Petition regarding ACTA

[Sil_liS]

A website that I visit was warning about ACTA and had a link to this petition: http://www.avaaz.org/en/eu_save_the_internet/?tta
The EU Parliament will make a decision on ratifying it in June.

To sign the petition you are subscribing to the site and receive an email with these links:

More information:

If You Thought SOPA Was Bad, Just Wait Until You Meet ACTA
http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain...you-meet-acta/

ACTA vs. SOPA: Five Reasons ACTA is Scarier Threat to Internet Freedom
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/2869...edom.htm?cid=2

What's Wrong With ACTA
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number1...rong-with-ACTA

The secret treaty: Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) and Its Impact on Access to Medicines
http://www.msfaccess.org/content/sec...cess-medicines

It would make more sense to me to have these links on the petition site as well so people would know why they should sign it but I guess the ones who made the website considered that people who arrived there are already informed.

[taustin]

I'm always suspcicious when somebody claims to be doing something for my own good but needs my email address to do it.

[teh603]

I'm not so sure ACTA will get ratified; a couple of Senators are really upset that they can't get access to the full text of the treaty and see it as a literal pig in a poke.

Besides that, if ACTA does get ratified with all this secrecy, it would really throw a monkeywrench into US jurisprudence. We can't just haul people into court, and have the prosecution tell the judge, "Your honor, this person has violated a Secret Law, and while neither you nor the defendant are allowed to know what the law says or how they violated it, we assure you they've violated it and need (insert sentence here)." There isn't a jury that would buy it, and most judges would throw it out of court anyway.

[Sil_liS]

A couple of Senators from where?

[teh603]

Originally Posted by Sil_liS

A couple of Senators from where?

Don't remember off the top of my head; they were mentioned in the wikipedia article at one point.

Also, I edited my post. Might want to re-read it. There's no way ACTA will survive the US court system.

[cjr72]

From what I've read the Obama administration is maintaining that ACTA does not need to be ratified by Congress because they deem it an 'executive agreement' and not a treaty. Some Senators have a problem with this, Ron Wyden being one.

[Apache]

I might not be a senator, but I too have a problem with it.
Apache

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by cjr72

From what I've read the Obama administration is maintaining that ACTA does not need to be ratified by Congress because they deem it an 'executive agreement' and not a treaty. Some Senators have a problem with this, Ron Wyden being one.

The imperial presidency

[taustin]

Originally Posted by cjr72

From what I've read the Obama administration is maintaining that ACTA does not need to be ratified by Congress because they deem it an 'executive agreement' and not a treaty. Some Senators have a problem with this, Ron Wyden being one.

The constitution has a thing or two to say about it, too. If it's not ratified by the Senate, it's not a treaty, and therefore, it has no legal satus as a treaty.

And presidential proclamations are subject to the constitution, period. (Treaties have equal status to the constitution, though they cannot violate it.)

[xg4bx]

theres also this thing popping up now-

"Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, following a recent anti-piracy legislative debacle with SOPA and PIPA, will lead his second effort of 2012 to push Internet-regulating legislation, this time in the form of a new cybersecurity bill. The expected bill is the latest attempt by the Democrats to broadly expand the authority of executive branch agencies over the Internet.

Details about the bill remain shrouded in secrecy. Clues available to the public suggest that the bill might be stronger than President Barack Obama’s cybersecurity proposal, which was released in May 2011. Reid said that he would bring the bill — expected to come out of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, chaired by Connecticut independent Sen. Joe Lieberman — to the floor during the first Senate work period of 2012."

"The new bill, according to the recommendations in the White House proposal, would also expand Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act penalties to the cyber realm. The Department of Justice used RICO as one of the tools to takedown of the popular file-sharing site, MegaUpload, in January.

The cybersecurity bill effort comes as yet another attempt by the Democrats to expand the power of the federal government over the Internet in less than two years. Past efforts include the House Stop Online Piracy Act, and the Protect IP Act in the Senate, and the Federal Communications Commission’s so-called “net neutrality” regulation."



Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/02/06/de...#ixzz1lkJMuRbL



wtf is with the massive push to strangle the internet this past year, especially by this administration?

[teh603]

Originally Posted by xg4bx

wtf is with the massive push to strangle the internet this past year?

Probably big business telling senators that they have to stay bought.

I would *so* love to see a constitutional amendment requiring all elected officials' campaigns to be funded only by contributions from individual citizens, and arranging to forfeit any corporate or PAC money (or any money contributed thru individuals rom a corporation or PAC) to charity.

[xg4bx]

Originally Posted by teh603

Probably big business telling senators that they have to stay bought.

I would *so* love to see a constitutional amendment requiring all elected officials' campaigns to be funded only by contributions from individual citizens, and arranging to forfeit any corporate or PAC money (or any money contributed thru individuals rom a corporation or PAC) to charity.

it just seems like theres this mad rush recently. the internet has been around for awhile....

i guess its harder for us to speak poorly about our rotten government and corporate masters when we don't have a forum.

[teh603]

Originally Posted by xg4bx

it just seems like theres this mad rush recently. the internet has been around for awhile....

i guess its harder for us to speak poorly about our rotten government and corporate masters when we don't have a forum.

Government's only as bad as the people in it, and those are easy enough to replace. Its the corporate puppet masters that're the real threat.

As I tell my dad's gun club (and get laughed, or accused of being a commie), its not about the 2nd amendment; for there to be a rebellion, people have to know that they have something to rebel about. Gun control is far less dangerous than information control.

[sabredog]

I find it quite laughable that one of the former heads of the MPAA was a US senator who tried to ban VCR's back in the early '80's.

With that kind of mindset, no wonder his organization are trying so damn hard to bribe every senator in sight to try and achieve an outcome favourable to the entertainment industry.

The new bloke is a hypocrite as well, nothing new there.

On January 17, 2012, Dodd released a statement criticizing "the so-called 'Blackout Day' protesting anti-piracy legislation." Referring to the websites participating in the blackout, Dodd said, "It is an irresponsible response and a disservice to people who rely on them for information and use their services. It is also an abuse of power... when the platforms that serve as gateways to information intentionally skew the facts to incite their users in order to further their corporate interests."

Pot calling the kettle black.

[Sil_liS]

Originally Posted by teh603

Don't remember off the top of my head; they were mentioned in the wikipedia article at one point.

Also, I edited my post. Might want to re-read it. There's no way ACTA will survive the US court system.

The petition if for the EU, not the US. Of the 27 EU countries 22 signed it. It's spreading like a virus. ACTA has been incubating since 2008 and I'm not sure that we can do much about it.