Saturday, January 28, 2012

Save the Blogosphere Part Deux



Thanks to Wikkipedia’s blackout, SOPA and PIPA have been sent back to what ever dark cyberspace hell they came from.

Unfortunately, it’s not all over by a long shot. Following the demise of Mega Upload the FBI is actively investigating  a number of other file-sharing hosts, with the current state of play neatly summarized on the Desolation Infinite blog. If these sites are taken down, apart from massive nuisances to any individual or business who stores files “in the cloud” blogs that provide downloads will cease to be able to operate and blogs like Plunder the Tombs would be unable to access materials used to research various posts.

Seriously, anyone who believes that downloading an album that’s been deleted for over 20 years and released by a label that no longer exists is somehow harming artists or the record industry is living a paranoid delusional fantasy.

If you live in the US please contact whoever your representative in Congress is and make sure they know that you do not want these sites to be shut down.

As if that wasn’t enough, now we also face the prospect of an international treaty, the Anti-Counterfitting Trade Agreement (ACTA).

"The oppressively strict regulations could mean people everywhere are punished for simple acts such as sharing a newspaper article or uploading a video of a party where copyrighted music is played. Sold as a trade agreement to protect copyrights, ACTA could also ban lifesaving generic drugs and threaten local farmers' access to the seeds they need. And, amazingly, the ACTA committee will have carte blanche to change its own rules and sanctions with no democratic scrutiny."

Although some countries like the US and Australia have already signed up for this nonsense, the European Union is still debating it. If they can be persuaded not to come on board there’s a real chance that this idiocy and serious threat to freedom on the internet can be buried once and for all.

  CLICK HERE  to sign the Avaaz petition to the EU informing them that the netizens of the World want the ACTA treaty buried in a very deep grave.


1 comment:

  1. Signatories to the Avaaz petition has now passed the two million mark. Not bad considering the original target was only 500,000.
    Unfortunately many people out there still don't know about ACTA.
    Spread the word people.

    ReplyDelete