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MPAA Asks If ACTA Can Be Used To Block Wikileaks
An anonymous reader writes "With the entertainment industry already getting laws to block certain sites, it appears they're interested in expanding that even further. The latest is that at a meeting with ACTA negotiators in Mexico, an MPAA representative apparently asked if ACTA rules could be used to force ISPs to block 'dangerous sites' like Wikileaks. It makes you wonder why the MPAA wants to censor Wikileaks (and why it wants to use ACTA to do so). But, the guess is that if it can use Wikileaks as a proxy for including rules to block websites, how long will it be until other 'dangerous' sites, such as Torrent search engines, are included." Note: TechDirt typically has insightful commentary, but make of the original (Spanish) twiiter message what you will.
This isn't so much a move against Wikileaks as a sharing site like TPB, but instead a move against anyone who might expose the collusion between **AA and their government lackeys.
That Wikileaks might reveal things like ACTA ahead of time, allowing users to mobilize support against them, makes Wikileaks very "dangerous" to the **AA's goal of complete control.
The thing that irks me the most, isn't the fact that the government wants a more powerful trade agreement. It isn't the fact that this trade agreement would be adopted by most every other first world country. It also isn't the fact that the U.S. government wants to keep it classified due to "national security" reasons. No, it's because our government keeps it classified from its citizens _and_ invites the MPAA in on the deal, or did the MPAA invite them? I don't even know anymore.
How about just requiring that any ISP that takes public funds or uses public land must not engage in any sort of filtering or traffic redirection?
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
I have always had this idea as a car mechanic to create how to videos for popular model vehicles, instead of just vague books, with high-def video cameras and step by step instructions for each task... such as changing out an A/C Compressor, Replacing a bad power steering pump, fixing broken this that and the other thing.... and selling them for a REASONABLE price all across the nation. This would require a decent amount time and money in equipment, time to film, edit produce etc...
Then I realized that some dickhead would probably just take the videos, put them up on Piratebay and I would be left poor and broke after spending a crapload of time and money on this project so I said fuck it.
Hollywood might overcharge and not provide a distribution model that the people agree with, but there are a lot of other legit businesses with honest hard working people that are not getting their honest pay for the work they did. The spread of "information" could be something YOU spent years working on, then you'd be pretty bitter too.
Or, maybe they're thinking ahead to the day when an insider leaks some "creative accounting" ledgers. :)
Call me a foil hat wearing lunatic but I say at this point we've seen more than enough evidence of close cooperation between the American government and America's large industries to call it a budding facism.
Consider: Pluralism has been steadily weakening as congress and the presidents sign law after law giving and allowing the president to take unprecedented power. The courts already lack any real ability to stop this trend.
New laws have made everyone a criminal. Those against whom the government chooses to enforce these laws are being imprisoned and harassed. It's no longer possible to be a law abiding citizen in America -- only on the ruling powers' good side or not. Police all over the US have an "us against them" mindset that has led to countless abuses to the extent that a police uniform is no longer a comforting site even for those who obey the law. It's now illegal in several states to even record these abuses and Americans everywhere are shutting up and keeping their heads down.
If these dangerous trends are not stopped the US will be a fascist police state very soon.
If video games influenced behavior the Pac Man generation would be eating pills and running away from their problems.
Libertarians believe that by completely dismantling government we will live in this wonderful utopia without regulation and we can all be happy capitalists and thrive in harmony, and be free to shoot anyone who threatened that harmony.
While I agree that government needs to be reigned in, I don't see removing a lot of the good things that governments accomplish as the right thing.
Weakening the 1st Amendment, and strengthening the ability of government (and corporations) to censor does move us towards tyranny, that much is true. I definitely agree with you. However, I disagree that:
Yes, government does abuse their power, but saying we should stop trying to accomplish the goals of education and an overall. "Libertarians" would dismantle a lot of these things on the basis that it's onerous to individual freedoms and that they should be able to opt out of helping to pay for society. Boo hoo. Without these things, we'd all be friggin' eating one another in 6 months.
What needs to happen is stronger controls on how government does its job -- and I sure as hell don't claim to have an answer to this. However, human nature and history has shown time and time again that people try to consolidate power, and aren't above retroactively deciding they want to change how things work and want to undo change. Heck, that's exactly what the Taliban did.
Libertarianism has some interesting ideas, but it wouldn't solve any of these problems any better than modern economics does at really understanding how the economy works -- it's based on perfect models in ideal circumstances, and assumes that everyone else will all magically play by the same rules. It's grossly incomplete, and assumes way too much; and neither wrap things up quite so neatly as people believe.
And, in closing ... we're all screwed, now get off my damned lawn. *grumble* *grumble* Damned kids. :-P
--END RANT
Lost at C:>. Found at C.