US State Dept: Don't Censor The Internet! Unless We Order You To, As We Did In Spain...
from the sing-a-song-of-hypocrisy dept
We've discussed how the State Department, and Hillary Clinton in particular, have been spending a lot of time talking up the importance of internet freedom, and speaking out against countries that censor the internet. That even resulted in Joe Biden's unintentionally hilarious explanation of why internet censorship is horrible... while he supports internet censorship at home.It seems like there's a real disconnect in our government, however, when the censorship is couched in the word "copyright." We just wrote about how Spain adopted its SOPA-like law this week, despite widespread public outrage. We had noted that the US State Department was a major force behind the bill, and (no surprise) more news has leaked that there was more of the same behind this new decision to adopt the Sinde Law. It's been leaked that, just last month, State Department officials threatened the Spanish government that if it didn't pass the law, there would be repercussions. This was a letter from US ambassador Alan Solomont to the outgoing Spanish government, sent December 12th, in which he talked about "promises" made to the US government:
"The government has unfortunately failed to finish the job for political reasons, to the detriment of the reputation and economy of Spain... The government of Spain made commitments to the rights owners and to the US government. Spain can not afford to see their credibility questioned on this issue."Stunning. Because, in actuality, the commitment the Spanish government has is to its own citizens -- who are very much against the bill. The only thing that raises questions about Spain's "credibility" is caving to US diplomatic pressure to censor the internet.
Meanwhile, if we want to talk "credibility," the US State Department is increasingly losing its credibility on this issue. How can any diplomat, with a straight face, go public talking about internet freedom and being against censorship, when the State Department demanded Spain pass a law that allows for censoring the internet?
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Filed Under: alan solomont, censorship, free speech, hypocrisy, internet freedom, sinde, spain, state department
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Credibility?
See, there's your mistake. You granted them credibility in the first place.
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Catastrophe
Death to pirates.
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What a rube. It's like you live in Mayberry or something Masnick. Governments make commitments to other countries all the time. What do you want a referendum every time? Face it, you mask your sniveling with the contrived injustice to Spanish citizens. Fact is that it is this particular commitment that has your panties in a knot, not your laughable notion of a government's decision-by-decision accountability to its citizens.
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0/10 - not even a blip in the blood pressure
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And obviously you're stung by not being invited to host them. Someone with a "Lifetime Achievement Award" in douchebaggery shouldn't even have to ask to be considered. It should be a given.
BTW, Foursquare has just made me mayor of your mom's basement. I've been helping her open up her wi-fi, among other things.
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China buys US debt by the bushel basket, not because they think it's such a dandy investment but because it provides leverage. Every country that can leverages it position to its own advantage. You clowns may be the kings of your fantasy worlds, but you live in the real world. You should try to understand it too.
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When will you morons learn that legal sanctions don't matter in the slightest when you block people from legally buying your crap? 15 years of this idiotic argument, and I'm no nearer to being able to legally access a service like Netflix, Hulu or even being allowed to buy some titles that would be freely available to me if not for artificial region coding. But, yeah, you have to destroy freedom of speech to get your profit. Idiot.
"your fantasy worlds"
You are the expert on fantasy worlds, after all. Most AC posts here do seem to fail to address reality. It's much harder to address the real problems with your business after all, than it is to whine to governments about "piracy".
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0/10 - well at least mom thinks your funny... looking. :D
And if your primitive mind could actually comprehend words other people write, you'd see I was honored to place that high on both lists. When you consider I've not been here that long and originally came just to deal with the Copyright Troll lawyers, I think I found a place where I fit in.
But you keep reaching for the stars, maybe someday you will find someplace where people think your brand of "instant troll" just add insults will make you popular.
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Having a bad day? Your ad-homs and strawmen are particularly weak this evening?
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The hell kind of representation is that?
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Signing it in secret is NOT how democracy should be done.
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Signing it in secret is NOT how democracy should be done.
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Because if you were one, you would listen to what your constituency says before embarking in quixotic endeavors like copyBS protection.
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I see Switzerland - the living proof that you are wrong.
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Democracy at work.
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Tell us what you really think.
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Maybe the new rule of thumb for the rest of the world should be if the US is for it, be against it. Not talking about what the publicly say but all of the closed room antics they go through to keep corporations happy.
Oooh trade sanctions with the US... what is it that we make here again? Once upon a time that might have been a real threat, nowdays... not so much.
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Or so he tells me.
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Fixed that for you.
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FTFY
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Machiavelli would be proud
It starts by giving the people what they want until the shit hits the fan and the govt has to step all over the people�s rights to stay �in control�. History of the world.
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Re: Machiavelli would be proud
...actually, it's quite possible that's the reason the US is doing this to begin with.
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Feds Want Judge to Force Suspect to Give Up Laptop Password marvelous display of how to uphold the US constitution there and done no less by the US government.
Sir James Dyson: China Stalls IP Reform at Its Own Peril I used to like that guy he spent years living off of his wife work trying to invent something better and he did, now he keep saying that he needs protection. I saw some of his latests products he ripped off everybody else and he claims he needs others to respect his bogus patents?
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That alone is enough for people to stop listening to them. Why aren't they?
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Are there some meds that these people are off of? I know it's unlikely, but it'd be great if they could just start taking their pills again and get their self-awareness and empathy back.
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What I find funny is
At this point money is the same as IP, just a method of controlling mass populations and hoping they won't rise up against you.........
The big problem however is that the top-end rich people have gathered most of the wealth to themselves by making the vast majority of the population poor, meaning the poor can't continue to buy things to keep the rich rich.
And whats the point in having billions if its just bits of paper that people start to ignore as they switch to either bartering or localized currencies?
The whole system could be about to reach an interesting feedback loop where the top-rich have 99.99999999% of the GOVERNMENT SACTIONED money, but the overwhelming population doesn't give a rats ass because it uses another system entirely.....
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Viva Le Revolution !!!
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Clinton
Arggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Fucking politicians would sell their soul to the Devil for a gold coin. I can't wait for the next time Hilary is taking public questions to highlight the colour of her hypercritical actions. Had she any honour she would condemn this Spanish censorship and quit.
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Re: Clinton
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Awesome!
Awesome is what awesome does.
Shouldn't we be taxing their paychecks now? All your governments are belong to us.
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well
Those pirates have their servers in BUNKERS yes?...and we have Bunker Buster Bombs....what are we waiting for?
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Also
If the US is becoming (sorry HAS BECOME since Obama is now a de-facto dictator and doesn't represent the people anymore) a totalitarian state and the dollar is considered worthless, why don't we take a few other countries down with us.
Side note - how long do you think it is before the current administration "suspends" the electoral system because of "homeland terrorists".......and simply 'disappears' anyone who disagrees?
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Re: Also
Obama�s Hit List of American Citizens -Jonathan Turley
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