching around and shoving itself right up your asses.
Question is what to do? What can we do? Educate ourselves, keep spreading the word, get the truth out there, stop buying into every level of their lies. They need you to go along willingly, they need your stupidity, ignorance, they need your complacency. They need your greedy and fearful hands grasping at their strings so you dance as they pull them. Let go, taste freedom.
Then, we can come together as one, and skin those bastards and their families.
The comments made me angrier than the article itself.
I wish I could use the power of my contempt to make your stupid heads explode.
What are the chances this will be passed. Can we get a realistic assessment of the threat before we start proclaiming inevitable doom?
I felt compelled to say somthing about this topic. I feel the people at the top making these types of proposals have no idea how important the Internet has become to so many people. This so called free society has us working jobs we hate to buy crap we don’t need. The Internet is all there is for a large majority of us. Take it away or alter it and there will be hell to pay. PEOPLE WILL GO NUTS! I for one will digg in my closet for my statement maker for my final comment to the world.
Don’t get me wrong, this is worrying, but the UK and EU would never agree to such a draconian Treaty.
ACTA were silly in going so far; they might have had a chance convincing governments of agreeing to some of this if they had restrained themselves. I mean, they could have very easily specified their stance in 3 words (rather than 3 pages):
Lock up everyone.
The biggest mistake was ever letting the public have access to the internet but greed’s a bitch. The printing press sparked the French Revolution and the internet is having the same effect. Ten years ago their wasn’t nearly as much talk about revolution and now…
Support your local farmers markets, stay out of Walmart, don’t buy that fancy new car, toy or other useless POS, and boycott Chinese products. Donate to just causes or start your own. A Peaceful revolution via mass dissension. These are all things you can do right now.
One last thought, someone start a “Revolution, don’t go to work day” chain letter, set it for 9-11, Whatever, let’s get creative and start acting rather than venting. Save your guns as a last resort. I need to start a blog…
NuRevo, i’m with you. We need to start acting, not venting. I’ve started boycotting all Chinese products already. I go to farmers markets and markets in general now. I am no longer going to support these large corporations. Canadians should start by going to the Net neutrality rally on May 27th. It’s a start. We should get in contact with the piracy parties, because they are the only political group who are even worth considering when it comes to the internet and technology.
We all have to have a common talking place, to organize. A think tank. A blog just for this would be a good thing.
ACTA is in everyones interest except the private citizen:
Governments consciously or subconsciously see the net as a threat due to the nature of its free (i.e. uncontrolled) communication of ideas.
“Content” producers see it as a threat for obvious reasons.
Big industry sees it as a threat as it dilutes their voice monopoly in the big media outlets.
Freedom on the net is under unprecedented attack from Beijing, to London, to New York. You can literally see the avalanche of attacks build on a daily basis!
Freedom on the net is a barometer for global political freedom as a whole. We are heading for an ugly place.
HI Cuold u contact with mininova? They have a problem on site. When u click on report button u get ban on IP adress. They not responding on IRC… Can u help users?
This is what capitalism and so called “property rights” (or in this case, “intellectual property rights”) comes to. It’s terrible :(
> “Don’t get me wrong, this is worrying, but the UK and EU would never agree to such a draconian Treaty.”
The UK? They’re the ones with cameras everywhere! I’m sure they’ll welcome it.
If this goes through mark my words: NO MORE YOUTUBE. They want to censor this 08′ election from the public. OBAMA is dominating the internet, they want control! They want to take our freedoms and institute their New World Order!
If this law is passed - bye bye Democracy, hello Facism 2.0.
http://www.civil-liberties.com/pages/prophesy.html
Stopping piracy is not the primary motivation behind this proposed treaty; that is merely a misdirection, a red herring.
The real reason for such a treaty is to control everything people think, say or do both online and offline.
Think of the worst aspects of 1984, Brazil, Minority Report and the Matrix, and you’ll realize why this must never see the light of day.
The bad thing about international treaties is that they override the U.S. constitution.
Fascism. Plain and simple.
Refuse! Resist!
“Combine this with the ability to prosecute without a rights holder complaint, which means that people could be liable for millions, or imprisoned (they are talking about CRIMINAL enforcement) for sharing Steal this Film, or Paulo Coelho’s books. So, these people actively want you to share would have no say in any such prosecution.”
They can’t prosecute you for sharing files that are not illegal to share. If they are proposing that this will make it possible for authorities to prosecute people for sharing legal files then I don’t think this will make it. There crap laws proposed all the time that goes nowhere. The prehistoric music industry realizes that they’re going extinct so they’re lobbying for some stupid shit like this. I’m not worried about this since I highly doubt it’ll go anywhere.
