EU Commissioner: We Cannot Allow ISP Disconnects

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

EU Commissioner: We Cannot Allow ISP Disconnects

Posted by Soulskill on Friday April 20, 2012 @02:14AM from the do-the-isps-know-that dept.

Fluffeh writes "The EU Commissioner for the Digital Agenda, Neelie Kroes, has been making some interesting comments about privacy, copyright and many aspects of the digital age. Going so far as to quote the Free Software Foundation and Yochai Benkler, she says: 'Openness is also complex because sometimes it's unclear what it means. ... In the Arab Spring, many brave activists successfully used the open Internet to coordinate peaceful protests. In response, despotic governments sought to control or close down Internet access; and also used ICT tools as a tool of surveillance and repression. We cannot allow democratic voices to be silenced in that way. And I am committed to ensuring "No Disconnect" in countries that struggle for democracy. We must help such activists get around arbitrary disruptions to their basic freedoms.'"

31 of 106 comments (clear)

Min score:

Reason:

Sort:

So when it comes to 3 strikes.... by zarthrag · 2012-04-20 02:17 · Score: 5, Interesting

Democracy for all....expect accused pirates?

--
Why can't all fpga/microcontroller manufacturers just release free optimizing compilers???
1. Re:So when it comes to 3 strikes.... by Barabul · 2012-04-20 02:19 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  They expect it too, except when they don't.
2. Re:So when it comes to 3 strikes.... by GameboyRMH · 2012-04-20 02:22 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  No no, she said no disconnects for countries struggling for democracy. Once a country has something that resembles democracy you knock those fuckin' pirates right off the Internet.
  
  --
  "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
3. Re:So when it comes to 3 strikes.... by MickyTheIdiot · 2012-04-20 02:23 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Seriously.. has democracy been redefined to mean "corporate state"?
  What would happen if a "democracy" decides to ignore patents for the good of the people like some of the AIDS ravaged countries have done? Are they no longer a democracy?
  The worst thing about living in the 21st century is the 1984-like twisting of words by governments to mean anything the heck they want them to me.
4. Re:So when it comes to 3 strikes.... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-04-20 02:32 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  Seriously.. has democracy been redefined to mean "corporate state"?
  Have you seen the laws that the UK has passed about the London olympics at the behest of the IOC? Criminalizing "unauthorized association" with the games? That's right, actually making it a criminal offense that the police will try to track down. All to protect the "sponsors", who pay about $800 million of the multi-billion-dollar price tag.
  The modern Olympics are a cesspool of corruption hiding under the auspices of Sport.
5. Re:So when it comes to 3 strikes.... by cpu6502 · 2012-04-20 02:41 · Score: 2
  
  Like the U.S. the EU guy is just talking about *other* countries preserving freedom, not the ISPs at home where its a-okay to have a "3 strike and you're banned" policy. Typical: Do as we say, not how we act.
  
  --
  My AC stalker: " I personally agree with your posts most of the time, but that won't keep me from modding you troll"
6. Re:So when it comes to 3 strikes.... by cpu6502 · 2012-04-20 02:47 · Score: 2
  
  >>>Seriously.. has democracy been redefined to mean "corporate state"?
  Mussolini defined that as fascism.
  
  --
  My AC stalker: " I personally agree with your posts most of the time, but that won't keep me from modding you troll"
7. Re:So when it comes to 3 strikes.... by J'raxis · 2012-04-20 02:51 · Score: 2
  
  And I am committed to ensuring "No Disconnect" in countries that struggle for democracy.
  Note the qualification the politician used. In a democracy, it's perfectly okay to censor people apparently. After all, the government "represents the people," right? So anything they do, however despotic, is acceptable.
  
  --
  Liberty in your lifetime
8. Re:So when it comes to 3 strikes.... by AngryDeuce · 2012-04-20 03:08 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  It's ridiculous that things are getting so extreme that pretty soon the only way to escape these burgeoning corporate-controlled police states is to eschew first-world life completely.
  Is it possible to live in a first-world manner without the government watching every fucking move you make and violating civil liberties left and right 'for the common good'? Or was that always a pipe dream?
  I'm seriously asking myself questions like these every single day, because I don't see how we're going to pull ourselves out of this nightmare. Civil liberties get violated, which leads to civil unrest, which leads to more civil liberties being violated, which leads to more civil unrest...when does it all end? When a bunch of protesters end up on slabs in the morgue? When the only people allowed to communicate on the internet are those with state approval?
  It's funny, growing up, I'd always been one of those people that were against the widespread proliferation of guns in the U.S., but believe me, my opinion has changed in recent years. Those privately owned guns are really the only thing preventing the government from steamrolling right over the people of this country, and now I realize the wisdom of that right and how it enables the people to be a real check on the power of their government when the shit hits the fan.
  I'm no Kacynski-esque government-fearing anarchist by any stretch, but this kind of nonsense makes me understand their fears in a way I never could before.
9. Re:So when it comes to 3 strikes.... by Paracelcus · 2012-04-20 03:09 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  It's OK to shut down access to the outside world if you are a bastion of "freedom" and "democracy" just like it's OK to torture, to imprison without trial, and kill without judicial oversight!
  USA, USA, USA!
  
