DailyDirt: Water On The Earth And Beyond...

Head of Mozilla Says ACTA Is 'A Bad Way To Develop Internet Policy'

from the lizard-wrangler-speaks dept

Wed, Feb 15th 2012 4:02pm — Glyn Moody

One telling sign of the widespread concern about SOPA/PIPA was that the non-profit Mozilla Foundation, which oversees the open source Firefox and Thunderbird projects, abandoned its non-interventionist policy, and came out strongly against the bills. It first signed a joint letter sent to the key sponsors of both bills, and then modified its home page, pointing to further information about SOPA. That, in its turn, linked to a post entitled "PIPA/SOPA and Why You Should Care," written by Mitchell Baker, the Chair of the Mozilla Foundation.

Baker has now written another, entitled "ACTA is a Bad Way To Develop Internet Policy", which explicitly links ACTA and SOPA/PIPA:

One aspect of the controversy about ACTA is the closed process where only a tiny subset of people affected by the law were allowed to participate. Another great controversy is about the actual content of ACTA. We know that the goal of stopping unauthorized access to digital content can lead to very dangerous results. The proposed SOPA and PIPA legislation in the U.S made this abundantly clear. This is an area where even good intentions can lead to imbalanced and dangerous results.

The post is fairly restrained, and basically recommends that people should find out more about ACTA and "make their voice heard." But it's a further indication that people from all sectors are waking up to the problems with ACTA, just as they did with SOPA/PIPA.

Follow me @glynmoody on Twitter or identi.ca, and on Google+

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: acta, internet, mitchell baker, policy
Companies: mozilla

22 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

TheLoot (profile), 15 Feb 2012 @ 4:34pm

We all know the truth...
Mozilla makes money because of all the people using it's browser to access illegal sites.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- TheLoot (profile), 15 Feb 2012 @ 4:35pm
  
  Re: We all know the truth...
  Ugh, remind me not to use actual code... It should have said "/sarcasm /possible content response" at the end.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - The Groove Tiger (profile), 15 Feb 2012 @ 5:27pm
    
    Re: Re: We all know the truth...
    FBI Raids Mozilla Headquarters, Gets Eaten by Red Dinosaur.
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
    - MahaliaShere, 15 Feb 2012 @ 6:52pm
      
      Re: Re: Re: We all know the truth...
      I'd really love to see this, Jurassic Park style.
      
      I' m doing my best to get through all the legalese. Who decided to make law so long-winded?
      [ link to this | view in chronology ]
    - pyro, 15 Feb 2012 @ 7:03pm
      
      Re: Re: Re: We all know the truth...
      Remains are then burnt by small red fox.
      [ link to this | view in chronology ]
      - The eejit (profile), 16 Feb 2012 @ 4:34am
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: We all know the truth...
        no, they were toasted by Zapdos. Entei was just trying to eat the world.
        [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 15 Feb 2012 @ 7:46pm
  
  Re: We all know the truth...
  Actually, Mozilla makes money by having a Google search built into their browser. So indirectly, you are correct.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - Anonymous Coward, 15 Feb 2012 @ 10:08pm
    
    Re: Re: We all know the truth...
    It never ceases to amaze me how much web surfing copyright extremists attribute to piracy. Do you think people just constantly look for that stuff and ignore the rest of the Internet? I mean, REALLY?
    
    I hate to break it to you, but the stuff Big Media puts out isn't even remotely that entertaining. Legitimate usage of the Internet is much more fun.
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
    - TheLoot (profile), 16 Feb 2012 @ 2:03am
      
      Re: Re: Re: We all know the truth...
      Wait, there's more to the internet than porn and free movies, music and games? Why am I just hearing about this?!
      [ link to this | view in chronology ]
fb39ca4, 15 Feb 2012 @ 4:39pm

No duh.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
TtfnJohn (profile), 15 Feb 2012 @ 5:41pm

The best thing happening here is that ACTA is finally getting the attention it deserves and did from the start. I get very nervous when negotiators get together in private to discuss things like this with no one outside the "select" group taking part and nothing happening in public.

With some luck (and good planning) perhaps this will swing a spotlight over to TPP which is just as bad, perhaps worse. Though we won't know until we ever get to see the complete text of that proposed treaty.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 15 Feb 2012 @ 6:44pm

Snore.

Mozilla is bed with Google.

Google is trying to promote piracy because they're greedy billionaires that can't make their own content. They promote it via tech astroturf groups and blogs like Techdirt.

Nobody is fooled by tech propaganda anymore after the giant lying campaign that went down over SOPA.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 15 Feb 2012 @ 6:53pm
  
  Re:
  Has anyone ever been fooled by your shilling?
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - Anonymous Coward, 15 Feb 2012 @ 8:56pm
    
    Re: Re:
    They're nothing but a faction of Big Comment.
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 15 Feb 2012 @ 10:11pm
  
  Re:
  1/10
  
  You're way too provocative to be taken seriously. Be more subtle next time for a better response.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- TheLoot (profile), 16 Feb 2012 @ 2:04am
  
  Re:
  Not sure if serious...
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- The eejit (profile), 16 Feb 2012 @ 4:36am
  
  Re:
  uhh, Mozilla has been around longer than Google, so that would make them cradlesnatchers.
  
  Or is that what you're referring to? Mozilla and Google are "stealing" the next generation?
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Richard (profile), 16 Feb 2012 @ 4:43am
  
  Re:
  Mozilla is bed with Google...
  
  Sorry - you were pre -empted by the comedy troll this time - you lose!
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Prisoner 201, 15 Feb 2012 @ 11:55pm

Non-profit means pirate right?

Anyone not utterly consumed by greed is one step closer to "free", and we know what that means, don't we?

Pirates.

I say kill em all and let the shareholders decide if it was in synergy with the core profitability vision.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Ninja (profile), 16 Feb 2012 @ 2:57am

Gosh, Mozilla doesn't support such necessary anti-piracy efforts must mean they endorse child porn... Think of the children ppl!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- The eejit (profile), 16 Feb 2012 @ 4:37am
  
  Re:
  I'm fairly sure there's an extension for that.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
LaughingMan, 16 Feb 2012 @ 8:05pm

to the fools who think anti-ACTA=pro-piracy
I for one DO NOT condone piracy. However, the measures proposed in the ACTA bill go too far. It would basically throw any give American citizen's rights out the window if another country that signed decided to investigate them, whether they have a valid case or not. Yes! copyright protection is important, but not at the price of freedom. Don't get led by the nose... Do your homework.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]