Danish Discussion On 3 Strikes Plan Done In Secret, Leaving Consumers Out Of The Mix Again

from the nobody-cares-about-the-consumer dept

Tue, Oct 26th 2010 6:07am — Mike Masnick

Now that most of the ACTA negotiations are complete, you would think that governments would recognize the problems of trying to negotiate big deals that impact internet users in secret without involving the users themselves. No such luck. Apparently, over in Denmark, the government, the entertainment industry and ISPs have been secretly negotiating a 3-strikes plan for Danes, with an agreed upon press blackout, where none of the participants will speak to the press. They're pretty upfront as to why not:

After experiencing difficulty, Comon was told by Committee members that they had "promised to keep working secretly in order not to create too much fuss" and "could never agree on some recommendations if there was too much public debate about its work."

Yes, you see, we couldn't actually come to agreement if the people this will actually impact the most are allowed to chime in and point out why they don't like their rights being taken away. It's probably worth reminding folks at this point that Denmark was one of the players in the ACTA negotiations who was vehemently against transparency. Apparently, that's carried over into domestic discussions as well.

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Filed Under: 3 strikes, denmark, transparency

22 Comments

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cc (profile), 26 Oct 2010 @ 6:25am

"Denmark was one of the players in the ACTA negotiations who was vehemently against transparency. Apparently, that's carried over into domestic discussions as well."

Same people doing the lobbying probably.
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Oct 2010 @ 6:31am

Democrawhat?!
"Hey, making decisions is so much easier when we don't ask our people first! We should do that with ALL our new laws!"
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- Anonymous Coward, 26 Oct 2010 @ 6:48am
  
  Re: Democrawhat?!
  This feels like some documentary on ancient Rome. You know, that part where the senate was forced to yield to Cesar. Certainly, there has been an egregious advancement of the globalist agenda, but it's drifted away from the panoramic vision of a global society run by it's people. This secret auction phenomena is going to become a trend, I fear, and will not end well for us sheeple.
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  - James Carmichael (profile), 26 Oct 2010 @ 7:25am
    
    Accountability in politics
    The truth is that most people are comfortable enough the way they are, so they don't care if some deals are made in secret. I'm talking about the majority here, not the people who read and care about that sort of deal.
    
    There's also little accountability in the governments, unlike in the private sector, so the elected people don't have that much of an incentive to listen to people... until it's time to be reelected. The worst that can happen is that they don't get elected next terms; they still keep their job for a while. A political system where you can get fired or severely reprimanded for doing these types of secret deals would go a long way to reduce unfair lobbying and corruption.
    
    Hey, I'm allowed to dream!
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    - Richard (profile), 26 Oct 2010 @ 9:13am
      
      Re: Accountability in politics
      There's also little accountability in the governments, unlike in the private sector,
      
      I see even less accountability in the private sector - at least with the larger organisations - exactly who is the RIAA accountable to (other than themselves)?
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      - James Carmichael (profile), 26 Oct 2010 @ 11:18am
        
        Re: Re: Accountability in politics
        You're right I did generalize a bit too much. What I *should* have said is that there's not enough accountability in the government, period.
        
        As for the RIAA, I guess they're only accountable to market forces and the law. Wait, no only market forces :P
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        Niall (profile), 28 Oct 2010 @ 12:41pm
        
        Re: Re: Re: Accountability in politics
        Aren't they ignoring even those?
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Oct 2010 @ 6:48am

Query
Why don't the people secretly negotiate these governments away?
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- Dark Helmet (profile), 26 Oct 2010 @ 6:58am
  
  Re: Query
  What do you think all of these warrantless wiretaps are actually about?
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  - Anonymous Coward, 26 Oct 2010 @ 7:15am
    
    Re: Re: Query
    Read James P. Hogan's Voyage from Yesteryear, you'll get the idea.
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Oct 2010 @ 6:55am

I think what this demonstrates, is that in all countries, there actually needs to be a cohesive movement pushing for changes to copyright, trademark and patent law from the consumer interest point of view, with the additional input from those businesses and established creatives who most recognise the benefits of addressing rather than attempting to suppress the different nature of the digital age.

It is quite clear that there needs to be a side arguing the reality because we now know that even if it's not being making much noise in the media, the antiquated sections of the publishing industries will be working behind closed doors to get governments and international bodies to legislate to protect their own outdated and failing business models at the expense of all future developments.
And even though some parts of such legislation are doomed to failure, the damage that will be done to creators and innovators in the interim, will put the countries that pass such legislation at a global disadvantage to whichever countries have the sense to go the opposite direction.
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Christopher (profile), 26 Oct 2010 @ 7:11am

Some lawmakers need to go to prison over this
This is the exact reason why our Founding Fathers said that absent a VERY good reason (and the populace speaking out against something if it is public is not a good enough reason) everything has to be PUBLIC and nothing is allowed to be 'secret'.

Some people all over the world in democratic nations need to be looking at prison time unless they make these negotiations public and allow the PEOPLE OF THE WORLD to chime in on why these things are a good idea or a bad idea.
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- Anonymous Coward, 26 Oct 2010 @ 7:23am
  
  Re: Some lawmakers need to go to prison over this
  the lawmakers are not scared of their public anymore.
  
  What we need are more lynch mobs.
  
  But that cant happen, because people aren't starving. Only starving people are desperate enough to fight back.
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  - Anonymous Coward, 26 Oct 2010 @ 7:42am
    
    Re: Re: Some lawmakers need to go to prison over this
    Give it time.
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  - Berenerd (profile), 26 Oct 2010 @ 8:23am
    
    Re: Re: Some lawmakers need to go to prison over this
    What we really need is to go back to when you didn't get paid to be a senator. you did it because you wanted to make a difference and the government only paid for your living expenses while in session.
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Christoffer G. Thomsen (profile), 26 Oct 2010 @ 7:13am

Worst. Treaty. Ever.
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Adrian Lopez, 26 Oct 2010 @ 7:23am

It's easier to screw people over when they don't know they're getting screwed.
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- Berenerd (profile), 26 Oct 2010 @ 8:26am
  
  Re:
  A "How to Sign language" thing I saw sums this up quite nicely. the person signing mixed up some motions and instead of saying that it would be a surprise at how easy it is to sign, it came out as "its not rape if you say surprise"
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  - nasch (profile), 26 Oct 2010 @ 9:04am
    
    Re: Re:
    the person signing mixed up some motions and instead of saying that it would be a surprise at how easy it is to sign, it came out as "its not rape if you say surprise"
    
    So I guess it's not that easy after all!
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Oct 2010 @ 7:27am

Something is rotten in Demark
...
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Pixelation, 26 Oct 2010 @ 7:31am

I'm curious if any reader here is a Dane and how they feel about the secrecy.
We should call it "rootkit government".

All this talk of Danish is making me hungry btw.
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- Christoffer G. Thomsen, 27 Oct 2010 @ 3:12am
  
  Re:
  I'm danish, and this secrecy is terrible. However, most danes trust the government. But that's probably because more than half of the danish population is living on welfare or working for the government. This country is full of socialists, even the liberal/conservative government (liberalism as in classical non-socialist liberalism) are socialists and our taxes are sky high.
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