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Australian Govt Holding Secretive Anti-Piracy Talks
daria42 writes "Looks like Australia's Government prefers to keep its ongoing anti-piracy discussions behind closed doors. It held an initial meeting in September last year to try to get the content and ISP industries to thrash out an agreement on how to handle Internet piracy. Consumer representative groups were explicitly blocked from attending the meeting, and attendees are not allowed to reveal what was discussed behind closed doors. Now a second meeting has been held, and again, no information has been revealed about what's being discussed. Quelle conspiracy?"
the excuse was child pornography. Now it's piracy. The effect is to gain control over speech.
Science is all about firing a drunk pig out of a cannon just to see what happens.
They never have and never will care about the Consumer til the day they are looking at bankruptcy.
I used to want to travel to Australia.
Now I don't, because of all the nanny state / police state crap I read
about in Australia, ranging from the stuff discussed in this artificle to
speed cameras everywhere, etc.
Every Aussie I've met has been a very cool person. My question to all
of you Aussies out there is : why do you allow your government to
do the shit it does ? Why don't you just shoot the sons of bitches like
you would a wild dog ?
Until content producers provide a quick, easy and legal means to download content as soon as soon as it becomes available consumers will keep getting their media from "alternative" sources.
It's inevitable that the media giants are going to get their way, or most of it, eventually. The reason is simple: They have the will and resources to keep flinging bills at the figurative wall until one sticks - and it only takes once - whereas the public has to continually be on their guard trying to stop these things. It's like being followed by a hyena... No matter how long you keep your guard up or how many opportunities the hyena misses, you're going to lose eventually.
the excuse was child pornography. Now it's piracy. The effect is to gain control over speech.
I would argue that gaining control over speech is actually the very goal of all these secret talks, not just some ancillary effect.
The powers that be are justifiably scared by all these plebes being able to say whatever they want, and becoming more aware of just how short their end of the stick actually is. The Arab Spring, Occupy, Anonymous... these are but the tip of the potential iceberg, and the rich and powerful are putting some serious effort into chilling these movements right back into frozen immobility.
Knowledge is power, cliche though it may be. And the ability to control what knowledge people have access to, that's power yet again. And that's what makes the internet quite so disruptive.
"What in the name of Fats Waller is that?"
"A four-foot prune."
It's not a threat of terrorism if you threaten to kill a bad ideal is it?
In place of leaders, we have the children that are more interested in calling each other names than actually sitting down and working through issues. As both sides just stand there screaming about how the other is going to ruin the economy, any discussion on "minor" issues such as civil liberties gets drowned out. (By minor, I mean that the vast majority of Australians seem to follow whatever Parliament is screaming about, be it gambling reforms, the carbon tax, etc and remains ignorant/indifferent towards everything else). Unfortunately, the laid-back attitude that typifies our culture also extends to our view on politics... Many Australians at the last election chose to donkey vote rather than choose between either of the major parties, instead of looking at the variety of independents that were on offer and picking one of them.
Our culture doesn't get smarter, it just finds new ways of being retarded.
By donkey vote, I actually mean just leaving the ballot slips blank, not ordering in preference. I can't find a citation saying the numbers rose, but I remember it being discussed in the news on account of this twit
Our culture doesn't get smarter, it just finds new ways of being retarded.
Those people can GET FUCKED.
They don't represent me. They represent Hollywood, a part of America, which despite appearances is not Australia just yet.
The talks do nothing to further my interests (I don't give a shit about piracy, in fact it helps me a lot), and in fact are actively working against me.
Check out my sci-fi book "Lacuna" at http://goo.gl/MVxX8
... until they get what they want.
Just like the EU referendum in Ireland. The government made it clear that they would keep holding referenda until they got the "correct" result. Spending taxpayers' money to fight the will of the people, that's the way governments work. Was it different in the past?
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
The current (minority) Australian government is ruled by the Labour Party, which is left-wing. As a rule, right-wing parties are more favourable to participatory democracy, while our left wing parties prefer a "nanny" state, controlled by an oligarchy. Their secrecy is a natural outcome of this, as they believe they know what is good for us.
Has there been any government been able to produce a proper and believable reason why these talks should be held in secrecy? Obviously isn't not about national security.
