SOPA? Where is the outrage for ACTA?

Well, I have to admit, I felt slightly ignorant last night. Actually I felt quite ignorant, angry, and as if I purposely had the wool pulled over my eyes. I must admit that it is partly my fault for not being more aware of MY government.

I am an opponent of both SOPA and PIPA. While I understand the concerns of anyone who owns Intellectual Property (IP) and while I, myself, would be quite perturbed by the theft of my own property, I absolutely cannot support SOPA and PIPA in their current forms. There has never been a law against sharing property, which is the emphasis of P2P, or peer to peer sharing of movies, music, games, etc. There are laws against selling it for profit, but these possible (not if we have anything to say about it) new laws are not targeting the sale of IP but its sharing by redefining it as copyright infringement. Now, whether it is or isn’t, is up for debate. What is not up for debate is the widespread popularity of it (because it is not illegal). These same politicians want to grant citizenship to millions of illegal immigrants (which is a different topic altogether) and they are breaking the law. What is stopping them from arresting 11 million illegals? Reality is. It isn’t realistic thus, it is not an option. Neither is arresting or fining everyone who has uploaded or downloaded a copyrighted file from a P2P site. It isn’t realistic, and so it cannot be an option. Yes, there are cases of people being sued for copyright infringement but it is rare...at the moment. I will not even begin to discuss my biggest concern; the power these bills give to the government and the freedom that is siphoned from the people.

When Google, Wiki, and N4G, amongst others, helped fight against SOPA, I felt proud to be a part of it. It truly showcased the power of the people when they are INFORMED. SOPA and PIPA in current form were defeated in a shocking manner. The message was heard loud and clear (this also gives credence to the popularity of sharing). It was a great day to be an American!

Unfortunately, this American was browsing the internet last night and felt the antithesis of pride as a news story punched me in my gut. When I finished reading, I asked myself, "Why are people not talking about this?", "Where is the outrage?”. I then realized that not many people are aware of this atrocity. So, what is it that caught me so off guard?

On October 1st, 2011, President Obama signed a Trade Agreement by EXECUTIVE ORDER entitled ACTA or the "Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement." It is not a law, which is passed by Congress, or a Treaty, which must be ratified by a 2/3rds majority in the Senate; He doesn’t have to ask anyone permission, especially us pesky Americans or our representatives. One of the major differences between ACTA and SOPA is that it is not simply the United States that it affects… it is global...Yeah!!! Now, I am not going to get into the specifics except to say that it has been referred to as "SOPA's evil twin". It does affect copyright infringement similar to SOPA and PIPA but also includes patents, counterfeit goods and intellectual property rights.

So far, Australia, Canada, South Korea, Japan and the United States have signed on. The European Union has yet to make a decision. If you haven’t heard about it, don't worry, I read that we are not supposed to know about it yet. I guess that our government was hoping to pass SOPA and PIPA to make ACTA that much easier to enact here at home. You know, we always want to be the good globalists, leading by example. Well, as I mentioned, I'm not going to go into detail as I will leave a few links to help you get started. ACTA may have already been signed by the President, but we can still do something about it. I am tired of being underestimated, disrespected, and treated as though government is no longer "for the people, by the people". I do not like having the wool pulled over my eyes, especially on an issue that our government knows that we do not support. I KNOW that together, WE can stop this... again. That is, if we are well INFORMED. So, below are a few links to get you rolling:

http://www.laquadrature.net...
http://thenewamerican.com/u...
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/l...
http://apiarius.blogspot.co...

[coolbeans]

It doesn't surprise to see such a major decision like this being played in the shadows. Thank you for this information. I'll be sure to dive into it more later on :).

[Wintersun616]

Here is an easy way to oppose ACTA in EU by contacting members of Euro Parliament via email.

http://stop-acta-in.eu/

[bozebo]

done

[lorianguy]

Great read.

It seems ACTA is trying to slip by in the wake of the SOPA/PIPA victory.

Thanks for bringing this to light!

[Arksine]

The biggest issue with ACTA is its lack of transparancy. No one knows exactly what it entails. Unfortunately, because we are unable to self regulate, folks in power are going to step in and do it for us. Its a cycle that has held true throughout history.

I'll take a piece out of your blog as an example. You compare IP sharing to property sharing, saying that there are no laws against it. That is true, but remember that in IP infringement the content is NOT your property to share. It isn't apples to apples. Its not like sharing your baseball bat.

None of us want to see big brother step in. However, if we continue to attempt to justify things like IP infringment they have all the ammo they need to do just that. We need to say NO to ACTA, but we also need to say NO to piracy, and NO to hacktivism.

[TheDivine]

Doesnt suprise me. Obama has proven he doesnt care about the constitution or laws. This reminds me of obamacare. America came together and said as a majority that we dont want it and slow down. Congress voted it down only to see it pass in a backdoor loophole down the road. Obama has said he will get what he wants one way or another. We can either support him in what he wants or oppose him and see it pass anyways. Obama is a snake as is the government as a whole is corrupt and def not for the people. Everyone in power needs to go and the federal govt needs to be cut down to the basic functions leaving everything else to the states. The worst thing is the federal reserve. This is an abomination that a private corperation runs the most powerful nations currency. Abolish that sh** pronto and we might have a chance to salvage our nation.

[SilentNegotiator]

More than half of the states are involved in suit against Obamacare due to its conflicts with the constitution. And Federal judges have ruled it null and void. And states have voted it to be unconstitutional. Plus, it's as ridiculously bloated as it is unconstitutional.

