Reasonable Actions

Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

January 27, 2012 Citizen No comments

Why ACTA is bad, mmkay.

ACTA would require that existing ISPs no longer host free software that can access copyrighted media, and DRM-protected media would not be legally playable with free or open source software.

…an advisory committee of … Motion Picture Association of America, and Recording Industry Association of America.

…creation of an "ACTA committee" to make amendments, for which public or judicial review are not required. Industry representatives may have "consultatory input" to amendments

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Counterfeiting_Trade_Agreement
—
My friends, we& just been screwed by Corporate America and Our Government once again.

Why ACTA is bad, mmkay.

ACTA would require that existing ISPs no longer host free software that can access copyrighted media, and DRM-protected media would not be legally playable with free or open source software.

…an advisory committee of … Motion Picture Association of America, and Recording Industry Association of America.

…creation of an "ACTA committee" to make amendments, for which public or judicial review are not required. Industry representatives may have "consultatory input" to amendments

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Counterfeiting_Trade_Agreement
—
My friends, we've just been screwed by Corporate America and Our Government once again.

#oppression #corruption #governmentAnti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Legal framework. ACTA would ostensibly establish a new international legal framework that countries can join on a voluntary basis and would create its own governing body outside existing international…

EU Signs Controversial ACTA Agreement | TorrentFreak

January 27, 2012 Citizen No comments

EU Signs Controversial ACTA Agreement | TorrentFreak
The European Union has officially signed the controversial “anti-piracy” trade agreement ACTA. It hereby follows in the footsteps of Australia, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Morocco, New Zealand, Singap…

UK signs ACTA as activists urge resistance | Networking | ZDNet UK

January 27, 2012 Citizen No comments

UK signs ACTA as activists urge resistance | Networking | ZDNet UK
Twenty-two EU countries have signed the anti-counterfeiting treaty, but their signatures will be worthless if the European Parliament does not back

GoDaddy SOPA Support Sparks Calls for Boycotts and Domain Transfers

December 23, 2011 Citizen No comments

The list of companies that support the controversial piece of U.S. legislation called the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) is fairly predictable. It includes huge media conglomerates, music industry groups, pharmaceutical companies and the like. One name that stands out, however, is that of domain name registrar GoDaddy. Whereas many of the big Web technology companies have come out in opposition to SOPA, GoDaddy enthusiastically supports the proposed law.Not unsurprisingly, this news does not sit well with many of the Internet’s most vocal SOPA opponents, especially on Reddit. A thread that popped up on the site today decries GoDaddy’s support for SOPA and encourages users to transfer their domains to another provider. The conversation, which has more than a few choice words for GoDaddy, has grown quite long.

Source: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/godaddys_sopa_support_sparks_calls_for_boycotts_an.php

Can a Wikipedia blackout save the Internet?

December 13, 2011 Citizen No comments

I know it doesn’t feel like it now, but please believe me: There are worse things than losing access to Wikipedia even temporarily.For example, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) (aka H.R.3261) could become a law. The anti-piracy bill, which goes before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee on Thursday, makes the streaming of unauthorized content a felony. Which is all well and good, but as the Electronic Frontier Foundation warns, the bill’s “vague language would create devastating new tools for silencing legitimate speech all around the Web.”

Source: http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/13/9422683-can-a-wikipedia-blackout-save-the-internet

Occupy Wall Street Exposes Police State in it

December 06, 2011 Citizen No comments

The protesters of the Occupy Wall Street movement took to the streets to draw attention to corporate greed and the uneven distribution of wealth in the United States. In the end most media attention they got wasn’t for their economic messages, but for the extreme treatment that they suffered at the hands and boots of the police. If the protesters can’t expose corruption in the highest echelons of the banking system, perhaps they can expose the much more pressing and perhaps frightening development in the United States: The extreme militarization and illegal tactics of the police in the United States.

Source: http://www.gsusignal.com/opinions/occupy-wall-street-exposes-police-state-in-it-s-infancy-1.2680546#.Tt53DrIr2dB

Either You Did or You Didn’t Break The Law, Rules Fed Judge

November 28, 2011 Citizen No comments

A federal judge in New York on Monday threw out a settlement between the Securities and Exchange Commission and Citigroup over a 2007 mortgage derivatives deal, saying that the S.E.C.s policy of settling cases by allowing a company to neither admit nor deny the agencys allegations did not satisfy the law.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/29/business/judge-rejects-sec-accord-with-citi.html?_r=2&hp

Surprise! Microsoft quietly opposes SOPA copyright bill

November 27, 2011 Citizen No comments

It’s little surprise that Web-based companies like Google, Facebook, and Twitter oppose SOPA, which is designed to make allegedly piratical Web sites virtually disappear from the Internet. They, and many civil liberties and human rights groups, worry that SOPA could jeopardize legitimate Web sites too.Even Garret, the Business Software Alliance’s “copyright-crusading ferret,” doesn’t like the Stop Online Piracy Act.(Credit: BSA)But Redmond’s skepticism is notable because unlike the Web companies, Microsoft earns nearly all of its revenue by licensing software–which can, of course, be pirated–and loses money on Bing and its online services division. What’s even more telling is that Microsoft had enthusiastically endorsed a narrower version of the copyright bill, called Protect IP, earlier this year.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-57330078-281/surprise-microsoft-quietly-opposes-sopa-copyright-bill/?part=rss&subj=latest-news&tag=title

Driven By Drug War Incentives, Cops Target Pot Smokers, Brush Off Victims Of Violent Crime

November 25, 2011 Citizen No comments

Arresting people for assaults, beatings and robberies doesn’t bring money back to police departments, but drug cases do in a couple of ways. First, police departments across the country compete for a pool of federal anti-drug grants. The more arrests and drug seizures a department can claim, the stronger its application for those grants.

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/21/drug-war-incentives-police-violent-crime_n_1105701.html