

How the European Internet Rose Up Against ACTA - jwr
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/02/europe-acta/

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tomp
I find it highly ironic that an anti-piracy bill, ACTA, proposed by the MPAA
and RIAA, actually seems to be sparking a discussion and paving a way towards
_less_ IP protection, and so might become one of the worst actions RIAA and
MPAA took.

Except, of course, if Anonymous planted the idea about ACTA into RIAA's and
MPAA's bosses (perhaps inspired by Inception), expecting such an outcome...

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rickmb
I'm still waiting for the other shoe to drop. A few petitions, some critical
articles (finally) and some minor demonstrations (unlike the US, Europe is
used to regular massive demonstrations, strikes, riots etcetera without
governments caving in to demands), and one by one politicians are backtracking
rapidly.

Yes, there's been an increase in awareness, but I expected things not to get
really heated until the EU parliament vote. Not it looks like that will just
become a symbolic act to pull the plug. ACTA has become political poison.

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amstr
I fear that if the technosphere continues to use "privacy" and "freedom of
expression" as fig leaves to protest any kind of anti-IP-theft laws, the
public will eventually get disenchanted and we'll end up with even worse laws
than ACTA & SOPA/PIPA. It's like pro-lifers who extend their disdain for
abortion to claim that any kind of birth control is murder.

Plus in the case of ACTA, it is transparently self-serving of Poland and other
Eastern European non-ACTA-signatories to oppose ACTA. Those countries, after
all, are net consumers of IP.

~~~
doron
The Public seems to be fairly on the side of pirates, if the numbers flaunted
by MPAA and RIAA etc, are to be believed. by those lobby accounts,piracy is
exploding all over, so I would bet the public is concerned with privacy. their
own.

All the laws currently debated are either negotiated in secret, or have
significant dangers of overreach. As such, "Privacy" and "freedom of
expression" are not fig leaves yet.

Perhaps when the conversation is not completely hijacked by MPAA and their
ilk. and politicians stop masking these laws as functions of "protecting our
children" from online predators (the fig leave du jour for any politician
seeking online legislation) We might have a sensible conversation.

In the meantime, many people face the dilemma so comically illustrated by the
oatmeal <http://theoatmeal.com/comics/game_of_thrones> It is ridiculous to
expect the public to have continued patience with an industry that insist on
playing by rules that only benefit them. If they change, they will get a
foothold in the public mind, not before.

