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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."
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.
Whew, thank goodness I live in America, LAND OF THE FREE, where our mighty Constitution and Bill of Rights protects us from this kind of unchecked government abuse and corporate favoritism! Silly Europeans!
(No seriously, we did have a constitution, I saw it once.)
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.
When I saw in Lessig's blog what presidential candidate Mr Kerry has to say about enforcing IP rights I really shuddered.
Look at: Lessig blog entry and Kerry about technology
You can defy gravity... for a short time
The EU is even more extreme in its introduced laws then the US because of the far greater number of political parties. Fortunally we also got far more parties that will therefore be opposed to the more extreme proposals. Not like the US were at times one or the other party is supposed to be in control.
So yes we should be worried about this proposal but if democracy still works then it will fail as with similar proposals before. Europe may not get much done but they have succeeded so far in getting a lot of things not done. Including people not getting sentenced because the european of human rights overturns national laws that slipped through. And given its track record so far that court would never hold up a case based on this. Long live the lawyers eh.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
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 ;-)
Even if it was a real war on terror, it still be as doomed as the war on drugs.
Nothing can be that doomed...:-)
Terrorism isn't really something both parties willingly recieve or want; where as in most cases drugs are.
It's kinda like trying to cure the syndromes, and not going for the underlying decease.
Or in the case of drugs, going after something that is not in some cases a desease. Marajana has been proven to have viable and in some cases superior medicinal value then some pharma drugs. The real war on drugs is all about pharma companies making sure their profit margins aren't affected at the cost of sick people. Also its pretty sickening that in the US, more then 50% of imates in our prisons are there on drug convictions, most for mere possesion.
Shameless self promotion : The Misadvetures of the in
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