Slashdot Mirror
"Irish SOPA" Signed Into Law Despite Resistance
First time accepted submitter cupantae writes "Despite the protests of over 80,000 Irish people, Junior Minister Seán Sherlock has confirmed that the controversial statutory instrument that reinforces online copyright laws in Ireland has been signed into law. The statutory instrument will make it possible for copyright holders to seek court injunctions against companies such as internet service providers or social networks whose systems are hosting copyright-infringing material. This comes in the wake of the music industry bullying the Irish government."
Time to see a rehash of the London riot, Irish style?
They must have taken that decision after a few pints of Guinness...
In a world without fences and walls, who needs gates and windows?
The source, of course. In assembler. That's how the first compilers were made, and later rewritten once they were able to compile themselves.
Just what they didn't need. "No Shit, Sherlock"...
-- You are in a maze of little, twisty passages, all different... --
Now check his bank account for a mahusive cash deposit.....
Lads there will be a referendum coming in May or June where we'll have to decide if we take a bailout from the Rothschil- sorry, the IMF - and sign over our independence to the cabals that have already destroyed the US. Keep an eye on this one.
for the new Internet-savvy IRA?
What a shame it is that 90% of the public are so complacent and unwilling to take action to protect their rights from the goose-stepping content cartels.
Imagine if, even if just for a month, *nobody* bought any music from members of the RIAA, nobody went to any theatres to watch movies from the MPAA, or bought their DVDs or even hired their DVDs.
Can you just see the look of absolute fear that would envelope them?
Even if we could find enough people to reduce their sales and rentals by 50%, that would send a very strong message that perhaps, when it comes to copyright "it's better the devil you know [filesharing] than the devil you don't [boycotts]"
Unfortunately, any move to organize a campaign of abstinence or a boycott would be doomed to failure -- because most people just don't give a damn anyway.
We get the government (and the storm-trooper tactics) we deserve they say. Maybe they're right :-(
Ireland has a population of about 5 million.
If only 80,000 protested then that means the majority is either OK are at least apathetic towards the legislation.
In that case, there is nothing wrong with it going ahead. The problem lies with the rest of the population who didn't do their part to protest, not the government passing a law.
Yet another strike against democracy.
If you ignore ACs because they are anonymous - you're an idiot.
This post marks my intent to declare independence. At the time 30 days from now, all properties held by me shall belong to the new country Freefromcorporategreedistan and will fall under the governance of myself. No law shall be passed in Freefromcorporategreedistan which allows invasion of privacy, or restriction of human rights without judicial oversight. The right of the corporation to profit shall be protected except where fundamental human rights (privacy, judicial oversioght, etc) supercede.
Honestly, thats about the only way to avoid pollies with heavy pockets encroaching on our freedom under the payroll of greedy outmoded, obsolete corporations.
Modern Sinn Fein, on the other hand, is quite a different matter, and is trying to build up an electoral presence in Ireland. Quite honestly, given the levels of corruption in both Fianna (epic) Fail and Fine Gael, they would most likely be a major improvement.
One recent Irish Taoiseach was so bent he had no bank account. He kept everything in cash in his house. He got his bribes by going to the racetrack, where he was always very lucky. The Rothschilds are not to blame for Irish corruption, nor is the IMF. If the Rothschilds really ran Ireland, it would be prosperous. You can't make money easily in a country full of poor people.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
This is begging for an "Irish SOPA -> Protests -> "Irish Spring" joke.
It's called Black March. I think a better awareness campaign would have made it more popular but essentially, it's about not buying or downloading any media content for the month of March in order to make a dent in the entertainment industries profits. Check it out!
It's a sad day for the internet in Ireland. Yes there are ways around censorship, but the more governments try to control the internet the more they damage the whole point of it. Remember censorship is considered a fault by the internet and it automatically attempts to re-route the traffic. It will also affect jobs as no-one will want to set up a site based here, nor on Amazon's european cloud, which is based here, for fear they could be taken offline by some wide ranging vague complaint by rights holders, which we have already seen overstep their ability to actually remove actual content. Of course rather than remove content based in Ireland they will also attempt to block foreign content. Not ideal if you want to do business worldwide
We all know that a huge chunk of the irish population lived with machine gun fire and regular bombings for breakfast right? bring back the IRA, but not as a religious segregation movement. as a populous uprising. without the violence. just make very bad copies of the belongings of those who want rich americans rights more than populous opinion. make copies of cars, and houses. but the copies be so poorly executed that they are on fire. and delete originals :)
The last time I visited, they were digging a trench across the entire country to put optical fibre in ; we drove alongside it for quite a stretch.
