New ACTA Leak - Get ready for global DMCA, warrantless searches, and Three Strikes

http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/4516/125/

Given that this has leaked already, we can safely assume that enforcement of such things would be the equivalent of a Three Stooges movie.

If the uber-secrets of this world can't even keep it under wraps, how the hell can *THEY* be expected to do anything without this being legally destroyed by lawyers, mocked by comedians, ridiculed by the now-aware public (as we are doing right now!), and, finally being ignored by the people this act is supposed to target?

Who are **THEY**?

TheeXile said:

Who are **THEY**?

I can only assume he means the governments of the countries that are negotiating this treaty. They're fully prepared to ratify and pass laws to enact this thing, and I can't see anything that can stop it at this point. It's completely outside the democratic process.

This is some evil shit. It completely does away with the fundamental "innocent until proven guilty" right that everyone should be entitled to. It will also do nothing to suppress piracy, just push it further underground so it's harder for everyone - participants and prosecutors alike.

Just another reason I hate the world.

This would get tried in the supreme court and be rejected in the USA

If history is any guide, there will always be ways around this crap and 99.9999% of violators will not be prosecuted so really, I have little ability to care any more.

Ralphis said:

This would get tried in the supreme court and be rejected in the USA

It might get rejected in civilized countries but it looks like even Obama is not able to bring the USA back into the fold...

This nonsense will fail anyway - like any similar attempt before. The only way to control the internet is to shut it down.

Damn, even the messiah could not save the USA...we're screwed...

goodbye internet

AndrewB said:

If history is any guide, there will always be ways around this crap and 99.9999% of violators will not be prosecuted so really, I have little ability to care any more.

Gonna have to side with you on this one.

AndrewB said:

If history is any guide, there will always be ways around this crap and 99.9999% of violators will not be prosecuted so really, I have little ability to care any more.

One of the few instances where history repeating itself is a good thing.

Graf Zahl said:

The only way to control the internet is to shut it down.

And the only way to do that without crashing the world is to create a new one and encourage all businessses to migrate (while letting the old one die).

How many likely contenders are there for an Internet replacement apart from Trusted Computing?

The site in the first post seems to not exist anymore. IT'S A CONSPIRACY!

I consider it a conspiracy against intellectual freedoom. And if the final note on that proposal is any indication, the FBI shut that site down.

The fact that they're trying to produce this sort of agreement away from public awareness is in itself abhorrent and just ratifies the kind of ideology it represents.

GreyGhost said:

How many likely contenders are there for an Internet replacement apart from Trusted Computing?

Cloud computing, or indeed any type of infrastructure where the end user rents everything (server space, OS, software etc.) and has no physical hardware except for a terminal to access their server space.

Danarchy said:

The site in the first post seems to not exist anymore. IT'S A CONSPIRACY!

Seems to be up for me.

It is, but earlier it was showing as a domain available to register or acquire. The registrar must have taken it down after some warning or threat. Perhaps the owner then took some legal action and it was reinstated.

AndrewB said:

If history is any guide, there will always be ways around this crap and 99.9999% of violators will not be prosecuted so really, I have little ability to care any more.

exactly what I was getting at.

God damn it, will big corporations ever stop pushing it to make more money?

Use this : http://phoenixlabs.org/pg2/

It blocks goverment IPs.

avery1555 said:

God damn it, will big corporations ever stop pushing it to make more money?

Use this : http://phoenixlabs.org/pg2/

It blocks goverment IPs.

A recently passed law promises harsh prison terms for anyone prosecuted in a cybercrime case who was found to be using "sophisticated means" for concealment or obfuscation of their internet activities, just so you know. That would include the use of anonymous relays, strong-encrypted connections, and automated government IP blacklists.

After ACTA drives even more people underground, I would expect to find another law being passed that makes it outright illegal to use any of those technologies. Governments around the world have been already been pushing to make personal use of cryptography either illegal or useless; all they need is a multi-billion-dollar excuse in the form of lobbying from the copyright cartel.

I don't believe that any form of freedom is safe from their reach. Too much money, too much power. They're determined to destroy our society to preserve their own riches.

Tor will never be made illegal.

Csonicgo said:

Tor will never be made illegal.

Tor is incredibly unsafe. All the government has to do is set up its own Tor node and watch the illegal traffic passing through it.

Also I'm surprised nobody has posted about how The Pirate Bay has shutdown its tracker in favor of DHT and Magnet Links.

Scet said:

Tor is incredibly unsafe. All the government has to do is set up its own Tor node and watch the illegal traffic passing through it.

No shit.

Scet said:

Tor is incredibly unsafe. All the government has to do is set up its own Tor node and watch the illegal traffic passing through it.

There is already a clause about this: All you have to do is say that you were running a TOR node.

Take action!

https://secure.eff.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=420

http://www.keionline.org/acta-petition

Quasar said:

They're determined to destroy our society to preserve their own riches.

It's all about control. Governments want to control what we do (so removing cryptography to allow full surveillance is essential for that), the copyright cartel want to control what we read, watch and listen to (so killing off the internet and other technologies used to spread media they can't control is essential for that). Lavish lifestyles are not the aim since they already have the money for that.

Not necessarily. It's evident the companies that want to impose these laws do it, as Quasar implies, to force a situation where they will profit, even when technology naturally gets in the way.

If it's a matter of control, its such a matter for anyone, as it's the public's prerogative to control things so that this does not happen or does not happen too much.

Governments are simply in the middle, filling the obvious hierarchical position of the arbiter, and always rather willing to listen to whatever interests seem solid enough to persuade them.

Thinking its all only the governments trying to "gain control" just leads to the typical conspiracy theory, and, if you take it far enough, to "oh hey, it's the Jews!"

If what Benjamin Franklin notes, that nothing is certain but death and taxes, says anything, it's that government is more or less inevitable. Seeing it only as an evil force impacts on the way we can deal with this inevitability. We then see it mainly in a negative way or by rejection. It's a way of denial that primarily helps people with interests opposed to ours to get a hold of government while we stay far from it, treating it as something alien. If we're all so sure the government "doesn't care," why should it?

The Ultimate DooMer said:

Cloud computing, or indeed any type of infrastructure where the end user rents everything (server space, OS, software etc.) and has no physical hardware except for a terminal to access their server space.

I had a dream last night about online applications, which mostly involved being whacked about the head with the Terms of Service whenever I asked why this, that, or the other didn't work or couldn't be done.