Central to the Democratic process is that Government should be the least interventionist it can be, with all its activities open to public scrutiny - it keeps them from misbehaving, keeps them from behaviour not conducive to the PUBLIC INTEREST. When they hold meetings behind closed doors, you BET YOUR ARSE THEY'RE CONSPIRING TO BREAK THE LAW!
Operation Guillotine is in effect.
Just relax, Its not specific to piracy, it's just whatever the current government says is shit and dribble, which makes them look bad in the press. They solved that problem by having ALL discussions behind closed doors; they still talk dribble, but no one can see - problem solved.
Infact, (the soon to be exiled leader, Julia) has told the party they're no longer to talk to the press without prior consent - seriously
Where they (temporarely, one hopes) have succeeded in actually filtering the Internet by commercial interest groep Brein, with effect of thepiratebay.org being unreachable for many users, the Piratenpartij of the Netherlands have mirrored the seach engine as part of there political partys website. tbp.piratenpartij.nl
Yeah... I like to see them try block a political party...
Yarr, I know how you should vote matey!
I feel no obligation to obey laws that were written behind closed doors.
Why should i?
Seeing as the One True and Only Network in Australia is set to become the NBN owned by the government they are of course going to crack down on all things deemed unsavoury, illegal and probably anti-government. The NBN will be a terrific bitorrent network and the government wants to be seen being proactive about making sure as little copyright infringement as possible occurs on it. For any non-Australians, the NBN is a fibre to the home/premises network owned by the government set to replace every single copper line in the country upon which access is sold at wholesale rates to actual service providers. It's wonderful we're set to get a high speed and low latency network, but the baggage that comes along with it is getting pretty ugly.
The current government is suffering from deep popularity problems and will be very nervous about further antagonising an already angry and disillusioned public. They will be aware of what happened with SOPA and what is happening with ACTA right now in Europe.
So make some noise, damn you. Stop telling us these people don't represent you, and start telling your government.
Write letters, emails, tweets, Facebook updates:
- tell everyone you know about this - if they are even slightly interested (or skeptical of your claims) be prepared to explain the situation and issues to them politely and without frothing at the mouth
- write to newspapers, comments on on-line news articles, generally increase the amount of negative feedback in places where strangers will see this
- for god's sake, write to your local MP and state senators. You may think it doesn't change anything, but if they get enough letters they get nervous, and when they get nervous they apply pressure on those in control of their party's agenda. I suggest telling them: that you voted for them last time and might vote for them but won't if they keep this up; that you are prepared to protest about this and will do everything you can to spread the word about it; that you will be agitating for a change of policy in every forum you can think of.
- write/email/tweet to the Liberal Party telling them this issue is important and you feel betrayed by the Labor government, and ask them what their policy is and what they are going to do about this
- write to the minor parties and tell them you are concerned and want them to raise this issue in parliament
- see if there is an organised campaign via GetUp, EFA etc and get involved - give them money, at minimum, actively help if you can in other ways
Our system isn't properly representative, but our politicians are driven by self-interest. You will notice that the net filter went on the back burner and never came back - the same can be achieved with this issue.
What doesn't achieve anything is complaining about it to a bunch of people who agree with you!
Read Pynchon.
Currently for all practical purposes the one and only true network in Australia is owned by Telstra - a bastard child of some of the worst aspects of government and private enterprise which is still recovering by being run into the ground by a Mexican bandit and a nuclear scientist out of his depth who tried hard to prove that Carter was a genius by comparison.
The copper is corroding in the ground so is expensive to maintain, and it's not all copper in some districts that were wired early. It's lead with paper insulation where I live and every time it rains the signal drops off significantly. At work it's good but 6M/6M comes at a price of around $1000 per month, which is just insane for somewhere 15km from the centre of a city of a couple of million in a developed nation. Something had to be done and the government is the only thing big enough to challenge Telstra.
It took them years to even acknowledge the existence of the rest of the world let alone cater for non-credit card users and when they finally did, they used one of the most maligned payment providers in existence.
Also, a dollar per song, how does that translate to a euro per song? Where are all the cost savings going? And am I buying a license (argued by the content industry so I can't sell the tracks 2nd hand) or a copy (argued by the content industry since this means they have to pay artists less? And what about breakage fees? Why are artists selling through iTunes still charged breakage fees (not brokage fees, breakage as in broken LP/CD's).
