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[News]The MAFIAA is 'Taking Over' the US Government from Back Doors

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Stop the MPAA and RIAA shadow government: Oppose S. 3325

,----[ Quote ]
| Update: Over the weekend, Congress sadly has passed the bill. But it's not 
| law yet -- stay tuned for our next step. 
`----

http://www.defectivebydesign.org/stop-revised-riaa-ip-enforcement-bill-s3325

Last Chance: Tell Bush to veto the RIAA/MPAA Enforcement Bill

,----[ Quote ]
| Over the weekend, Congress in a shameful act of service to the campaign 
| contributions of the entertainment industry passed "PRO-IP" legislation that 
| requires our government to work directly on the industry's behalf against the 
| public interest. Under the deceptive banner of "intellectual property", the 
| bill as passed has several unacceptable provisions.    
| 
| Besides over $23 million in congressional campaign contributions, the 
| industry used scare tactics to get it passed, trying to draw a connection 
| between copyright infringement and...terrorism. The bill expresses the "Sense 
| of Congress" as agreeing that "terrorists and organized crime utilize piracy, 
| counterfeiting, and infringement to fund some of their activities;" and that 
| stopping copyright infringement should be among the highest priorities of 
| government. This attitude sets us up for a future world of Digital 
| Restrictions Management (DRM) and large-scale seizure of computer equipment 
| the industry accuses of being involved in         
`----

http://www.defectivebydesign.org/tell-bush-to-veto-proip


Recent:

Hollywood steps up for ACTA

,----[ Quote ]
| More than 100 international public interest organizations  are demanding
| officials from Canada, the United States, Mexico, the European Union,
| Switzerland, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand, all of which are
| negotiating ACTA, publish immediately the draft text of the agreement.
`----

http://www.p2pnet.net/story/17088


Obama backtracks on technology

,----[ Quote ]
| It now appears that the changes to the Science, Technology & Innovation
| position now reflect the position of both the Senator and his running-mate
| Joe Biden. Biden is a sock-puppet for the entertainment industry and has a
| history of proposing laws that favour security forces' demands for snooping.
`----

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/09/23/obama-backtracks-technology


ACTA-ion and ReACTA-ion

,----[ Quote ]
| Basically, it is an attempt to bring in yet more punitive measures against
| alleged infringements of intellectual monopolies, with less judicial
| oversight and no pesky European privacy protection.
|
| But the trouble with these kinds of crude instruments, cooked up in haste
| without much deep consideration of their knock-on effects, is that they can
| backfire.
|
| Here, for example, is a letter to the US Trade Representative from a bunch of
| big names, including Amazon, eBay and Yahoo. They have noticed a few tiny
| probs with ACTA:
|
| 'We appreciate your objective of protecting the intellectual property of
| American rightsholders from infringement overseas. However, in light of these
| European decisions, there is a very real possibility that an agreement that
| would require signatories to increase penalties for “counterfeiting”
| and “piracy” could be used to challenge American companies engaging in online
| practices that are entirely legal in the U.S., that bring enormous benefit to
| U.S. consumers, and that increase U.S. Exports.'
|
| Is this rich, or what? Here we have a trade agreement that is essentially
| trying to export the insanely aggressive US system for dealing with alleged
| infringements to the rest off the world, but when it works the other way –
| with European norms exported to the US – suddenly, that's a problem.
`----

http://www.computerworlduk.com/toolbox/open-source/blogs/index.cfm?entryid=1128&blogid=14


Stop the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement

,----[ Quote ]
| I just heard about the proposed ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement)
| over at Free Software Daily and from the Free Software Foundation. Right now
| the governments of the United States, the European Commission, Japan,
| Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Canada, and Mexico are
| secretly negotiating this new treaty which aims to increase the enforcement
| of intellectual property laws yet again.
`----

http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/community_posts/stop_anti_counterfeiting_trade_agreement


