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If you are unaware of the existence and nature of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) this article “ACTA — A Patriot Act For the Internet” by James Love in the Huffington Post is a good one for getting your spidey sense tingling. Some choice quotes:

“The term “counterfeiting” is designed to demonize the agreement critics as friends of organized crime, much like the name of the Patriot Act seemed better than the “Elimination of Civil Liberties Act.”

…

“[On the subject of ACTA] The entire U.S. tech sector has been publicly silent”

…

“If you are a lowly member of the public, the text is secret. The names of persons who attend the meetings are secret. The titles of the documents are secret. If you represent a big firm or law firm — pretty much any big firm it seems, the U.S. government will show you documents after you sign a non-disclosure agreement - curbing your right to speak out on the contents of the documents you see.”

…

“There is a lot at stake. Civil rights, privacy, rules for injunctions and damages against businesses and individuals, chilling of speech, the first sale doctrine, the global movement of medicines and other commodities, etc, will all be impacted by this ridiculously secret negotiation.”

Source:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-love/acta—-a-patriot-act-for_b_345000.html

Concerned yet? I thought so. Anyone living within a putative democracy would be.

Given that the article is so short, my quotes almost certainly stretch the (endangered) notion of “fair use” to breaking point. As should be obvious, I am making no attempt to pass off the above as my writing, I run no adverts on this blog and do not gain commercially from it in any way. The quotes above are from an article that is, in effect, a political rallying cry and I reproduce them here in that spirit. The ACTA conspiracy (for that’s what it is) is a cynical betrayal of the culture of democracy, transparency and openness. Please forward links to the Huffington Post article, or any of those listed below, to people that you know.

Other useful articles on ACTA (in no particular order) that have been published in the last few days:

• The Great ACTA Lie Revealed
• More ACTA Details Leak: It’s An Entertainment Industry Wishlist
• Leaked ACTA Internet Provisions: Three Strikes and a Global DMCA
• The ACTA Internet Chapter: Putting the Pieces Together
• ACTA: Choking Digital Economy By Increasing Liability Risks For Intermediaries.
• ACTA’s All-out Assault on the Internet
• WIPO Boss: ACTA Should be Open, Transparent
• Copyright Treaty Is Policy Laundering at Its Finest

Charles Nesson, Professor of Law, Harvard Law School:

“the idea of imposing law on the global ocean of free bits that has flooded into cyberspace is a gross and harmful over-extension of the power of the state and authority of the law.”

Source: Judge rejects fair use as Tanenbaum P2P trial begins

Nancy Gertner, judge for the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts:

[Judge Gertner] then concluded by telling the RIAA lawyers that they were “basically bankrupting people, and it’s terribly critical that you stop it.”

Source: How Harvard Law threw down the gauntlet to the RIAA

UPDATE: So much for the encouraging sentiments. The trial didn’t go well. The Register was less than impressed with Charles Nesson’s tactics.

Kick me again, RIAA. Please!

IMO, David Gilbertson has nailed the new policing mentality in this new article in the Guardian. We’ve been watching it develop for years, and anyone who has been ‘comparing and contrasting’ the US police force with that of the UK could see where things were heading:

“Increasingly, British policing morphed into a faux-US style of operation. Uniforms were made to look overtly military. The public were regarded, almost uniformly, as suspects, with any hint of dissent interpreted as anti-police. To this must be added the post-9/11 and 7/7 atmosphere. A succession of intrusive powers under the various terrorism acts convinced many officers that they are frontline combatants in the war on terror.

The concept of officer safety has assumed a life of its own. It started in the late 1990s with the laudable aim of designing a stab-proof vest for officers as a response to a small number of knife attacks. The concept has now moved from a defensive posture to an aggressive model. Officers are trained to be on guard against attack, to regard every situation, no matter how seemingly benign, as a threat situation. The lesson is that the public are your enemy.”

At the core of this policing crisis is a leadership failure

I’ve been regarded with extreme scepticism from some quarters for making the same claims over the last few years (especially that in the second quoted paragraph). It’s encouraging to see that there is growing agreement about the nature of the new policing.

EDIT: Have just realised that Mr Gilbertson is a former Scotland Yard commander and assistant inspector of constabulary, something which of course makes the article all the more important!

We can’t find the plot, so let’s harrass some harmless tourists instead.

Officers of the Met treating guests to our country with contempt, behaving as if they’ve been trained in North Korea, and frankly, demonstrating that they lack sufficient common sense and judgement to be entrusted with the rights-circumventing powers they’ve been given:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/apr/16/police-delete-tourist-photos

How long ago it now seems that we used to regularly hear government ministers resolutely declare “If we let the terrorists change our way of life, they’ve won”. We don’t bloody well hear it now, do we?