If you think iTunes is a good reasonable offering, you have been taken it up the ass as a good little consumer a bit to long. Give your sphincter a rest and grow a backbone.
iTunes is a ripoff, it is basically saying, we pass the gigantic cost savings on to the credit card companies, the content industry and Apple and the customer and the artist can go screw themselves, after all, they are used to getting screwed.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
In Holland we had the referendum, the voters (across all parties) rejected it and it got passed regardless. The D66 which claims to want more referundum couldn't ditch the results of the first referendum ever in Hollland fast enough. Democracy sucks for politicians because those silly voters just don't know how to vote correctly.
It must be a highly annoying job. You as a politician clearly know what is right but can the plebs see it? No!
It isn't just copyright, see the whole EU debate, the Greek debt crisis, immigration. Democracy by a lot of politicians is seen as some holy grail that will make everything alright. Pity it allows grubby mean spirited selfish people to vote who are tired of paying through the nose for content, tired of constantly paying for more EU nations who are corrupt as hell and whose only contribution is a new load of ciminals, tired of paying for Greece a country that hasn't contributed a single penny to the EU in its entire history, tired of boat loads of immigrants who don't want to live among their own culture anymore for whatever reason and then try to establish the same culture in their new country.
Not nice? Not PC? Well, that is how the common voter thinks, don't like any of those things? Then you don't like democracy. Democracy ain't good, democracy is the dictatorship of the common man and the common man ain't all that nice.
Either you have full democractic rule and risk the majority voting to re-open the gas chambers OR you have ACTA and the EU constitution. Choose wisely... oops there is that democracy thing again, better hope everyone chooses wisely, or at least a majority. And sucks to be you if the majority thinks different.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Oh no not another secretive meeting where everyone can not comment on every word said by every participant; It must be a conspiracy!!! Get out you pitchforks and storm the castle!!!
Get real. Maybe the industry wants to talk about things without airing their dirty laundry. Maybe they want to convince the nutbars in their group not to go too far. Maybe they want to iron out wording so It is not too far reaching. They may come out with something like SOPA but until then you have no right to listen to the conversation. At that point start the protest; before that wait.
Bread-n-butter tactics of totalitarian police-state governments like Aussie.
Expect same from USA (USASSR).
And then they're surprised that we distrust them. Seriously?
The common theme I see behind all the recent political issues is transparency - and not of the "we need more surveilance" kind, but of the "you are supposed to be our representatives, not our masters, so start treating us as the real boss" kind.
I personally think that we need something like an amendment to the western constitutions that makes it clear that the phrase "we, the people" or "the people are the souvereign", etc. that appear in one form or another in all of them includes the fact that the souvereign has the right to know what his representatives are up to at any time.
As with all things, exceptions are invitations for abuse. There are a few cases (immediate danger) where a delay seems useful. Terorrist attack? Well, think again. If it were all over the evening news that terrorists plan to hijack four airplanes tomorrow and fly them into buildings - what do you think their chances of success have just become?
There are very few cases where secrecy is actually warranted in politics, and we need a strict full-disclosure afterwards policy for those. And by "afterwards", I don't mean 20 years, I mean "before the next election".
It's time these jokers are told again that they govern us, not rule us. Because in a democracy (or republic, for the nitpickers), the people rule.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
http://tpb.piratenpartij.nl/
Just another protectionist move by the government. It's not a conspiracy, just normal procedure nowadays as the citizens of that fine country have little say and are sheep that have no idea that they have already lost their freedom.
Don't be apathetic. Procrastinate!
Comics are a great educator. For instance SMBC encapsulates just how desperate are the efforts to stop piracy, see http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=2508#comic
Or consider how corporations control government regulatory processes, http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=2497#comic (btw I had to look up "regulatory Capture" to fully appreciate the science behind that strip.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Vvzrq7AA3E&feature=player_embedded#!
More secret meetings please!
It worked so good for ACTA...
It's kind of like saying that there *could* be a pie out there to be split with the artist and draconian laws are needed to protect that, while the entire time *actual* pies exist that are not being split with the artists anyways. Which is worse?
