The Legislation That Could Kill Internet Privacy for Good - Conor Friedersdorf - Politics. An overzealous bill that claims to be about stopping child pornography turns every Web user into a person to monitor Every right-thinking person abhors child pornography. To combat it, legislators have brought through committee a poorly conceived, over-broad Congressional bill, The Protecting Children from Internet Pornographers Act of 2011. It is arguably the biggest threat to civil liberties now under consideration in the United States. The potential victims: everyone who uses the Internet. The good news? It hasn't gone before the full House yet. The bad news: it already made it through committee.
In the early 20th Century, a different moral panic gripped the United States: a rural nation was rapidly moving to anonymous cities, sexual mores were changing, and Americans became convinced that an epidemic of white female slavery was sweeping the land. That name is what brought the anecdote back to me. I kid you not -- that's it. Among those risks: blackmail. You'd thing that Rep. I am Sheriff Richard Mack. I'm challenging SOPA and PCIP Sponsor Lamar Smith (R-TX) to a Primary in a heavily conservative district. AMA : IAmA. SOPA Is Defeated, But New Internet Bill Gains Critics. Home » Technology Rep. Lamar Smith announced yesterday that he is completely withdrawing the controversial SOPA legislation being considered in the House “until there is wider agreement on a solution.”
But just as the bill’s opponents celebrate the success of their massive protest movement, another law also authored by Smith is attracting attention as an even bigger threat to Internet freedom. The Protecting Children from Internet Pornographers Act of 2011 would require internet providers to store every single customer’s browsing history and private data for over a year, and is being called a lethal threat to privacy rights by critics. Back in August, Conor Friedersdorf at The Atlantic called the legislation, also known as H.R. 1981, “arguably the biggest threat to civil liberties now under consideration in the United States.” The bill also suggests weakly and vaguely that “records retained… should be stored securely to protect customer privacy”. What do you think? Vic1 - renames internet spying bill to protecting children from i. ACTA explained - Animation.flv.
US signs ACTA. The United States, Australia, Canada, Japan, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, and South Korea signed the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement on Saturday, an accord targeting intellectual property piracy. The European Union, Mexico and Switzerland—the only other governments participating in the accord’s creation—did not sign the deal at a ceremony in Japan but "confirmed their continuing strong support for and preparations to sign the agreement as soon as practical," the parties said in a joint statement. The United States applauded the deal. "As with many of the challenges we face in today's global economy, no government can single-handedly eliminate the problem of global counterfeiting and piracy. Signing this agreement is therefore an act of shared leadership and determination in the international fight against intellectual property theft," said Mariam Sapiro, deputy United States trade representative.
Scholars Say International Property Accord Needs Senate Approval | Threat Level. More than 70 academics, mostly legal scholars, are urging President Barack Obama to open a proposed international intellectual-property agreement to public review before signing it. The likely route for that is bringing the ACTA agreement to the Senate for ratification. The deal, known as the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (.pdf), according to many critics, favors big media at the expense of the general public. And the intellectual property accord, which Obama could sign by year’s end, has pretty much been hammered out in secret between the European Union, Japan, the United States and a few other international players, including Canada and Australia.
Noticeably absent is China. That said, these academics suggested that Obama does not have the authority to unilaterally sign the accord, which has been in the works for three years and is nearly final. Instead, they said, it should be considered a treaty, necessitating two-thirds Senate approval. Photo: AP See Also: Group Of Prominent Law Professors Urge President Obama To Halt ACTA Endorsement. A group of rather prominent law professors have sent an open letter to their former law professor colleague, now President, Barack Obama, asking him to "halt [his administration's] public endorsement of ACTA and subject the text to a meaningful participation process that can influence the shape of the agreement going forward. " There's lots of good stuff in the letter, though I doubt it will make much of a difference. It highlights how the whole process left the public out of the discussions, contrary to Obama's promises.
Furthermore, it explains why the agreement should be subjected to Congressional scrutiny, rather than just being signed as an "executive agreement," noting that, beyond the parts of ACTA that appear to conflict with US law, the President is not supposed to have authority over intellectual property issues: The use of a sole executive agreement for ACTA appears unconstitutional. The treaty is named the "Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement". New Petition Asks White House To Submit ACTA To The Senate For Ratification. Joint Press Statement of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement Negotiating Parties.