(Title quip shamelessly nicked from commenter on Craig Murray’s blog)

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Photorestrict/

From the preamble:

On the 16th of February, the Government passed a law (in the Counter Terrorism Act) making it illegal to take a photograph of a police office, military personnel or member of the intelligence services - or a photograph which “may be of use for terrorism”. This definition is vague at best, and open to interpretation by the police - who under Home Secretary guidelines can “restrict photography in public places”.

We call for these vague restrictions to be lifted, as they can easily be mis-used by the police.

If (when!!) you sign, remember to confirm your signature by clicking on the link in the confirmation email message.

IMO the amendments to the Counter Terrorism Act passed on 16th February are a deliberate and disgraceful attempt to reduce the accountability of our police force. If the events of last week weren’t enough to convince you of just how valuable public scrutiny of police activity is, then cast your eyes over this latest incident to be publicized. There are plenty more examples where this came from. And remember, the police are being equipped with Tazers this year. Prepare for plenty of stories from ordinary citizens of aggressive police officers threatening and dishing out electrocution punishments to any person not complying with their (often legally dubious) orders in sufficiently rapid fashion.

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Photorestrict/

Not content with ignoring due process (post pending), the rule of law, demonstrating utter contempt for democracy and civil rights, beating young girls over the head with clubs, manslaughtering those down on their luck (2), and spying on our personal communications, our government, police and security services also want us to rummage through our neighbours’ dustbins, you know, in case there’s anything in there that can be used to denounce them.

Frankly, I’ve long harboured suspicions that one of my neighbours is a democrat, committed to open, accountable government. Obviously, I’m reluctant to report him without good evidence for it’s a serious, unsavoury allegation, one that could ruin his career and family life, But rest assured, I’ll be scratching and sniffing his wheely bin for the tell-tale signs. If he so much as drops an Open Rights Group pamphlet in there, it’ll be the salt mines for him and his counter-revolutionary brood.

Note for the smug cynics, bullies, thugs and rule-breakers within our police force. This government won’t be in power forever. You might want to start thinking about your exit strategies. At the very least, consider how to CYKCA (Cover Your Kevlar-coated Arses). Oh, and here’s some advice, this time around “I was just following orders” isn’t going to cut any ice.

How did democracy end up in this mess? “It just fell down the stairs, honest M’Lud”.

Insanity, just fucking insanity. The world is going mad.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yPmtQDWZ1s

Gestapo > Stasi > Khmer Rouge > Copyright industry: all disrespectors of human rights and enemies of free people and society.

I think it’s about time that people started to refuse to buy copyright governed media from the large copyright holding corporations. Let’s buy direct from independents, cut out the SWAT team-backed “entertainment” corporations who invade our privacy and connive with government, threatening our lives and our families with arrest and prosecution in order that their tired, outmoded and increasingly unfeasible business model can survive.

We need an entertainment equivalent of the Grüne Punkt, a sign that media doesn’t come bundled with trojan horse licensing conditions which, once brought into our homes and lives, then threaten our rights and liberty. “Big content”, from here on in it’s going to be a slippery slope all the way down to your demise.

Oh, and while I’m talking about the copyright Stasi, here’s the latest consumer-rights friendly news from Glyn Moody’s blog:

Why Everyone Hates the PRS

Fantastic, Jake is going to grow up in a world where some black-kevlar clad, combat-fantasizing thug working on behalf of the entertainment industry may end up pointing a Heckler and Koch at his chest, commanding him to “Step away from the iPod”.

Bastards, how dare they do this to us! How dare they betray our hard won freedom like this — and for such trivial reasons!

EDIT: OK, comparing litigious corporate copyright holders to the Khmer Rouge may have been over-egging the rant, just a tad… but I make no apologies for invoking the totalitarian spectres of the Gestapo and the Stasi, certainly not given broader legal and political trends at present.

Henry Porter at LibertyCentral:

There comes a stage in a government’s life when routine assessment concerning competence and managerial efficiency is replaced by questions about sanity. Reading Michael Wills musing about New Labour’s plans for an enhanced bill of rights with all sorts of social and economic rights as well as defined responsibilities, I had that experience of watching an acquaintance descend into whimpering insanity.

New rights from Labour mean nothing

At this rate, it won’t be long before Jake starts reporting me to his teachers for ‘counter-revolutionary’ behaviour. Jack Straw, Jacqui Smith, David Blunket, Alistair Campbell, and the rest, these names really are going to live on in infamy. The sooner we get rid of these dangerous, paranoid politicos, the safer we can sleep in our beds at night.