Now watch the sudden departure of internet companies from Ireland....
For every complaint that actually gets maid to a business or whatever, there's generally ten people who would complain but didn't for a variety of reasons (ranging from "just walked away, never to return" to "I'd prefer just to whine to my mates about it for sympathy").
Democracy doesn't work. But it's the best out of a shit selection of (tried) options for ruling a country. Sometimes I'm not saddened if normal folks aren't aware of such laws - why would they care? At this stage they'd only seem like trivialities compared to the actual problems most people have in their lives.
I remember when Linux was good... too...
Rothschilds actually got going by realising this and placing the sons of the founder in the capitals of countries that were rapidly becoming rich. They had headquarters in places like Vienna, not Nebraska. They lent the British Government the money to buy the Suez Canal, which was a conduit for trade, thus (a) profiting from the loan and (b) profiting by lending to promote trade.
This is what is fundamentally wrong with Walmartonomics. Walmart pays as little as possible. But, to succeed, it must have plenty of people to spend money in its stores. In effect, it wants a shit economy so it can get a cheap workforce, but really it wants a high wage economy to maximise its income. This kind of works if for "Walmart" we substitute China, and for "High wage economy" we substitute "The West". But what happens when all countries have been dragged into the mire? No markets, that's what.
Ireland, Italy and Greece are in trouble because the Governments borrowed and the taxes weren't paid, either through evasion (Italy and Greece), through "avoidance" schemes (Ireland) or because also the Governments had lied about the actual GNP (Greece). This actually wasn't the fault of the bankers, but of greedy and corrupt politicians.
As I say, if Rothschilds really ran Ireland, they would do it on the principle that the best way to produce milk is to start off with well fed cows, not to start off with starving cows and demand more output for less grass. In national economics, the Old Testament is actually a much better guide than an MBA course.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
"Bullying the government". I almost fell off my chair. Come on now. Are we really expected to buy that the outcome was the result of "bullying" rather than accepting a bribe?
Let's call a spade a spade here. When government accepts a bribe, government is 100% responsible. There is no benefit of doubt. There is no "but". Government holds the keys to oppression, not the music industry. Government has the guns.
Thta's a lie perpetrated by the man to get in your pants - defacto juris delecti prudence. Too bad all my /. accounts have no points else I'd mod myself up, ad infinitum repetus. Ipso facto pluribus unum.
(Yes I'm an optomist)
It's prompting a review of copyright law in Ireland and, at least initially, it looks like all parties are welcome at the table. So rights holders, tech and internet companies and shockingly even the public!
http://www.siliconrepublic.com/new-media/item/26025-irish-govt-to-review/
(Yes the IRMA will probably just buy, bully and bribe their way to even more bat shit insane legal rights. It's Ireland, we've got SOPA like rules, blasphemy is a crime and we're not even slightly surprised by the stupid corruption of our politicians and civil servants anymore)
Assemblers were originally written in machine language, which means the human was the original compiler, and the source was in his head.
Maybe now they won't walk around smelling like potato peels and Guiness, CHA ZING
The Irish just had to turn a farce into a tragedy.
Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
It will be good for the rest of the world, as I'm sure if there were any Irish based Social Networks or Hosts of any kind they're feverishly working to move out of Ireland. Pity that ISP's will probably be screwed since they can't realistically leave and still service Irish customers.
Welcome to the Irish internet circa 1995.
For those who support the idea of copyright, SOPA is on its face wrongheaded. Again and again, legislation is enacted or pushed to be enacted "for the artists". It makes me think of all the times similar wordings "for the workers" invariable is designed to benefit companies. I thought it was well understood that trickle-down economics doesn't work. It's not enough to find ways to give companies, IP based or not, more money through tax breaks or longer/stronger copyright terms in the hopes they'll decide to pass some of those benefits down to the actual people behind the work. Unions as they are obviously aren't enough if the government is so concerned that it keeps pushing for more, global copyright treaties and laws.
