Stop the ACTA - Internet Freedom Movement

[One_Love]

Hello everyone, this is my first post on the forum as you can see, maybe I will stay after this is done, maybe not, either way, allow me to explain why I am here.

I've come to you to spread the word about the ACTA, you may or may not have heard of it. What it is is a treaty the G8 are in the process of sneaking into effect, there's hardly a short and sweet way to sum the treaty up, but I think, if you just take five minutes to read this post, you'll become very interested.

Why should you care about ACTA?

The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (also known as ACTA) raises significant concerns for consumer privacy, civil liberties, innovation, the free flow of information on the Internet, commerce, and developing countries' ability to choose policy options that best suit them.

What are some of the effecs thet ACTA treaty will have?

A small number of the things the treaty will do:
-Allow the authorities to seize and search private computers, laptops, ipods and all other electrical equipment that can store data, with no warning or reason
-Allow for censorship of the internet, sites that a govertment deems unacceptable can and will be blocked, without any sort of trial
-Make all P2P file sharing illegal, even if the files being shared would be perfectly legal to share today

It's probaly because of some of these sites that this treaty would enable the goverment block that we're all here on this forum as fans of Tech.

It won't just effect the internet either, one awful example of the real life consequences of this treaty is how it will effect health care in developing nations. See, by some incredible mincing of words, the treaty will prevent international charitys from purchasing medicines and then passing them on to the 3rd world nations that need them. As a result, if the treaty is enacted countless lives will be needlessly lost, due to the medication that could have saved these lives no longer being availible at an affordable price.

Here is a short video explaining some of what I've talked about and a little more: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdSHYBcdtOs

So what can we do to stop this treaty?

We don't have the money of the corporations, the legal experience of the lawyers or the power of the politicians, but we will have the numbers.

The movement has already began and plans have already been forumlated, follow the links below and sign up to the forum to help contribute, this is the hub of the operation, there is a shedload of great information there.

http://ifmovement.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=47

http://ifmovement.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=52&t=98

http://ifmovement.org/forum/index.php

Below is a link to one of the three webchat chanels, it seems cluttered but this chanel is just for giving out some basic details to new comers, the other two chanels are where more serious discussion occurs.

http://n0v4.com/irc.web.php?channel=antiactaplanning


Once I found out about the movement the IT forum was one of the first places that popped into my head when thinking about places to share this information. I figure fellow fans of Tech will feel as strongly on this issue as I do, but you don't have to be a revolutionary to care about this, so spread info on the ATCA everywhere you can and tell EVERY group of people and EVERY community you know of. The ATCA is relevant to everyone, even people who don't have the internet.



We MUST to prevent the ACTA treaty from going through and together we can.

In summary, if you wish to help:


-Make Facebook pages
-Make Youtube videos
-Spread this information to each and every forum you happen to post on
-Sign up to the IFM forums and follow the progress
-Just spread the word

So, you know what you need to do.

For the record, I had no part in setting any of this movement up, so if you have any deeper questions about the movement you may be better off taking it to the forum and I'm sure a higher up will be able to help you out. I'm just trying to promote it best I can.

Thanks for reading, and thank you for any contributions to the cause.

[Lialls]

Quote:-Allow the authorities to seize and search private computers, laptops, ipods and all other electrical equipment that can store data, with no warning or reason

Haha, what a joke...

http://www.petitiononline.com/stopatca/petition.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Counte..._Agreement

The Wiki Article Wrote:Drafted
Official negotiation started in June 2008 (public draft released April 20, 2010)

Parties
Australia, Canada, the European Union, Japan, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand,
the Republic of Korea, Singapore, Switzerland and the United States

[El Mono]

Blink is going to hate this.


http://www.anti-acta.com/content/view/26/1//index.php


Why should you care about ACTA?
Written by Anti-ACTA
Jul 06, 2010 at 05:51 AM

ACTA has several features that raise significant potential concerns for consumers privacy and civil liberties, for innovation and the free flow of information on the Internet, legitimate commerce, and for developing countries ability to choose policy options that best suit their domestic priorities and level of economic development.

Internet Service providers are forced to monitor everything you do online and to report to the government with anything that seen as suspicious. How are they going to pay for this? We will be forced to pay with much higher Internet bills, in order to allow this Invasion of Privacy.

But that is not all.

ACTA is dangerous because

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, such as Linux-based to play media: Consumers are no longer allowed to buy media without DRM -- and DRM'ed media cannot be played with free software.