"Mmmm, floor pie." - Homer Simpson
to the jukebox model of pay per use plan.
And vote the bums out.
Clearly big media companies are bribing politicians. This is criminal behaviour in most civilised countries. There is certainly no demand for new pro fascist-business laws in any democracy that I know of. We need new laws on bribery, corruption, and lobbying to prevent these criminals from hijacking our democracy, and turning our countries into corporate totalitarian states (unless you live in America, where this has clearly already happened, and you are already screwed)
If this is meant to protect society, people's rights, etc, it would never have been secret or behind closed doors. In Australia, or anywhere.
Of course, we all know the intention of these talks is not in society's best interests.
Already here.
A couple stories over Rick Santorum is upset at Google and the site that dissents with his views. (Grammar is a little shaky, I know.)
A few stories below that is the journalist who found Death in 140 Characters.
The news is rapidly overtaking the Tinfoil Hat crowd's theories.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
that the impetus for these talks came the the United States film industries and affiliated government bodies and their actions. they're likely being held in secret b/c the US doesn't want it to be clear how much they're involved in the affairs of another nation.
It is in your best interest so we are going to hold secret meetings and tell you the results when it goes into law!?!
The news is rapidly overtaking the Tinfoil Hat crowd's theories.
Nobody seems to notice, nobody seems to care. — G. Carlin
Upward mobility is a slippery slope - the higher you climb the more you show your ass.
It hasn't been a functioning democracy for years. For Social issues, let them eat cake but for anything economic the system has been hijacked.
No matter the system you devise the problem is that of concentration of power; government systems try to divide and limit powers to avoid too much concentration of power which undermines equality and democracy. Today's problem is the same as it always has been, too much power given to a minority but this time it is large external powers who can subvert governments worldwide. Government does not have the level of "soft" power or the defenses to match the multinationals. Yes, obviously, I'm advocating an extension of the same separation of powers to that of the private world for the exact same reasons. The power crazed control freaks go for government but the wiser ones realize they have far less restraint on the outside, that is, when your weapon of choice is "soft" power.
Our public servants are simply serving their masters, which are NOT us. It just has gone far enough that it is more apparent to more of the public but not enough for anything to change. It'll have to get worse; more likely, something that can get the masses active enough to do something besides watch TV.
Democracy Now! - uncensored, anti-establishment news
The Arab Spring, Occupy, Anonymous... these are but the tip of the potential iceberg, and the rich and powerful are putting some serious effort into chilling these movements right back into frozen immobility.
Their efforts are in vain
The Arab Spring, Occupy, Anonymous... these are but the tip of the potential iceberg, and the rich and powerful are putting some serious effort into chilling these movements right back into frozen immobility.
Their efforts are in vain
That's certainly my hope (that the fat cats are pissing into the wind), but I'm cynical enough that I won't get too happy about things until some real substantive changes come to pass. The Arab Spring has certainly changed some of the major players in that part of the world, but the worry now is how much backroom dealing is going on to ensure that whoever comes to power next in Libya, Egypt, Tunisia, etc. plays by the same kowtow-to-the-corporations rules as the fellows who got kicked out. And I'm not sure if you could claim that either Occupy or Anonymous has done more yet than just putting flies in the ointment.
I'm hopeful, but cautiously so.
"What in the name of Fats Waller is that?"
"A four-foot prune."
Political Management in Oz doesn't like doing things in plain sight. The predilection of management for obscuring their machinations from the plebs goes way back to the first days of white settlement, and the purpose for which the Colony was originally set up, as a prison for England's excess of petty crims. To run a prison you need two classes of participant; Crims as a client-base, and Screws, who take on the role of management - you can imagine the fun they got up to back in 1788 ... "Floggings will intensify until morale improves!" This was the first, formative model for the society and it's infected us ever since. It shows itself particularly in this cold and secretive authoritarianism that these days we do so well. The current issue really throws this aspect of national character into relief, in that it's really a topic about how much the plebs should be allowed to know and how much control the plebs should have over the means of investigation. They are terrified of this and they're fighting it on all fronts. It was most enlightening, when WikiLeaks blew up, to see how quickly the Prime Minister (wrongly and illegally) declared Julian Assange to be acting criminally - a couple of minutes was all it took her.