If there really is an actual interest in the worker, why aren't laws written that actually benefit the worker? Eliminate de facto work-for-hire. Set a minimum wage and benefits for artists. Create a government initialized organized, yet artist paid and run, legal pool for dealing with things like contracts with companies for their work, pursuing piracy by both companies and end users, etc. I'm certain there are other ideas which would promote the arts and sciences by encouraging artists to produce, so investigate that and enact further laws to that end. In essence, where's all the talk about actually improving productivity and benefits? Why is the question of piracy framed in whether Disney's profits go up or down by 0.1% instead of whether there's enough animators producing good work and whether their pay is going up or down and whether it's deserved? Acting upon monolithic companies is clearly doing no good, but is it any wonder when democracies and business don't tend to like a government that deeply meddles with the inner-workings of an economy? At the same time, how can using a broad stroke and a giant club really have a directed effect?
Maybe that's just macroeconomics? :/ I don't really know enough to say.
Eurohacker European paranoia, gun rights, and h
And since 70% of the population would be ineligible by cause of being too old, young or female, that would actually be impossible.
In actual fact, less than 5% of the people in the USA were involved in the civil war. Toward the end, attrition reduced both the numbers of people and the willingness to let those too young or too old (but not too female) get away from being conscripted.
Services like youtube should block themselves in Ireland explaining it is too risk to them to be there.
That way people in other nations will start to realise the big trouble that may happen to them in case similar laws are acepted in their lands!
A bit sad to Ireland but my save the rest of the world!
"We are eternally pressured to enact stronger copyright laws for example."
Look, you guys decided all on your own to charge a tax on blank media and give it to record companies and publishers.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
They need to vote the fuckers out.
I've been reading-up a bit more on Sherlock's justifications for what's happened. Sherlock appears to be issuing the typical governmental/trade association doublespeak to justify this bullshit.
Sherlock has the balls to claim that public involvement is key in revising Irish copyright law. Why then was this change simply forced through as a statutory instrument, in the face of significant public opposition, a very obvious detrimental effects to the electorate and businesses, and without debate? He has the fucking cheek to complain about having he dogs set on him. No shit Sherlock! You bypass the democratic process to do serious harm to our rights, and then wonder why people badger you? Oh boo hoo! He claims as well that it's unfair to equate this change with SOPA. How? Really, Sherlock, is this your stupidity or do you think that we're dumb enough to not see the obvious parallels?
He's claiming that changes in copyright law are about removing barriers to innovation? Sherlock, you lying bastard. How exactly does allowing judges to pretty arbitrarily shut down websites encourage innovation? Would something like YouTube ever have existed if a law of this kind existed earlier? How about Facebook and Google? No, they'd be far too fucking risky because all it would take is an unpredictably bad day in court to shutter their business. Sherlock is either a liar or completely fucking incompetent. This shit risks causing severe harm to Ireland's ability to foster hi-tech companies, and doesn't even do much to prevent piracy. He's handed the content owners a very blunt weapon that is neither effective nor safe to use.
I'm going to participate in this "open forum" he's pushing. The Irish Internet Association itself has said that feedback from the public will be a lower priority than that coming from its members. It's too early to draw conclusions on how the IIA will handle this, yet for now Sherlock is deflecting questions about his dishonesty to this forum that shall at some point appear.
Sherlock repeatedly stresses the need for compromise between both sides. Based on his fucknuttery to date, I can make a few predictions:
1) The bulk of the compromise will not be coming from the content owners.
2) The ability to shut-down sites, SOPA style, will remain.
3) Copyright durations will remain unchanged, or will be increased
4) Penalties for copyright infringement will become harsher
5) The weaselly bastards will sell the loss of our rights as being a good thing. Hey, think of how the increase in movie production when copyright terms are extended to 1000 years, and when the Internet gets throttled during the day and switched off at night to reduce piracy.
6) In general, the entire thing will continue to be sold as essential to innovation and securing Ireland's future in the "digital economy". In reality, it will further entrench old media and criminalise a large chunk of the population.
In case I didn't make this clear, Sean Sherlock is a lying/incompetent and asinine whining cunt of a man. I wish nothing but misery upon this man and all that he holds dear.
This comes in the wake of the music industry bullying the Irish government.
They aren't going to be governors of Ireland for too much longer if they keep letting assholes from other places push them around. Doesn't this place have, like, an entire history of not putting up with others' (i.e. England's) bullshit?
If the populace revolts, will that make this the Irish Spring?
I would start singing "Finnegan's Wake," but the RIAA would sue.
Fak Ireland and the rest of the Engrish speaking world. Crooks.