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EU Poised to Attack P2P File-Sharers
Robin Gross of IP Justice writes "The EU is about to vote on a controversial piece of legislation that targets P2P file-sharing and other non-commercial infringements.
The EU Intellectual Property Rights Directive creates a 'nuclear weapons' of
law enforcement tools for intellectual property holders. It
combines the most extreme enforcement provisions
found throughout Europe and imposes them collectively onto all of
Europe, for example England's Anton
Pillar orders that permit recording industry executives to
raid and ransack the homes of alleged users of file-sharing software or
it's Mareva injunctions that
freeze a defendant's bank accounts without a
hearing. The vote in the EU plenary will likely be March 11, 2004
- watch the CODE site for
developments."
Check my posting history to see how ANTI-piracy I am but...
Innocent until proven guilty is a fundamental requirement of justice.
Any law that assumes guilt can play no part in the provision of justice to all. Justice is not solely about punishing the guilty, it is as much about NOT punishing the innocent.
Fsck your holy constitution, we used to have freedom in Europa.
Hmmm odd. That was what the comment was refering to...At a point in the not to distant past our "holy constitution" was the stick that was used to maintain some level of freedom, here in the states.
Strange thing... No really! "Suffering" artists forced to live lifes of "only semi-luxery" *pun intended* seem to take away more freedom and legal protection from people worldwide these days, than anything else. "War on terror" included.
I am no fan of any of the RIAA(subsitute local version). My personal take is the if they cannot adapt to the changing world, let them die. The fact that this type of legislation goes well and above what we in the states currently are dealing with, I feel for you. If you are really opposed, put your money were your text is...Contribute to action groups in your locality that are opposed to such power grabs. I can say my self here, I contribute to the ACLU, EFF, along with various other defence funds as they pop up.
I am completely dismayed at our current presidential canidates, on one hand we have the menace to the free world, Bush, and the human weather vane, Kerry. Its obvious that Bush is a criminal and most of his administration should be thrown in jail. Kerry on the other hand has taken more special interest money then any senator in congress...Gee what a great selection. I have no doubt in the next four years things are not going to get better unless the little folks become a power block.
"War on terror" included.
The "War on terror" is nothing more then a political football, used to keep people afraid and in line. Its currently being used as a smoke screen for the internationally illegal action in the middle east. The fact that Bush and his cronies have held the folks in Guentanemo for nearly two years with zero due process is sickening...You are correct, the "War on Terror" is nothing but a war on feedom...
I'm afraid of a corporative appocalyptic future these days...............
Afraid of corperations!?! They have nothing on governments.
Shameless self promotion : The Misadvetures of the in
This is bound to become much, much worse in the coming years. There may be weird parties in the EP (European Parliament) already, but with middle and north-eastern europe getting into the EU soon, it is very likely that extremely conservative, extremely royalist and stalinist parties will join the European Parliament. I can already see an extremely-communist party from Poland or similar wanting to ban Microsoft from Europe altogether (which would not be such a bad idea after all ;-)
"Fsck your holy constitution, we used to have freedom in Europa."
How many American soldiers lost their lives in WW 1 and WW2 to protect/return that freedom you speak of?
I think that had more to do with the attack on pearl harbour than the europeans.
Actually Roosevelt was secretly aiding Britain prior to Pearl Harbor.
And how many Japanese had to die for you to try out your new toy?
Its a tough one, but you could make a strong argument that more lives were saved by dropping said toy twice, then would have come about by a full scale land assault on main land Japan. Even after the first bomb was dropped the Japanese Govt. was not convinced that the US had the capability to produce more.
Shameless self promotion : The Misadvetures of the in
In my fsck-that statement, I was reffering to that printed words mean nothing. It's the actual freedom that counts.
How so? There are countries where you would not be allowed to write the above statement. Is that freedom? Are you truely free if you are not allowed to print your thoughts? In some countries censorship extends to the level that you would not even be allowed to write the sentence you just wrote. Living on such a country might change your view on whether or not freedom of speech is a part of freedom.
Ok, the constitution was a great idea once. It didn't entirely work though. Slavery was legal under it. We had to add stuff in to make that illegal. It was a great idea, and a framework, but I don't think it was quite detailed enough. I think it was more of a great and grand idea thought up by our fore-fathers, and we were supposed to uphold the ideal of the constitution, not "interpret the wording" and all of that fun stuff. It's an idea, and it's an idea that's been perverted for the past 200 years or so.
For Polish government, communism is the root of all evil. I didn't heard of any Polish communist party, so "an extremely-communist party from Poland" surely will not join the Europarl. The idea of "banning Microsoft" also will not come from Poland - our government is a bunch of stupid Microsoft-lovers, that don't see (or don't know of?) any alternative and wastes A LOT of public money for Microsoft products (and Poland isn't a rich country).
Anyway, Polish politicians surely ARE bunch of assholes, that care more for their own wallets, than for their country. EU, beware!
You know, that's exactly what people told me when I was campaigning against GATT and the formation of the WTO.
It's also exactly what people said when the even-more-extreme EU version of the DMCA was passed.
Guess what? Both pieces of legislation were adopted wholesale by the UK government; one by a Conservative government, the other by the "opposing" Labour government.
There are always plenty of complacent fools who sit around and say "Oh, it's just some EU law, it'll never actually happen." They were wrong then, they're wrong now.
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
The EU Intellectual Property Rights Directive creates a 'nuclear weapons' of law enforcement tools for intellectual property holders. It combines the most extreme enforcement provisions found throughout Europe and imposes them collectively onto all of Europe
Or maybe it just applies them to the EU?
While I do agree with most of what you wrote, there is one place where I deviate.
judicial fiat, which is probably the biggest threat our constitution has.
If you look at our past, rarely has the legislature, lead strongly on the case of civil rights for all. Judicial fiat, gained us many things that our mostly self serving representives were too afaid to stand up for. The addoption of the idea of "Separation of church and state", while originally put forth by Thomas Jefferson, was addopted early on. During the 60's "separate but not equal" doctrine was adopted through judial fiat. More currently, the outlawing of Texas's anti-sodomy laws was done by judial fiat.
IMHO as long as our legislature is beholden to fear of reprisal, real positive change on behalf of minority groups will just not happen if it were not for the judial branch.
Shameless self promotion : The Misadvetures of the in