Will China/Russia save free thought from the power controlling money hoarders/power controllers? Please just kill off our leaders, Please. They are the worthless filth of the world.
[quote]Will China/Russia save free thought from the power controlling money hoarders/power controllers? [/quote]
No. Russia is controlled by same multi-billionaires. (well not same ppl, but with same mindset)
This would be fantastic. The internet is overrated anyways. Everyone wants to stick their finger in someone else’s butthole but they don’t like their buttholes to get touched. I say cut off everyones fingers. Don’t be stingy with your butthole.
I violated ‘intellectual property rights’ at LEAST 24 times this week, Im to good to get caught and im not alone.
FCUK the ATCA!!
Amen ;)
Is kommunism really winning???
> “If this goes through mark my words: NO MORE YOUTUBE. They want to censor this 08′ election from the public. OBAMA is dominating the internet, they want control! They want to take our freedoms and institute their New World Order!”
Stop acting like Obama is anything new or different. He is the same as all the others, voting for him will not change anything.
> “Is kommunism really winning???”
This is capitalism, and it is unfortunately winning against the forces of freedom.
YOU DOWNLOAD TORRENT ILLEGAL
YOU GET BULLET TO HEAD
THIS WILL COME SOON
I WAIT FOR THIS
While I still have the right to freedom of speech.
This marks the begining of the end for freedom. It shows that democracy is no more. Welcome to the totalitarian dictatorship of America.
God help us all.
It’s really funny that people can say that the government is stupid to try to make such laws and treaties. Guys, what we are doing IS illegal. Don’t come and say that ripping movies and music, TV Shows, etc is legal. Ok it does some publicity, but it IS illegal, and it DOES cost some money to artists etc. Yes there are some nice people that buy most of the music they download, but come on, it is like one person on a million.
There is hope so long as the government has more (Wikki)leaks than an American vacationing in Tijuana who insists on drinking the local tap water!
@ 93
Stupid cunt, speak for yourself, do not use “WE” while exposing your mindless blabber. Advocating governments eh? Go f*ck yourself twat.
fellow ‘pirates’
A Lot of good ideas and passionate debate on this thread.
The establishment trade on FEAR. Politicians used to sell us dreams and now it’s nightmares, (poverty, extremism, terrorism, environmental catastrophe, space invaders etc) that way they keep us under manners and bog us down with ‘politricks’
But globalisation and the internet have presented us,(the masses),with the power to hit them where it hurts…As consumers we can bring the corporations to their knees.
For example lets say that we built, a networked community with the sole purpose of boycotting products, companies and even politicians and we decided to stop buying a particular brand for a month,(for whatever reason),it wouldn’t take long for that company to feel the pressure if the ‘community’ was 100 million strong.
I agree that we need a new kind of politics. Not Labour/Conservative, Democrat/Republican or even ‘Green’ as they all work for the interests of big corporations but a powerful force of our own to make genuine change happen.
The establishment only care about MONEY so we know their weakness all we need to do is exploit it.
A Revolution is necessary and it needs to be global. We must unite and REBEL TOGETHER otherwise our future, (under this continued oppression), will be bleak. Divide and Conquer is the oldest trick in the book and they have been playing it on us for centuries.
maybe the place to start this global paradigm shift could be a simple forum where we could lay down the foundations/manifesto and seed it from there?
This must be the web 2.0 that everyone is talking about…
You know what bothers me most when I read about people advocating the corrupt industry and governments? I get the impression that’s quite ok to let your father abuse you and you just have to accept it because it’s your father. Think about it, you may not care that much because you’re too dumb to realize but your children may in the end.
This shit, quite frankly scares me to death for two reasons. One, this is atrocity to basic rights and freedoms that I THOUGHT could only exist in Stalinist/Fascist States. Two, It’s the biggest unfunded/unenforcable mandate.
There are no methods to do have the stuff they plan to do, no sort of ISP wide filtration software, no way to track torrents searchs like Cubit, etc.
‘
But my main problem is that people are so greedy that the don’t realize that CAN BE GOOD FOR PROFIT.
THe best example is Funimation and Dattebayo fansubs. Funinmation liscensed Naruto which Dattebayo had been fansubbing for a while, instead of slapping a ‘cease and desist’ order on them, they bought them, made them have a ‘professional translating service’ and let them do what they want. This created lots of POSITIVE buzz for funinmation from people that usually HATE corporations and media companies , and also Dattebayo kept on making fansubs of the Japanesee Naruto, which created loads of buzz for the American release.