Tokyo, Japan – Today representatives from Australia, Canada, the European Union, Japan, Republic of Korea, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, Switzerland, and the United States reaffirmed their commitment to the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement at a Tokyo signing ceremony hosted by the Government of Japan. Representatives of eight governments – Australia, Canada, Japan, Republic of Korea, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, and the United States – signed the Agreement, and took a major step toward its entry into force. Representatives of the European Union, Mexico, and Switzerland attended the ceremony and confirmed their continuing strong support for and preparations to sign the Agreement as soon as practicable. All participants expressed their firm resolve to work cooperatively to achieve the Agreement’s prompt entry into force, and to support actively its goals.
Expertise, innovation, quality, and creativity are the main factors for success in knowledge-based economies. You're gonna lose the internet -- ACT NOW : WTF. Say NO to ACTA [EVERYONE MUST SEE[ ELI5: Acta : explainlikeimfive. Did Obama break constitutional law by signing the ACTA treaty? Here at The Inquisitr we have been covering the whole SOPA, PIPA, and the Blackout of the Web but even before those two extremely flawed bills surfaced we were covering the international treaty commonly referred to by ACTA, even though all the trade organizations (funded by the entertainment industry) did their best to keep secret. Most recently both James Johnson and H. Scott English wrote about the re-emergence of ACTA as a real matter of concern. The fact is that ACTA is even more insidious that either SOPA and PIPA might have been before they were shelved.
I first started writing about ACTA back in 2010 here at The Inquisitr and have been a vocal opponent of the treaty because it totally bypasses the direct involvement of elected politicians that could be held accountable for their actions. It is because of this problem with accountability that ACTA was never created as “a law” but rather as a “trade treaty” – as I wrote here in April 2010: USTR Claims TPP Has 'Unprecedented' Transparency, But It Won't Reveal The Details Unless You're A Big Industry Lobbyist. You would think that after the response to SOPA as well as the ongoing (and growing) movement against ACTA, that the USTR would heed some of the warning signs, and stop pushing trade agreements negotiated in secret with the help of Hollywood.
But, that's just not how the USTR works, apparently. When pressed to release a draft of the intellectual property sections of the new Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP), the USTR apparently told a bunch of civil liberties/civil society groups that the current level of transparency on TPP was "unprecedented. " And to prove it, they refused to let anyone see the draft document. At this point, it seems like the USTR simply thinks that lying to the public is its best course of action.
We've already pointed out that the TPP negotiations are actually significantly more secret than even the already unprecedented levels of secrecy in ACTA. So what could the USTR possibly mean in claiming that the TPP process has been transparent? WDeHH.png (PNG Image, 2550 × 3300 pixels) - Scaled (21. Is copyright an undue weight on current technology? : philosophy. European Redditors: What is ACTA, and what can U.S. Redditors do about it? : AskReddit. Why are we not seeing nearly as much protest against ACTA like we did with SOPA/PIPA? : AskReddit.
The Threat to Estonia's Open Internet | Opinion. Under the guise of intellectual property rights enforcement, Europeans could become victims of the US political system's dependence on corporate money. The Wikipedia-led blackout on January 18 in protest against SOPA and PIPA appears to have been a big success. The blackout raised awareness among the general public about the nefarious effects of the legislation and forced many in Congress to reconsider. It would be a mistake, however, to think that the internet is only under threat in the United States. The same forces that are at work trying to push the anti-piracy web censorship bills through the US Congress are at work around the world. Lobbying With False Claims In an open letter sent to two Estonian ministers last year, AmCham makes a number of unfounded claims. Another AmCham claim is that stronger IPR enforcement will lead to more tax revenue and more jobs in Estonia. The sector most likely to benefit from such a shift in spending would be the entertainment industry in Hollywood.
ACTA Signed by the EU. Let's Defeat it Together! Thousands march in Poland over Acta internet treaty. 26 January 2012Last updated at 15:40 The government says protesters will have their say before the treaty is ratified in Poland Thousands of protesters have taken to Poland's streets over the signing of an international treaty activists say amounts to internet censorship. Prime Minister Donald Tusk's government signed the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement in Tokyo on Thursday. The treaty, known as Acta, aims to establish international standards to enforce intellectual property rights. But critics say it could curb freedom of expression, and government websites have been hacked in protest. Later on Thursday, hundreds of people took to the streets of the eastern city of Lublin to express their anger over the treaty.
Several marches had taken place in cities across the nation on Wednesday, says the BBC's Adam Easton in Warsaw. Crowds of mostly young people held banners with slogans such as "no to censorship" and "a free internet". Opponents protest signing of ACTA without adequate debate. Over the vocal protests of opponents, 22 European nations signed the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) on Thursday.