ACTA's Unspeakable Acts

,----[ Quote ]
| Since neither the EU nor the UK government has deigned to let us peasants
| know anything about the current ACTA negotations, I was interested to see New
| Zealand's government releasing a statement...
`----

http://opendotdotdot.blogspot.com/2008/08/actas-unspeakable-acts.html


Free Software leader slams NZ copyright

,----[ Quote ]
| “New Zealand’s law does not go as far as the DMCA in the US, but it is unjust
| nonetheless,” he says.
|
| “DRM is nearly always the result of a conspiracy of companies to restrict the
| technology available to the public. Such conspiracy should be a crime, and
| the executives responsible for it should be sentenced to prison.”
|
| Stallman’s other mission here is to promote the Free Software Movement. The
| creator of the GPL licence, under which most free software is distributed, is
| at pains to correct misunderstandings of what the term “free software” means
| and to draw a distinction between it and the open source movement.
`----

http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/news/0064FE274A08BA2CCC25749A00383CB3


Act Now on ACTA

,----[ Quote ]
| One of the things that has amazed me recently is the power of the letter –
| or, more specifically, the power of the letter when sent to an MP or MEP.
| Naively, I would have expected a deafening silence from these exalted beings
| in receipt of my ever so 'umble communications, but by and large they are
| astonishingly quick to respond, often with personal replies. From this I draw
| an important lesson: that it is always worth writing to your Mps/MEPs about
| things that matter to you.
|
| Against that background, over the next few weeks, I aim to present a few
| worthy causes to readers of this blog that they might like to take up with
| representatives. Remember, finding the latter – and sending stuff to them –
| is trivially easy thanks to the wonders of the WriteToThem site, so there's
| no excuse for not joining in.
`----

http://www.computerworlduk.com/toolbox/open-source/blogs/index.cfm?entryid=1084&blogid=14
http://tinyurl.com/5nbhw2


Sysadmins slam ACMA web filtering study

,----[ Quote ]
| The Guild also expressed concerns about the false positives encountered
| during the ACMA test. The most accurate filter tested incorrectly blocked
| three percent of requests, but when scaled up to the traffic volumes of a
| medium to large ISP this would mean over 3000 requests would be blocked every
| second.
`----

http://www.itwire.com/content/view/19763/1054/


IETF tackling P2P data traffic in Tokyo even though the same content is
available on a server in London.

,----[ Quote ]
| There are a number of possible solutions: The P4P working group at Yale
| University has conducted initial testing in the Verizon and Telefonica
| networks. On the other side of the pond, an EU supported research project is
| working on a solution called Network-Aware P2P TV Application Over Wise
| Networks. In spring, Berlin computer science professor Anja Feldmann
| presented the concept of an "oracle" server, which would deliver a rating
| list of the closest P2P nodes.
|
| [...]
|
| Another SIP expert, Henning Schultzrinne of Columbia University, raised the
| possibility of giving end users more control over data traffic costs.
| Currently, users face the disheartening possibility of risking a hefty bill
| for P2P traffic. At his university, it is standard operating procedure to
| block access to users who have exceeded their 252 gigabyte monthly volume.

`----

http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/113590/from/rss09


Why We Must React to ACTA

,----[Quote ]
| The name of the “Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement” – ACTA – is indicative
| of the overall approach being taken. First, this is a trade agreement, which
| means that it by-passes many of the more open processes for drawing up
| international agreements. This has allowed it to be discussed in secret,
| amongst a cosy club of interested parties and their chums – notably, those in
| industries based on exploiting intellectual monopolies.
|
| Moreover, this is an invitation-only club, which has led to the exclusion of
| most developing countries, and hence most of the world in terms of
| population. It is nothing less than cyber-imperialism by the rich countries
| that for so long have imposed their agendas on the rest of the globe, but
| which finally see their traditional hegemony threatened by the rise of new
| powers – and new ideas. ACTA is a last-ditch attempt to lock the world into
| an old and outdated mindset.
`----

http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/why-we-must-react-acta


Senators Plan To Unveil New IP Bill

,----[ Quote ]
| Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy and ranking member Arlen
| Specter will join Sens. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., and George Voinovich, R-Ohio, on
| Thursday in unveiling new legislation intended to boost government efforts to
| crack down on counterfeiting and piracy.
`----

http://techdailydose.nationaljournal.com/2008/07/senators_plan_to_unveil_new_ip.php


