A while ago I was perusing one of about a dozen sites I… peruse… when I
found another story about the corporations planning to strip you of your current
rights. Yes '”the” Corporations, like Hollywood and the Movie Industry, and the
Record Labels. In a world where alot of wingnuts fear “the government”, usually
without good reason, there is an issue where we should all be concerned, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Counterfeiting_Trade_Agreement (aka
ACTA). What is ACTA you might be wondering? Well let’s look at wikipedia’s
first paragraph “a proposed plurilateral trade agreement which is
claimed by its proponents to be in response "to the increase in global trade of
counterfeit goods and pirated copyright protected works."[1]
The scope of ACTA is broad, including counterfeit physical goods,
as well as "internet distribution and information technology".[2]”
What’s that? It’s a secret internet treaty being negotiated in secret. If you
read through it, which you can’t because it’s negotiated in secret you’d see
the push for a global set of copyright rules that would have ISP’s respond to DMCA-style takedown notices under a 3 strikes rule. In
essence your ISP would be required to terminate your internet connection after
receiving 3 complaints against your IP address. Someone have a beef with you,
they complain 3 times and poof your gone, disconnected from the internet. Not
just you, but everyone in your household because they’re all at the same IP
address.
Safe Harbor? Forget about it. Due process? Gone. And ISPs would lose their
safe harbor status, so they’d be responsible for everything posted from users.
Now think about it, a company would complain against you, demand your user
information and your ISP would hand it over, why wouldn’t they? What’s the
reason to hold out for you and disrupt their business? So YouTube,
Photobucket, Flickr, MySpace, Google/BING/Yahoo… anything with user generated
content… gone. That just leaves “The Corporations” and their product. You
should be worried, you should be concerned. With most people now using the
Internet for fun, communication, sharing, and work it could all come to a
grinding halt. What goods a wifi connection when you can only watch what the
corporations want you to see? You hate ads? You like free software of any kind?
Be prepared for seismic changes if this goes through. Alot of people fear a one
world government, maybe they’re right, maybe they’re wrong, what they should
fear is a One World Corporation with the powers of a government. How much is
your freedom of expression worth? You may find out soon and you might not be
able to afford it.
Want to find out more? http://www.eff.org/issues/acta