A statement by the Japanese foreign ministry, which hosted the signing ceremony, indicated that the remaining EU member states were expected to sign the agreement "on the completion of respective domestic procedures. " The United States, Canada, Japan, and several other nations signed the agreement in October. The move sparked protests in Europe. Thousands of Poles took to the streets in protest, and more than a dozen members of the Polish parliament donned Guy Fawkes masks to express their displeasure at the signing. Kader Arif, a French member of the European Parliament from the Socialist Party, had been assigned to be a rapporteur on ACTA, meaning that he was asked to study the issue and deliver a report on the subject.
But he resigned in protest on Thursday. The United States signed onto the agreement in October. Sen. Europe signs up to controversial ACTA web treaty. EU signs ACTA, global internet censorship treaty. Rady AnandaActivist Post Today, the European Union and 22 member states signed the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced.
They have now joined the US and seven other nations that signed the treaty last October. This signing ceremony merely formalized the EU’s adoption of ACTA last month, during a completely unrelated meeting on agriculture and fisheries, reports TechDirt. Though initiated by the US, Japan is the official depository of the treaty. Removal of the Three Strikes clause, in which users accused of three counts of piracy would be barred from the internet, paved the way for the EU to adopt ACTA last month. Related to ACTA, a chapter in the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) “would have state signatories adopt even more restrictive copyright measures than ACTA,” reports the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Leaked cables published by WikiLeaks in 2009 exposed early drafts of ACTA, resulting in a firestorm of controversy. Slovenia's ambassador apologizes to her children and her nation for signing ACTA, calls for mass demonstrations in Ljubljana tomorrow.
After Helena Drnovsek Zorko, Slovenia's ambassador to Japan, signed the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, she was deluged with emails from Slovenians criticizing her for signing onto the agreement, which encourages widespread network censorship and creates criminal penalties for copyright infringement. The ambassador read the agreement more closely and decided she agreed with the critics, and wrote an open letter of apology to her country for signing them up to the treaty. The ambassador calls on Slovenians to converge on Ljubljana tomorrow, Saturday, Feb 4, to protest ACTA. I signed ACTA out of civic carelessness, because I did not pay enough attention. Quite simply, I did not clearly connect the agreement I had been instructed to sign with the agreement that, according to my own civic conviction, limits and withholds the freedom of engagement on the largest and most significant network in human history, and thus limits particularly the future of our children.
Poland freezes anti-piracy pact ratification. Germany refuses to sign ACTA amid protests. February 10, 2012 - 17:15 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - Germany will not sign an international anti-piracy treaty, despite having already agreed to it in principal, government sources in Berlin said Friday, February 10. The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), initiated by the United States and Japan, seeks to protect intellectual property rights, “including infringement taking place in the digital environment.” It was signed by the European Union and 22 of its 27 member states in January. Germany said at the time it would soon follow suit.
But since January, the treaty has been the subject of protest, mainly online, by people who say it will require signatory countries to punish even non-commercial breaches of copyright with criminal prosecution and jail terms. Tens of thousands of people are expected to take part in protests in 60 German cities on Saturday, M&C reported, citing DPA. Massive Street Protests Wage War On ACTA Anti-Piracy Treaty. The world is witnessing the largest offline protest against copyright legislation today. Massive demonstrations against the draconian anti-piracy treaty ACTA are spanning four continents, with protests in more than 200 European cities alone.
Hundreds of thousands of people are taking to the streets to prevent their countries and the European Parliament from putting the free Internet at risk by ratifying ACTA, Last month the European Union officially signed the controversial “anti-piracy” trade agreement ACTA. The EU followed in the footsteps of Australia, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore and the United States, who already signed it last October.
To prevent this from happening, hundreds of thousands of people across the world are taking to the streets today, and millions more are expected to do their part online. These staggering numbers amount to the greatest offline protest against any type of copyright legislation, ever. Anti-ACTA protests across Europe. Bulgaria refuses to ratify ACTA. European Parliament Official In Charge Of ACTA Quits, And Denounces The 'Masquerade' Behind ACTA. Acta goes too far, says MEP | Technology. We Need Copyright Reform, Not ACTA! TODAY IS THE DAY TO KILL ACTA. Boing Boing's Beschizza talks Megaupload, ACTA, and torrent justice on RT TV. Anonymous takes aim over Europe's SOPA | InSecurity Complex.
» Obama Signs Global Internet Treaty Worse Than SOPA Alex Jones. Site-blocking law dubbed 'Ireland's Sopa' to pass without parliamentary vote. ACTA Could be Passed in 10 Weeks; Take Action Before It’s Too Late | Current Technology News - AKAScope.com.