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Software patents are one small but important piece of the IP Empire which demands universally oppressive laws.

• Silencing protest before it happens and then pushing protesters aside where they are not heard and can be abused, arrested and tortured. Need work? Apply here!
• Subordination of local law to US corporate interests.
• Globally depressed wages
• Dangerous genetic modifications and ecological ruin.
• And now, all your Email are belong to US. Why not? we treat everyone like criminals here.
• We should not forget free flow of slave labor for US agriculture. It might be claimed that no US Citizen would take the kind of work mega farms import Mexican citizens to do, but why not pay those people US wages and treat them as immigrants rather than keep them locked up?

The list goes on and on but it has one common theme, your rights mean nothing, shut up and get back to work for the man.

There is an excellent video of exactly what happened on the day. Both his initial warning and his response, which have been featured on youtube before, and also the police catching up with him in an underpass after they'd consulted the CPS and obtained a summons, which is new footage.

The video is currently available on http://www.schnews.org.uk/schmovies/index.html#cf

look for 'Cult Friction' and the 'click here to download link' (70mb mpeg)

That's a political position, and one so noisily promoted in the US (by the Heiritage Foundation and its friends) that it's become mainstream. But it's not fundamental to society.

In Europe, property rights are not generally considered to be more important than other rights. Europe, unlike the US, had a feudal era. Until about 200 years ago, most real estate was owned by a few powerful barons, who leased it out. It took some bloody revolutions to end that.

That history matters, and is reflected in the legal system. Trespass and squatting are minor offenses, and in many circumstances legal, in England, for example.

And copyright is not unquestionably "property". Legally, it's a statutory monopoly. As a US judge said in the MGM vs. Grokster case:

• Let me say what I think your problem is. You can use these harsh terms, but you are dealing with something new, and the question is, does the statutory monopoly that Congress has given you reach out to that something new. And that's a very debatable question. You don't solve it by calling it 'theft.' You have to show why this court should extend a statutory monopoly to cover the new thing. That's your problem. Address that if you would. And curtail the use of abusive language.

One fundamental concern was that the SS might accidentally(ish) shoot a protester. They wanted immunity from prosecution for any little accidents (like causing a bloodbath on the scale of the Peterloo Massacre), and the Metropolitan Police quite rightly pointed out that they are capable of a massive overreaction themselves without any help from a bunch of upstart colonials ;-)

I sure hope so too. Here's a quick interim briefing on the notable achievements of this process to date.

Ungoed-Thomas has been trying out his nefarious tricks elsewhere:

(extracted from Schnews - Brit eco-activist newsletter)


If you receive any unsolicited emails from wide-eyed activist females, don't count yourself so popular; it could be our mates at the Sunday Times with another lesson in the value of media liaison. While journalist Mark Macaskill came across reasonably enough, emailing activists with an approach to interview them, his colleague took a different tack.

So, it must now be our turn to take the piss out of super-sleuth journo John Ungoed-Thomas, who sent out a few emails under false names, in the hope of getting back some juicy info for an article.

'Jo' is just one 'committed environmental and anti-corporation activist' apparently now flocking to the ranks of our burgeoning movement, if an email recently received by Friends of the Earth is anything to go by. She wants to know how to get more involved indirect action, having ' really enjoyed' June 18 [anti- capitalist riots in London earlier this year]. Likewise, 'Laura' who eco-columnist George Monbiot of the Guardian was privileged to hear from, describes herself as a 'committed anti-corporationist' and is eagerto help in any way she can. Any ideas? Perhaps Laura and Jo might benefit from a few words of advice from someone more canny in covering their tracks, for both sent emails from addresses leading back to Clouseau-esque Ungoed-Thomas, the master of disguise himself. Hardly for us to take the piss now; he's practically giving it away.