FSF organizes against Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement

,----[ Quote ]
| "At the moment, the campaign's mostly information," Lee says. "What we want
| to do is get more people involved who can help us build public awareness and
| also build up the information on ACTA."
|
| Other ways that free software users can help the FSF campaign, Lee suggests,
| include local campaigns that contact your elected representatives and
| starting grass root organizations to help create a world-wide action network.
| Lee also stresses the importance of translating information from English to
| help resistance to ACTA in non-English speaking countries.
|
| "It's early days for the campaign," Lee says. "It's an ongoing battle, but
| ultimately we're going to ride this through and see ACTA defeated. But we
| need people to get involved to help us do this."
`----

http://www.linux.com/feature/142403


ACTA threatens free software

,----[ Quote ]
| 1. It makes it more difficult to distribute free software: Without file
|    sharing and P2P technologies like BitTorrent, distributing large amounts
|    of free software becomes much harder, and more expensive. BitTorrent is a
|    grassroots protocol that allows everyone to contribute to legally
|    distributing free software.
| 2. It will make it harder for users of free operating systems to play
|    media: Consumers will no longer be able to buy media without DRM -- and
|    DRMed media cannot be played with free software.
| 3. It increases the chances of getting your devices taken away: Portable
|    media players that support free formats are less common than devices which
|    support DRM, such as the iPod. Will this make them suspicious to border
|    guards?
| 4. It creates a culture of surveillance and suspicion, in which the
|    freedom that is required to produce free software is seen as dangerous and
|    threatening rather than creative, innovative, and exciting.
`----

http://www.fsf.org/campaigns/acta


The right to peer inside your iPod

,----[ Quote ]
| An agreement on intellectual property rights to be ratified by the G8 heads
| of government highlights conflicts between ownership and privacy
`----

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/jul/10/intellectualproperty.law


Microsoft could force your mobile into silence

,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft is developing a new technology that could force mobiles into silent
| mode, or even prevent calls from being made.
|
| [...]
|
| Phone jammers, which work in small spaces, are banned in the UK and come with
|| a hefty fine for use.
`----

http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/microsoft-could-force-your-mobile-into-silence-393006


Digital copyright: it's all wrong

,----[ Quote ]
| The ACTA draft is a scary document. If a treaty based on its provisions were
| adopted, it would enable any border guard, in any treaty country, to check
| any electronic device for any content that they suspect infringes copyright
| laws. They need no proof, only suspicion.
|
| They would be able to seize any device - laptop, iPod, DVD recorder, mobile
| phone, etc - and confiscate it or destroy anything on it, merely on
| suspicion. On the spot, no lawyers, no right of appeal, no nothing.
`----

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/news/technology/digital-copyright-its-all-wrong/2008/06/09/1212863783566.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1
http://tinyurl.com/6ylvpx


Embattled ACTA Negotiations Next Week In Geneva; US Sees Signing This Year

,----[ Quote ]
| Criticism from NGOs
|
| Canadian law expert David Fewer, staff counsel at the University of Ottawa’s
| Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic, told the Ottawa Citizen
| that the discussion paper was very close to a potential Christmas wish-list
| by Hollywood companies.
|
| Knowledge Ecology International (KEI), in an earlier statement filed to USTR,
| warned against a lack in differentiation and clearness of core terms, like
| counterfeiting, infringement or piracy. “Is Microsoft a “pirate” for
| insisting on the right to continue to infringe the z4 patents in order to use
| an infringing DRM technology to protect Microsoft software itself from
| infringement by unauthorised uses?” KEI asked in its statement.
`----

http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/index.php?p=1071


UK Band Admits It's 'Utterly Dependent' On Piracy

,----[ Quote ]
| At some point, it won't make sense to post these sorts of examples any more
| because it will just be common sense that bands can and do benefit from
| so-called "piracy," but every time we post one of these stories, we get
| people complaining that this couldn't possibly work for others.
`----

http://techdirt.com/articles/20080826/2227062107.shtml
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