Regarding ACTA

ACTA is for Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement.

Sounds like it has nothing to do with illegal file-sharing, doesn't it? And nothing to do with human rights. Maybe something to do with generic drugs, though.

But before we dig into that, let's focus on the last two words: trade agreement.

This is not (directly) law; it is not something debated and decided on in democratically elected assemblies. It is not negotiated by elected representatives or even appointed representatives for elected parties.

It is negotiated by representatives for industry. Behind locked doors, in secrecy. It is not laws, that can be reversed by an upcoming government if they turn out to be bad.

These treaties typically last for decades, and if a country does not comply with a signed agreement, it can be severely punished by the others — the others can simply refuse to trade.

Now, trade agreements typically do not impose very detailed restrictions on signing parties.

ACTA, however, does. You think we've won the day with SOPA and PIPA down the drain? Oh no. You see, the copyright and patent industries are only half stupid. They know about every conceivable way to reach their goals, and they do all they can to try each and every one of them.

So, surprisingly, ACTA contains large portions concerned with stopping illegal file-sharing. And you know what that means; weaker protection for civil rights in the legislation, harder punishments, more surveillance.

The USA has already signed ACTA. The battle in the EU is ongoing as we speak.

And it is indeed an ugly battle. Proponents try everything they can to avoid having ACTA voted upon, known about, discussed by politicians or population, whatnot.

It will most likely violate the constitutions of most signing countries, including that of the USA, but the constitutions may have to yield.

In Sweden, the constitution is already commonly ignored by Säpo, the Swedish security service, and no politicians seem to think this is a serious problem. Also, politicians apparently see no problem with suggesting legislation that violates the constitution.

This can also be seen in the USA, where the NDAA clearly violates the US constitution.

In the EU, there is the Data Retention Directive, that has been rejected by several European constitutional courts, but is still required by the member states to implement.

So, the most probable course of events is, the constitutions yield. A constitution apparently comes cheap these days.

And ACTA doesn't settle for killing the internet, it actually aims to wipe out a considerable part of the third world by denying them generic drugs.

It is time to act, and show the authorities that we do not accept ACTA, that we do not accept bending the constitutions, that we do not accept having our rights taken from us.

We do not recognize representatives of industries as our leaders.

Black March, or It Ain't Over 'til the Fat Lady Sings

While victorious in the battle of SOPA and PIPA, the war is not over yet.

The next atrocity in store is PCIPA, Protecting Children from Internet Pornographers Act.

Now, anyone in their right mind would like to protect children against molesters, wouldn't they?

Which is exactly why this act is dangerous — can you imagine a representative or senator who would dare being associated with opposing an act to protect children against child molesters?

The act proposes data retention, much like the EU:s controversial Data Retention Directive. It is basically about storing data about everyone using the internet for a long period of time, typically on the scale of years, for the police to use in later inquiries.

The problems with it include, but are not limited to:

• Innocent people being troubled by the police (searching private premises for physical evidence, appropriating computers, telephones and anything that may store data)
• Innocent people can become socially stigmatized by the suspicion of such a horrendous crime
• The information can leak to unauthorized parties, which may leak it further and, for instance, let employers know that workers have sought health care or psychological care. Or let neighbors know that police have taken interest in persons in relation to investigations of crime. Use your imagination; I'm sure you can see how this could ruin innocent peoples lives.
• The data is seldom useful anyway. The criminals know how to cover their tracks already, and they won't unlearn this. And this makes the data useful for one purpose only; to harass innocents.

More generally, people are unduly supervised and no longer regarded as innocent until proven guilty, but rather as potential criminals.

Are you put off yet? Well, how about this:

Moreover, the lobbyists have a golden opportunity to actually copy-and-paste SOPA into the PCIPA, and have it done with. Yes they can. Don't think for a second they don't want to.

The PCIPA bill passed the House Judiciary Committee last year, and the next step would be a debate in the House of Representatives.

Steps are now taken to further protest against this imminent threat to the internet and our democracies and freedoms, and the idea is to quite simply not buy any records, movies, or anything such during March, 2012. It is one month, and the idea is that a person could postpone going to the movies, buying CDs, DVDs, BDs, books etc. to April. The idea is that this would make a real dent in the sales the first quarter of 2012, giving the copyright industry a taste of our power.

For my part, this feels like an easy thing to do. I'll just put the money I would otherwise have spent on these things in an envelope, and move it back to the wallet at the end of March. And then we'll see what I actually spend it on.

And, of course, don't let your politicians forget who is their master — you.

Edit 1: If you wish to participate, please also refrain from file sharing, legal or not.
Edit 2: Other sites: in english, swedish

SOPA Blackout Update

In a press release (in swedish), the swedish Pirate Party states it will participate in the SOPA blackout.

It also states that at least the following parties have announced their intention to take part:

• Wikipedia
• Reddit
• Boing Boing
• WordPress
• Lolcats
• Mozilla

If you want to participate, you have instructions here.

It was pointed out to me that this simple javascript does not achieve the same effect as actually closing down the servers, and while that's true, we can still show our support and help creating an image of what SOPA and PIPA would do to the net.

Wikipedia intends to black out from 5.00 UTC on January 18 to 5.00 UTC on January 19.

(In CET from 6.00 to 6.00.)

This is a much larger timeframe than the one I reported about yesterday; it starts 8 h earlier and stops 6 h later.

Join in!

Participate in the SOPA Blackout!

On January 18, at 8 a.m - 6 p.m. E.T. (i.e. 13.00 - 23.00 UTC, 14.00 - 24.00 CET (which applies to Sweden)), reddit and others plan a blackout to protest against SOPA, PIPA etc.

The beauty is, you can be part of it!

Copied from sopablackout.org:

How to use

The following will present a blackout banner when users visit your site, which can be circumvented by clicking anywhere:

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://js.sopablackout.org/sopablackout.js"></script>

The following will blackout an element of a specific id:

<script type="text/javascript">sopablackout_id = 'sopa';</script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://js.sopablackout.org/sopablackout.js"></script>

Spread the word, join in!

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Edit: added "http:" to the links in the code.
Edit 2: update