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
139 Responses
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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 :(
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