3. It allows your devices to be taken away without any explanation whatsoever as part of random security checks. Devices suspected of including Pirated Material and/or Copyright Infringements will also be confiscated and searched. Not only is this an invasion of Privacy, this could mean restricted to people carrying Digital equipment. This means that bringing an iPod or a Laptop through Airport Security could cost hours off your time. This is not only restricted to Digital Device Carriers. This extends the time required for the average check-in up to 70%, assuming 1 in 10 people receive a searched media Device.

4. ACTA requires that existing ISP no longer host free software that has the possibility of including copyrighted media; this would substantially affect many sites that offer free software or host software projects such as SourceForge and Download.com. Most software we use on our computers are free. Are we to pay the price because of a misleading treaty?

5. Part of the ACTA treaty states that import generic medicine are to be restricted and controlled. This could have disastrous effects that cost lives, especially in developing countries. The majority of Medicinal Companies do not supply medicine to 3rd world countries. This is because more profit can be made by selling it to the richer countries where WE live. Most medicine received in 3rd world countries are imported by concerned people and charity groups. If ACTA is to be approved, these medicine would be confiscated for "security" reasons (In order to maintain a monopoly). Should these people die because of our current inaction and unwillingness to act against ACTA?

6. If ACTA is implemented, privacy on the internet is no longer a given. Internet Service Providers will be forced to monitor what websites you visit and what you type, search and do. People have a basic right to privacy that this treaty clearly ignores. Are you willing to pay this price?

7. ACTA gives governments and ISP’s the right to block websites deemed “Unsuitable” There are no clear guidelines as to what is deemed suitable or unsuitable. Do you honestly believe that this power will not be abused for Political and Economical Gain ? China has used the same excuse to censor the internet. Concurrently, China has far banned facebook.com, youtube.com and blogspot.com. Does this seem like national security?

8. This treaty WILL NOT prevent Piracy. This is an ineffective and ridiculous agreement that will only harm the common people, not Pirated goods. Again, China is an example. Most websites and Peer to Peer networks are blocked. Yet China has one of the most rampant Piracy industries in the world. Why? Because Piracy will always find another medium. Only we will suffer.

We cannot sit by and watch this happen. The Internet is a tremendous source of genuine free speech where ideas and criticisms are not limited by the whims of other people. We must stop this now, before it passes. Before it's too late.

Everything mentioned above is true. Verify it for yourself.

Source: http://www.anti-acta.com/content/view/26/1/

---

They're taking away the last bastion of Free speech.

[Fuzzly Bear]

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU​UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU​UUUUCK

[El Mono]

http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Proposed_US_AC...%282007%29


Who is really behind ACTA? Follow the money. An example:

Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA)[4]

Top four campaign contributions for 2006:

Time Warner $21,000
News Corp $15,000
Sony Corp of America $14,000
Walt Disney Co $13,550

Top two Industries:

TV/Movies/Music $181,050
Lawyers/Law Firms $114,200

Other politicians listed also show significant contributions from IP industries.


http://file.wikileaks.org/file/acta-proposal-2007.pdf File

[Gezus]

>:0 MOTHER FUCKERS!!

people are going to riot. this is going to piss off so many people. id say easily 75% people pirate shit on a daily basis. they are going to regret this i swear. this is like a little boy smacking one of those huge ass hornets nest...

[El Mono]

It's been in talks since 2007 and they dropped the Public Draft in July 2010. And like they care, they've been smacking the nest for years, the Hornets aren't doing shit.

[Gezus]

^ yea... fucking dormant bees >: (

[ClichéGuevara]

Do we get any say in what these fucks do with our lives? And why does it always seem like the majority affected doesn't even give a fuck?

Fucking idiots are obsessed with money. The best software is always free. Think about, by far the most popular OS is Windows and it's terrible compared to Linux. I'm not a fan of Linux's layout but it's security and speed are better than any Windows products.

Anyone who actually knows anything about technology will not support this. I'm pissed off now, we should all just go smash some private property up!

[El Mono]

We all wanna smash shit up, but that will only give them more ammo to use against us. There has to be a way to stop this, even /b/ are against it..

[Gezus]

oh my, heysess is going to be sooooooo pissed to hear about this.. like straight up, i could see him literally smashing up some private property coz of this... lol

[ClichéGuevara]

Protests and petitions. After the Digital Economy Act passed I realised that people in government don't understand how the internet really works.

/b/ are bound to be against it, they are absolute freedom of speech.

"If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear." - George Orwell. We should be able to say whatever the hell we want on the internet, whether the government like it or not.

I try to take some positive out of everything so I'm kinda hoping that this and any further stupid things will eventually get people pissed off to the point that something drastically changes. What happened to when people would really protest? Like they did during Thatcher's reign