Polish Government's Plan To Sign ACTA Gets The SOPA Treatment
from the you-do-not-know-what-you've-unleashed dept
We received an amusing email over the weekend chiding us for never having covered ACTA -- the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. Of course, we've actually written 247 articles that mention ACTA (yes, I just counted). It seems that among some folks who just joined the "worry about copyright legislation" bandwagon, they've just discovered ACTA as well. ACTA stories are quickly taking over the SOPA channel on Reddit. I'm happy that more people are coming around to these issues, but they might want to take some time to actually read up on things before they start screaming. For example, someone there put together a White House petition to stop ACTA, without even acknowledging that the US government already signed ACTA back in September.The petition also ignores the most obvious line of attack for the US's participation: the questions about whether or not ACTA really qualifies as an "executive agreement." Instead, it takes that as granted, ignoring (or, more likely, simply not knowing) that there are serious constitutional questions about the claim that this is an executive agreement -- and that Senator Ron Wyden has already asked the White House to justify the claims that it's an executive agreement, rather than a treaty. Also, it's worth noting that other countries, including the EU, have already claimed that ACTA is a binding treaty, even as the US continues to deny that fact.
Either way, the EU failed to sign at the official signing ceremony (along with Mexico and Switzerland), claiming that it still had to get some legal ducks in a row. A legal review within the EU found that ACTA is terribly vague and wide open to interpretation, such that some of it may violate other directives -- which would be a pretty big problem. But rather than fix anything, it appears the EU (under great pressure from the US) is looking to go ahead with ACTA. We noted last month that an EU Council took a step forward in supporting ACTA, but did so by hiding it in an unrelated agriculture and fisheries meeting.
And, now, reports are spreading about how the Polish government is set to agree that the EU should sign onto ACTA, later this week. There are still more steps before the EU officially does sign ACTA, but the effort in Poland is definitely a step in that direction.
What's interesting to me, however, is how the SOPA/PIPA fight really has energized folks into fighting all sorts of efforts to encroach the internet with expanded copyright law and copyright enforcement efforts. Despite some of the hyperbole, ACTA is not SOPA. It's certainly bad -- though, massively watered down from what it was originally. But it's not the same thing by any stretch of the imagination. ACTA should not be approved, and there are significant legal questions in the US as to whether or not it really can be approved in the manner it was -- but either way, it's nice to see more people waking up to the serious problems with the ever expanding copyright law efforts -- pushed by the same folks who supported SOPA/PIPA.
And... it appears that these protests are already having at least some impact. Polish politicians are meeting ahead of the planned meeting "to review their stance on copyright protection policies." If the widespread online outrage about ACTA can actually lead countries to pushing back against this agreement, which is pretty much signed, sealed and delivered, it would be yet another sign of the growing power of online protests (though, some folks may ask where were you back when lots of people were arguing against ACTA, before it was signed by most participating countries).
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It's more likely than you think.
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http://www.quickmeme.com/meme/35se0f/
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Sad really. Oh well. Whatever gets them aware i guess.
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The internet being shut down has a much more immediate effect that people can understand.
Baby steps...
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Polish officials vowed Monday to stick to plans to sign an international copyright treaty that has outraged Internet activists and prompted an attack on government websites.
A government minister, Michal Boni, defended the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, or ACTA. He said that signing the international treaty would not hamper Internet usage and that Poland will sign it on Thursday, as planned.
"The ACTA agreement in no way changes Polish laws or the rights of Internet users and Internet usage," Boni, the minister of administration and digitization, said after a meeting with Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Culture Minister Bogdan Zdrojewski.
Internet opponents of ACTA fear it could lead to censorship online.
Source: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/
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Imagine a world with no ip law?
Maybe the MPAA and RIAA have finally woken up the masses as to whats going on and the masses will finally put a stop to this mess?
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(nevermind the fact that the government only allows industry interests to discuss ACTA in secret while keeping everyone else out and unrepresented).
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It's actually vice versa if you knew and studied political science.
Because capitalism is a system where the wealthy privileged few control the means of production while socialism actually means the productive classes control the means of production.
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Most of you want to become rich/wealthy by becoming capitalists yourselves (hence becoming the next "Facebook", etc) and you don't want "government" interfering with your business....
Thing is we already have a capitalist class who started the same way and they currently control the government and their trying crush the next capitalists as if we're actually living in a giant Ghetto/hood which drug dealers do the same thing which they also don't allow competition...
It's the entire capitalist system that's the main root of the problem in the first place folks.
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I'd make a joke...
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All bills should have an automatic sunset feature. Of course, by all, I really mean all. Even murder laws or pedophile laws. Every 5-10 years bills come back into the legislature. If they haven't been passed again at the end of that session then they automatically become revoked. This ensures that only the laws that the vast majority of people want get on the books and only the laws the vast majority of people want stay on the books. The sunset time can be based on the voting percentage.
* 100% yea-vote, sunsets in 10 years
* >95% yea-vote, sunsets in 9 years
* >90% yea-vote, sunsets in 8 years
* >85% yea-vote, sunsets in 7 years
* >80% yea-vote, sunsets in 6 years
* >75% yea-vote, sunsets in 5 years
As far as voting goes, simple yeas and nays need to be expanded. Before voting, every legislator should document the lobbying they received for that particular bill; time, money, gifts, names of people, names of companies/groups/people that were represented, etc, as well as the position of that lobbying. This means everything from
* Evil Rich Lobbyist paid $10,000 for flight and 3-day stay on exotic island, representing Insidious Industry and encouraged a yay vote to
* Old man Jenkins spent $10.00 for lunch, represented only his self and encouraged a nay vote.
Once that information is out in the open, it'll be more difficult for a lawmaker to say they voted yay because it was the best for the people when the record could show otherwise. To keep anonymity, all lobbying involves only communication (letter, email, phone call, tweet, etc), can be recorded as
* 1,000 letters for
* 500 letters against
* 5,000 emails for
* 300 emails against
What are the problems with these changes?
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Me too. I was against ACTA before I even found out about SOPA/PIPA.
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Poland already saved the european union once...
let's hope they will do it again.
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WE NEED YOUR HELP TO STOP ACTA!
PLS TELL ABOUT ACTA TO YOUR FRIENDS!
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Commercial to combat SOPA/PIPA/ACTA/OPEN
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92I0hrYvdjI
Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/35405496
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We may compare this to the situation, in which the post is responsible for the content inside millions of envelopes and packages... but according to ACTA the power is in private hands! There is no State acting as independent judge. How citizens can defend themselves? Unbelieveable
Polish citizens will never surrender and will fight against any form of censorship forever.
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