Many companies act like 80 year olds technophobes, they are afraid of the internet. I will lol so hard when they realize that after ,god forbid, passing this argreement the realize more than HALF of their employee’s have done piracy in some form and their entire IT section is revolting.
As to how to fight this, mail your congressmen, if you see one take to a political candidate. If your really lucky and get on one of those ‘town hall meetings’ with one, bring it up NOW before lobbyists sworm in after the convention. I know Obama and McCain would both be against this (Obama for civil rights reasons, McCain because he WAS, before the election anyway, a staunch defender of individual rights (ie the TRUE meaning of a republican).
So everyone, Start now. Send a letter to your ISP informing them, that if they comply you will cancel service/fill a lawsuit. Talking to any official you can get your hands on, the higher the better. Organize protests, do whatever you can to draw attention to this. There are alot of people WHO would be against this but have no idea this is happening/even could be possible.
Get the word out flocks, send comments to everyone you leech/seed. Email this article to your friends. Whatever just do it.
Promotion of industry against the rights of people isn’t communism, it’s called fascism.
The USA is a fascist state, not a communist state.
Read a bit
“It is argued that the current level of penalties aren’t harsh enough (“people are still doing it, so they’re no deterrent”), so there should be room for harsher punishments.”
Murder, people still do it. Evidently the punishment is not harsh enough.
US Citizens, Europeans brothers and Asians people.
This agreement among nations most “developed” expresses the negative form of government and economy that you suffer. The relative prosperity in which they live is actually a system where you buy to keep large corporations that exploit resources in poorer countries. But in that same prosperity, sellers of illusions, media companies have seen the information industry has reduced dividends, however very astutely have met with the minds of establishment thinking to put laws that restrict individual liberties , To further exploitation in the world of illusions and kill any attempt to awaken sleeping.
We in Latin America, most people have been “poor” for centuries. We have struggled to dominate by not letting the other, that’s why we prefer to be in misery rather than our spirits are being undermined before lifestyles slavers.
Since the Internet has helped them raise awareness of the illusion that they live (operated by corporations), it’s time to take action. Political action, civic action, economic action.
If the Internet is censored so as to atrosmente expressed in the paper, simply stop using it. It seems totally crazy, but on a massive scale, struck directly to ISPs and the debacle began.
Then use the old media to continue resistance: phone, letter, advertisement in the newspaper paper. This could organize protests for multitudinarian.
Then you’ll have to decide whether to remain slaves in the illusion, or people become masters of their destiny, not dependent on big businesses or consortiums means that what buyers want are robots, not thinking citizens.
Greetings!
En español:
Ciudadanos Estadounidenses, hermanos Europeos, gente Asiatica.
Este acuerdo entre las naciones mas “desarrolladas” expresa la forma negativa de gobierno y economia que ustedes sufren. La relativa prosperidad en que viven es en realidad un sistema en donde ustedes compran para mantener a grandes corporaciones que explotan recursos en los paises mas pobres. Sin embargo en esa misma prosperidad, los vendedores de ilusiones, las compañias de medios han visto como la industria de la información les ha restado dividendos, sin embargo muy astutamente se han reunido con las mentes pensantes del establishment para poner leyes que limiten las libertades individuales, para seguir explotandoles en el mundo de las ilusiones y matar cualquier intento de despertar del sueño.
Nosotros en Latinoamerica, hemos sido gentes mas “pobres” durante centurias. Hemos luchado por no dejarnos dominar por los demas, por eso preferimos estar en miseria antes que nuestros espiritus se vean socavados ante estilos de vida esclavistas.
Ya que el internet les ha ayudado a despertar conciencia de la ilusion en que viven (explotados por las corporaciones), es el momento de tomar accion. Accion politica, accion civica, accion economica.
Si el Internet es censurada tan ferozmente a como se expresa en el papel, simplemente dejen de usarla. Parece totalmente loco, sin embargo en forma masiva, golpeara a los ISP directamente y comenzara la debacle.
Luego usen los antiguos medios de comunicacion para seguir la resistencia: telefono, carta escrita, anuncio en los periodicos de papel. Asi se podran organizar para protestas multitudinarias.
Luego ustedes tendran que decidir si siguen siendo esclavos en la ilusión, o se convierten en personas dueñas de su destino, no dependientes de consorcios de grandes comercios o medios que lo que quieren son compradores autómatas, no ciudadanos pensantes.
