GLOBAL CORPORATE ASSAULT ON INTERNET FREEDOM
SHIFTS FROM SOPA TO
ACTA.
In the wake of a
public outcry against internet regulation bills such as SOPA and PIPA,
representatives of the EU have signed a new and far more threatening
legislation yesterday in Tokyo.
Spearheaded by the
governments of the United States and Japan and constructed largely in the
absence of public awareness, the measures of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade
Agreement (ACTA) dramatically alter current international legal framework,
while introducing the first substantial processes of global internet
governance.
With complete
contempt towards the democratic process, the negotiations of the treaty were exclusively held between
industry representatives and government officials, while excluding elected representatives and members of the
press from their hearings.
Under the guise of protecting
intellectual property rights, the treaty introduces measures that would allow
the private sector to enforce sweeping central authority over internet content.
The ACTA abolishes all legal
oversight involving the removal of content and allows copyright holders to
force ISPs to remove material from the internet, something that presently
requires a court order. ISPs would then be faced with legal liabilities if they chose not to remove content.
Theoretically, personal blogs can be
removed for using company logos without permission or simply linking to copy written material; users could be criminalized, barred from accessing the
internet and even imprisoned for sharing copyrighted material.
Ultimately, these implications would
be starkly detrimental toward the internet as a medium for free speech.
The Obama
Administration subverted the legal necessity of allowing to US Senate to ratify
the treaty by unconstitutionally declaring it an “executive agreement” before the President promptly
signed it on October 1st, 2011.
As a touted
constitutional lawyer, Barack Obama is fully aware that Article 1, Section 8 of the US Constitution, mandates Congress in dealing with issues of intellectual
property, thus voiding the capacity for the President to issue an executive
agreement.
The White House refused to even disclose details about
the legislation to elected officials and civil
libertarians over concern that doing so may incur "damage to the national security." While some may hang off
every word of his sorely insincere speeches and still be fixated by the
promises of hope offered by brand-Obama, his administration has trampled the
constitution and introduced the most comprehensive authoritarian legislation in
America’s history.
In addition to
imposing loosely defined criminal sanctions to average web users, the ACTA
treaty will also obligate ISPs to disclose personal user information to
copyright holders.
The measures
introduce legislative processes that contradict the legal framework
of participant countries and allows
immigration authorities to search laptops, external hard drives and
Internet-capable devices at airports and border checkpoints.
The treaty is not
limited solely to internet-related matters; ACTA would prohibit the production of generic pharmaceuticals and outlaw the use of certain seeds for crops through patents,
furthering the corporate cartelization of the food and drug supply.
ACTA would allow
companies from any participating country (which include EU member states, the
United States, Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea,
Singapore and Morocco) to shut down websites without any explanation.
Hypothetically,
nothing could prevent private Singaporean companies from promptly taking down
American websites that oppose the Singapore Air Force conducting war games on
US soil, such as those conducted in December 2011.
By operating
outside normal judicial framework, exporting US copyright law to the rest of
the world and mandating private corporations to conduct surveillance on their
users, all prerequisites of democracy, transparency and self-expression are an
afterthought.
The further
monopolization of the existing resources of communication, exchange and
expression is ever present in the form of deceptive new articles of legislation
that unanimously call for the implementation of the same austere censorship
measures.
Even if the ACTA
treaty is not implemented, the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TTP) between Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru,
Vietnam and the United States offers more extensive intellectual property
regulations.
Leaked documents
prepared by the U.S. Business Coalition (which have been reportedly drafted by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufactures of America, the
US Chamber of Commerce, and the Motion Picture Association of America) report
that in addition to ACTA-style legislation, the TTP will impose fines on non-compliant entities and
work to extend the general period of copy write terms on individual products.
Under the sweeping
regulations of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, individual infringers will be
criminalized and sentenced with the same severity as large-scale offenders.
Within the United States, the recently announced Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital
Trade (OPEN) H.R. 3782 regulation seeks to install policies largely identical to SOPA
and PIPA.
The Obama
administration is also working towards an Internet ID program, which may be mandatory for American citizens and required when
renewing passports, obtaining federal licenses, or applying for social
security.
Spreading these
dangerous measures to other countries participating in these treaties would
necessitate a binding obligation on the US to retain these policies, averting
any chance of reform.
The ACTA will become law once it is formally ratified and cleared by the European Parliament in June. By petitioning members of the European parliament and educating others about the potential dangers imposed by this legislation, there is a chance of the treaty being rejected.
Upon closer
examination of the human condition with all of its inequalities, food
insecurity and dire social issues, our governments have lost their legitimacy
for giving such unwarranted priority to fighting copyright infringement on
behalf of lobbyists from the pharmaceutical and entertainment industries.
The existence of
ACTA is a clear statement that surveillance, regulations and securing further
corporate centralization dwarfs any constructive shift towards stimulating
human innovation and self-sufficient technologies.
When former US
National Security Advisor and Trilateral Commission co-founder, Zbigniew
Brzezinski spoke before the Council on Foreign Relations in 2010, he warned of a global political awakening beginning to take
place.
Technology such as
file sharing, blogging, and open source software has the potential to undermine
the oligarchic governing interests seeking to centrally control our society and
enforce the population into being entirely dependent on their commodities.
The following excerpt from Brzezinski’s book Between Two Ages: America’s Role in the Technetronic Era, provides invaluable insight into the world being brought in;
The following excerpt from Brzezinski’s book Between Two Ages: America’s Role in the Technetronic Era, provides invaluable insight into the world being brought in;
“The technetronic era involves the gradual appearance of a more controlled society. Such a society would be dominated by an elite, unrestrained by traditional values. Soon it will be possible to assert almost continuous surveillance over every citizen and maintain up-to-date complete files containing even the most personal information about the citizen. These files will be subject to instantaneous retrieval by the authorities.”Read more of Nile Bowie's work on his blog, NileBowie.blogspot.com.
it's not "corporate usurpation",
ReplyDeletenot the "technetronic era",
not the "NWO",
not communism, socialism,
not the "unnamed elites",
nor "the occult",
not the "illuminati", etc.,
behind all of this
so let's all call this menace exactly what it really is
the
global jewish-supremacist fascist-dictatorship
an perfect example of jewish-supremacist fascist-dictatorship at work
ReplyDeletethese 2 USraelian politicians (the gay goy and his superior, the talmudist)
wish
to make a law that will make
war against Iran a law
(said another way - they wish to make diplomatic solutions regarding Iran illegal)
http://article.wn.com/view/2012/02/08/Senate_resolution_would_rule_out_containing_nuclear_Iran/