Slashdot Mirror
EU About To Consider Stringent Anti-Sharing Law
chrestomanci writes " The Register have just posted a news item about the EU IP Rights Enforcement Bill. Theres is an editorial about the issue in PC Magazine. The bill if passed would give intellectual property holders draconian powers to enforce their IP against infringers. The powers available include sending rent-a-cops to private homes, seizing assets, freezing bank accounts, and confiscating and ISP's equipment on suspicion.
Any of these powers could be used against a 12-year-old file sharer, as easily as against a large scale commercial piracy operation
The bill has been proposed by the French MEP Janelly Fourtou, whose husband is the the head of Vivendi Universal. She has placed the bill on a 'First Reading' track that does not allow debate, and is normally reserved for bills with near unanimous support. The deadline for amendments is today.
If you are a European citizen it is time to write to your Member of the European Parliament. The final vote will be between the 8th and 11th March." (We mentioned this a few weeks ago, too.)
...please empty your rights and privileges into the trash bin to your left, and step through the metal detector for further processing. Have a nice day!
The Eurpoean Union was a good idea when it was an economic union. Increasingly, however, European countries seem to be giving up thier individual sovereignty, and the result is legislation like this. Instead of removing economic restrictions to promote free trade, the EU is now creating new political and social restrictions. Correct me if I'm wrong, but this was never it's original intent, right?
The police aren't the law... WE are the law. We set this government up, and WE have the right to override/revise/replace it.
--Mike--
We've got an educational system that pumps out standard model consumer units, instead of concerned Citizens. Only a few of us were fortunate enough to have a nasty childhood which had the benefit of distracting us from the brainwashing.
We unhappy few are pissed that we've got a system where the majority has been assimilated, and are willing to be sheep. We need to wake them up, or get them the hell out of the way, before this whole system implodes under its own weight... or as a last resort, figure out how to hunker down and ride out a rerun of Nazi Germany.
--Mike--
Actually it wasn't true 50 years ago. It hasn't been true since the industrial revolution (which started in England and spread through Europe).
If anything, America was most recently a cultural backwater (during the late 1800's) and has only relatively recently become 'civilised'.