Saludos!
They can keep their copyright and ‘intellectual property’ and shove it up their ass. I will boycott all capitalist kleptocrats who believe that other people only exist to be their slaves.
Maybe we should remove the corporate, fascist dictatorship named USA from the league of civilized nations. We have had enough shit from those corrupt political whores who think they oownthe world. Where is my guillotine
FOSS ftw…
You Will Be Ok If You Wear Seatbelts While Surfing The Internet
One word to recall what many have repeated through the “wake up”cries
of the post 9/11:the “empire” is truly disturbed by power yield of the web: TO CONVEY TRUTH.
The “PUTCH” that the neocons are
building is the real goal not the copyrighting business.The laws are meant to dismantle the last bastion of free speech and bring it under control.
The copyright mantle is in fact a neocon troyan horse that will rip all hope of freedom for generations to come.The struggle that’s taking place is the corner’s stone on which
the world’s future depends.It is not overstating saying that war has been declared, from which freedom will survive or slavery will begin.
When chained to the main stream media our children will be brainwashed and led to the sheepgate.
But God forbid.
Time for heavy encryption.
Orwell was an optimist.
das ist nicht gut
Who cares about this? Just go underground with Tor, Freenet, GNUnet and a dozen of other alternatives. As long as they don’t ban encrypting of traffic, there’s nothing they can do. And banning encryption will never happen because of stuff like internet banking and such. Just stay the fuck out of the public internet.
I hope they just piss everyone off so badly that instead of boycotting certain companies, everyone boycotts copyrighted material and the rich a**holes become poor a**holes.
Creative commons license is the future.
Anonymous will not be happy when someone catches wind.
Viva le revelution!
Banes? Should it not be banned? It is hard to read an article when one of the main words is misspelled.
@ 113
Tor, Freenet? You probably think you’re cool because you know about those,right? I pay for a 2 MB dsl line to surf/download at that speed not to hide behind a crawling TOR or Freenet, got my point? F*cking Hell ..
bane (bn)
n.
1. Fatal injury or ruin: “Hath some fond lover tic’d thee to thy bane?” George Herbert.
2.
a. A cause of harm, ruin, or death: “Obedience,/Bane of all genius, virtue, freedom, truth,/Makes slaves of men” Percy Bysshe Shelley.
b. A source of persistent annoyance or exasperation: “The spellings of foreign names are often the bane of busy copy editors” Norm Goldstein.
3. A deadly poison.
[Middle English, destroyer, from Old English bana; see gwhen- in Indo-European roots.]
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/bane
welcome to Matrix. so here Big Brother is watching us (or Big Monster ). Just today a friend from Vienna said he read in the news that from next year the laptops and ipods will be checked by costumes at borders( not many borders in EU lol ) about the media contains if it is legal…WHAT ???HOW ? how ridiculous ! and if I have a cassette player or portable cd-mp3 player lol ?
remember 1848 , it might repeat, a WEB Revolution will come. and the hackers will be called the modern Robin Hood ? so more and more often sites will be inaccessible or even our emails or bank accounts etc ..?
I need to learn to hack.
I doubt anyone is reading comments this far down, but I figured I’d chip in my $.02…
This treaty would require all law enforcement agencies to enforce LICENSING AGREEMENTS.
This treaty would effectively make the RIAA, MPAA, Microsoft, and every other unsavory organization a de facto legislative body.
Anything can be stopped if enough people stand up. The average joe IS more powerful than the world’s elite as there are far more joe’s than elite. Ten’s of thousand’s of joe’s to just 1 elite. There are very good reasons why the elite hide out, its because they are the ones who are afraid :)
i say we all stop buying music and movies and even ipods and other mp3 players. let’s see how they like it when no one buys their shit.
IP crime is not victimless
IP is worth over $400 billion to the US economy according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office. It is worth far more around the world. If we can’t respect the value of human ideas, then we shall ultimately lose our respect for humanity itself. Pirates, welcome yourselves to the slippery slopes of anarchy.
If you people weren’t such lazy fat fucks we would take the government back. This administration is a treasonous and illegitimate cabal of capitalist warlords. WAKE THE FUCK UP. If you don’t quit being lazy fat fucks your kids will have physical chains around their feet. DEAD SERIOUS.
I call it like I see it.
Get it here > Steal This Film 1+2 ENG (2006-07) AVI > mininova.org/tor/1339330
21 references to this post
Responses are closed
All remaining responses will continue to be archived. Use the TorrentFreak forums if you want to discuss something.