  --
  I killed da wabbit -Elmer Fudd
10. Re:So when it comes to 3 strikes.... by mspohr · 2012-04-20 03:18 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  They have a lot more guns than you.
  and bigger guns.
  If you have a gun, it just gives them an excuse to kill you right now.
  
  --
  I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
11. Re:So when it comes to 3 strikes.... by ShieldW0lf · 2012-04-20 03:41 · Score: 2
  
  The whole point of Sport is to stupefy the population. Ever heard the term "Bread and Circuses"?
  When you get right down to it, the "Sport" industry is more harmful than illicit drugs. I've seen people high on drugs build lots of useful and productive things. I've never seen people hooked up to their television do anything but waste oxygen.
  Same thing goes for video games.
  
  --
  -1 Uncomfortable Truth
12. Re:So when it comes to 3 strikes.... by Baloroth · 2012-04-20 04:07 · Score: 2
  
  A poor place to hide, since most sports recently are already cesspools of corruption. If anything, it is sports corruption the Olympics (or rather the Olympics are merely a manifestation of the corporitization already present in sports.)
  
  --
  "None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license." --John Milton
13. Re:So when it comes to 3 strikes.... by robthebloke · 2012-04-20 04:17 · Score: 2
  
  The whole point of Sport is to stupefy the population. Ever heard the term "Bread and Circuses"?
  F1 in Bahrain? It seems to be having the opposite effect on the local population.....
14. Re:So when it comes to 3 strikes.... by LingNoi · 2012-04-20 04:46 · Score: 2
  
  > And I am committed to ensuring "No Disconnect" in countries that struggle for democracy.
  Sweden is already a democracy, this is only for countries that struggle with it.
15. Re:So when it comes to 3 strikes.... by jxander · 2012-04-20 09:40 · Score: 2
  
  Actually, "they" don't have more guns. Especially when you define exactly who "they" are.
  Are they corporate fat cats? CEOs, corrupt politicians, hedge fund babies, etc? Because they are citizens with the exact same rights to guns as I do (if, perhaps, more capital with which to stockpile)
  Are they the US military? As a member of that little club, I don't feel very "they." And I can assure you that disillusionment with the status quo isn't something upon which civilians have a monopoly. We follow orders, for now... but as soon as those orders involve us turning against the American populace (i.e. our friends and families) the lines between "we" and "they" become much more blurry.
  But the one thing 'they' will never have is numbers. Sheer unstoppable numbers. The US Military has just under 1.5 million active members combined between all 4 branches, with another 1.5 million in reserve. Total US population is well over 300 million. If only 1% of all civilians decide to rebel, they'd have the military outnumbered 2:1 *BEFORE* accounting for any military members who throw down arms and refuse to attack their own families. If 2% or even just 5% of the civilian populace took up arms for a revolution... that puts the ratio at 10:1 in favor of "we."
  .
  They might have bigger guns, and better training... but more guns they certainly do not have.
  
  --
  This signature is false.
No disconnects* by Ferzerp · 2012-04-20 02:19 · Score: 3, Funny

*Unless you commit copyright infringement. Then we will cut off your internet and make sure that you are so in debt that you can't support yourself ever again.
The struggle for democracy by Anonymous Coward · 2012-04-20 02:20 · Score: 3, Informative

I am committed to ensuring "No Disconnect" in countries that struggle for democracy.
But not, I suppose, in those that have stopped struggling.
FRA, here you are, ECHELON and freedom fries by Anonymous Coward · 2012-04-20 02:21 · Score: 2

In the Arab Spring, many brave activists successfully used the open Internet to coordinate peaceful protests. In response, despotic governments sought to control or close down Internet access; and also used ICT tools as a tool of surveillance and repression
And in EU, there is a directive that makes it mandatory to save 2 years of mobile phone calls, email, google searches, HTTP access logs and GPS position of the phone at the start/end times for answered and unanswered phone calls.
What EU says is "bad" in Arab countries is law in Europe.
Breivik was right.
1. Re:FRA, here you are, ECHELON and freedom fries by GameboyRMH · 2012-04-20 02:29 · Score: 2
  
  Damn right brother. Email me if you want to join the resistance - don't use the one above, that's not secure. Send it to contact at fbi dot gov.
  