"We have to pass the bill so you can find out what is in it"
-Nancy Pelosi, Former Speaker of the House, Current Psychopath, Before Obamacare became "law"

Governments are imposing illegal acts and laws right under our noses. I was proud when SOPA fell from its great support, but that was clearly only the beginning of humanity's struggle against the mobs, paper moon salesmen, and the guilt trumpeters of the earth.

Gaming is NOT above being affect by such people and acts. Pretty much every facet of life can and will have creeps preying on it.

[skyblue14213]

I heard about this a while ago. I see it this way:

Because of acta's transparancy and far reaching implications it is a very dangerous bill that can endow limitless dictatorial censorship of the internet and end the free internet as we know it.

For example: If the U.S. government gets heat & trouble from the public for censoring whatever it wants it will just get other countries to do the job for them, and due to the fact that other countries are not bound by the usa's rules, regulations, bill of rights, constitution etc... it leaves the opportunity for the free reign of absolute tyrannical tyranny of the free internet.

[joab777]

I agree. I had also read that they wanted to set up a global governing body. I do not like global governing bodies. I like sovereignty. Anytime I hear it, i get very nervous because we do not elect the leaders of that governing body and they do not represent our interests. There is an answer, but this isn't it. It seems that the government spends every day and night recently coming up with ideas on how to police us. I do not believe for a minute that millions would go to jail, but if u r a government that is 16 trillion in debt (over 60 trillion if u include unfunded liabilities), the idea of fining people might seem very right.

[jessupj]

Great blog. I agree entirely. I am purplexed that there isn't an enormous up roar all over the world!

It's great that there's been a few major protests in Poland and a few other countries. However it anger's me to my core that in Australia there has been no mention in the media about ACTA at all. I'm assuming this is the case in most countries, because otherwise, we would see a massive global protest.

You would think arguably the biggest story this decade (we're talking about the ending of the internet) would have enormous coverage from all well known media outlets, but this is not the case. Why is this? I just don't understand. The only explination I can come up with is that the powerful people behind this evil agreement have thier pockets in all the media outlets.

Because, as we see, when a country is informed about ACTA there are mass protests.

It's just like you said, the wool has been pulled over our eyes. I, myself, only heard about ACTA just last week. But it's not too late though. For the last week I have been broadcasting on facebook and telling all my friends and family and I emplore everyone to do the same.

These evil bastards knew the people would be against it and that's why they did it in secret. We need to get the word out so we can fight this.

[kaveti6616]

That's how they do it. They'll slip it through any which way possible. They know the public has short attention spans. They know that if we spend a few days or a few weeks actively protesting SOPA or PIPA, we'll have to take a break and get back to something other than politics. It's possible SOPA and PIPA were just a red herring that they purposely planted. Question is: who are they? What do they want? Aren't they wealthy enough as it is without bothering normal people? Why are they trying to pluck the feathers from the wings of liberty?

We look back on history and we think the French Revolutionaries and the Bolsheviks as being misguided, heinous, even barbarian because of how violently they behaved. But things are going to come to a head, and I believe it's going to happen again very soon.

[drosera1]

Living in a country like South Africa, which myself and my wife do, we have to deal with an utterly corrupt government that makes SOPA and ACTA seem trivial. But, we are immigrating to the UK soon (my wife is a UK citizen originally), so we'll at least get a chance to let our voice be heard on matters such as this.

[joab777]

I hope u like it in the UK. And while in perspective this may be trivial, it is a drop in the bucket of what appears to be and emerging pattern. It is other countries and regimes that allow us to realize what we have and how it can be lost if we are not vigilant. Our generation, myself included is the apex of years of making life better for the next. I fear we have become complacent and dumbed down; not less intelligent, but much more ignorant. Some of this is schooling and our fault but much is our governments. At some point, they lost sight of the original plan. Small government and lots of freedom. They use isolated incidents to paint pictures, scaring us into giving up a bit more of our constitution rights. Whether u beilive in God or not, there does exist inherent rights granted to human beings that are not given to us by other men. This assures us that they cannot be taken away by different men. Ben Franklin said, "he who gives up a little freedom for a little security deserves neither". I fear that we have become too comfortable willing to give up anything if there's a little something in it for us. I doubt our founders had 120 trillion in debt, huge government, a billion dollars spent to get elected, preeminent wars costing billions, and endless entitlements we cannot afford, in mind when they wrote our founding documents. They wanted a land in which we were free to make of our lives what we will. Politicians today (almost all of them) get into it to get rich (seriously, Google senators incoming wealth and outgoing or current wealth...it will sicken you) , protect their investments and get really elected. I am nor against getting rich. Honest success is a wonderful thing, but government is a service job paid for by us.

So, we have to start taking things like ACTA very seriously, or things like the NDAA get signed in the middle of the night behind closed doors also. And now, our bill of rights have been shredded. If ACTA becomes law here at home, nothing prevents this government or future ones from deciding which information is on the internet (picking winners and losers), who to fine and who to imprison. I can see a Democrat shutting down Republican sites, or a Republican sending a rich dem donor to jail. Or using the threat as leverage. Why is a billion needed to become president?

I hope u r afforded a nice life in the UK. One similar to the one i have taken for granted here in the US. Well, no longer. We gamers are smart ppl whole can get alot done in a short period of time. We can also be a huge voting block. There needs to be big change (actual real change, not cliches) in DC. I don't know how to do it but it must be done. And we must not be scared of rhetoric anymore.