  --
  "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
She's right by Compaqt · 2012-04-20 02:29 · Score: 5, Interesting

Europe and the US can't lecture 3rd world countries (and China) about democracy, openness, and freedom when they're cutting out all three.
What was really funny was the way the UK govt. wanted to shut down Facebook and Twitter because they thought that contributed to the recent riots. What's even more funny is how Iran's state news services called it an uprising, and not riots. Britain just lost all moral right to lecture anybody after that. (Of course, Iran had its own riots/uprising propelled by social media. Same thing.)

--
I'm not a lawyer, but I play one on the Internet. Blog
1. Re:She's right by Jawnn · 2012-04-20 02:37 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  No, it isn't "funny", but let's stick to the point. The EU, or at least Commissioner Kroes, has gone on record with the position that openness is of paramount importance when it comes to the legal use of the Internet as a medium of communication. This is a step in the right direction, A big one. Yes, there are lots of things we can split hairs over; "What is the definition of 'legal' in the U.K.? In Germany? Syria?", but a widely respected policy like this should prevent draconian knee-jerk bullshit like shutting down social media sites just because a group of miscreants use them for illegal purposes.
2. Re:She's right by Charliemopps · 2012-04-20 03:25 · Score: 2
  
  Unless he's lieing. If you were unaware, he's a politician. He can stand at a podium and quote smart people all day long to get votes... but when it comes to collecting his bribes, kickbacks, and campaign contributions, is he willing to lose his office and live like an middle class person to stand up for what he believes? I doubt it.
  
  We'll not have real democracies in this world until Organized groups, like corporations, lose their citizenship.
Overthrowing a government is fine ... by DanZee · 2012-04-20 02:29 · Score: 5, Funny

Apparently, using the Internet to overthrow a government is allowed, but downloading a MP3 file will get you 10 years and a $250,000 fine!
1. Re:Overthrowing a government is fine ... by GameboyRMH · 2012-04-20 02:37 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Apparently, using the Internet to overthrow a government is allowed
  Only if it's a Western-unfriendly government. Try even protesting around a G8/G20 meeting and see how much cell reception you get.
  
  --
  "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
FTFY by Hatta · 2012-04-20 02:35 · Score: 3, Funny

The soon to be former EU Commissioner for the Digital Agenda, Neelie Kroes, has been making some interesting comments about privacy, copyright and many aspects of the digital age.

--
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Erh.... by Opportunist · 2012-04-20 02:44 · Score: 3, Insightful

Yeah, yeah, nice that you vow you won't accept a disconnect policy in countries that struggle to get a democracy.
How about countries that are allegedly already democratic? Like, say, Greece, Spain, Italy, Ireland...

--
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Re:So, the only by Opportunist · 2012-04-20 02:47 · Score: 2

You have one again in the meantime?
I envied you guys when you didn't. At least no new stupid laws could be passed, it must have been heaven.

--
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Circular definition by Errol+backfiring · 2012-04-20 03:25 · Score: 2

Countries that have an internet disconnect are by definition struggling with democracy.

--
Nae king! Nae laird! Nae yurrupiean pressedent! We willna be fooled again!
That's not what summery says by jopsen · 2012-04-20 05:13 · Score: 2

Seriously, it wasn't that long ago I heard Danish politicians promise that disconnect from the internet wasn't on the table, during their recent discussions of how to reduce internet piracy. AFAIK the politician argued that internet was essential for doing business and communicating with both public and private sector.

I know Danish politicians doesn't rule the EU, but chill. Just, because someone says they'll fight internet censorship in countries where people are oppressed, doesn't mean they think censorship is okay in the EU.
Just because she didn't discuss a subject you apparently care more about, doesn't imply she has taken a stand on that subject! My guess she might very likely be against censorship in any way shape or form.
- People who quote FSF typically are :)

If you want to be paranoid, at least be happy that the "digital aganda" is going to focus on stopping internet censorship in countries where it's a serious problem. She could also have announced that she wanted to fight piracy, patents or kill baby seals, but she DIDN'T.
Re:Democracy? by NeverSuchBefore · 2012-04-20 12:31 · Score: 2

I'm quite fine with the constitutional republic of the United States that I reside in.
Except that the two party system here is broken, and while the people shouldn't have absolute power, they don't have enough.