Central Europe Countries Continue to Oppose ACTA 111
tykev writes "The Czech government suspended the ratification process of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, ACTA, said Prime Minister Petr Necas today. The government wants to further analyze the issue. There were a number of public demonstrations against ACTA in several Czech towns, and some Czech Euro MP's oppose ACTA as being 'completely wide of the mark'. Earlier, Poland announced its intention to suspend the ratification process as well. In the meantime, the website of the ruling Czech Civic Democratic Party was attacked and defaced by Anonymous who also publicly released personal data of the party's members."
Futile (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Futile (Score:5, Insightful)
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That's political speak for "re-evaluating the impact on future popularity/votes" and "assessing lobbyist monetary income levels"
Finally someone to stand up to the Corporate states of America. Wait til we do the same.
End The Fed.
End The IRS.
End the Corruption.
Re:Futile (Score:5, Insightful)
One nice thing about Europe is that representatives of independent countries often vote independently. Unlike in the U.S.A., where members of congress are supposed to vote for their district or state's interests, but instead just go with whatever corporation or national lobby promises the most money. (This reminds me that I need to order fresh flowers for the 10th amendment's grave.)
Re:Futile (Score:5, Insightful)
One nice thing about Europe is that representatives of independent countries often vote independently. Unlike in the U.S.A., where members of congress are supposed to vote for their district or state's interests, but instead just go with whatever corporation or national lobby promises the most money. (This reminds me that I need to order fresh flowers for the 10th amendment's grave.)
Actually, I'm deeply suspicious that it is yet another "more bribes, please" situation for our politicians. :/
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I would rather have the chance for someone to be bribed than have institutionalized bribery dominating the system like we do with congress. That cultural borders make it more difficult for one lobbyist or company to know how to properly lube up all the representatives in the E.U. is a very good thing; I'd say it's also a very good thing that those same borders eliminate the pressure for representatives to fall in line with a political party that has half of the votes.
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Futile (Score:5, Insightful)
If all we do is oppose, then some battles we'll win, others we'll lose, but the front line is only going to tighten around us until we are nothing but obedient corporate servants. What we need to do is strike back at the politicians and remind them that they are serving the interests of all the population, and not the interest of special groups who would like the free market to bend down for them and give them money just because they feel they're entitled to it.
what's futile is this : (Score:5, Interesting)
What we need to do is strike back at the politicians and remind them that they are serving the interests of all the population
they know very well who they should be serving. they are NOT choosing to serve who they should be serving. instead, they choose whomever pays them.
the difference of the central european countries is that, there is still a lot of generations currently at the age of running government, corporations etc, who has grown up during the communist era with at least some ideals. you wont find those in anglo-american countries. hence, the opposition from central europe.
Re:what's futile is this : (Score:4, Informative)
the difference of the central european countries is that, there is still a lot of generations currently at the age of running government, corporations etc, who has grown up during the communist era with at least some ideals. you wont find those in anglo-american countries. hence, the opposition from central europe.
Actually, the main difference is that we bribe our politicians, not some lobbyists.
Well, actually, considering how deep our conservatives are in the bribery swamp, I guess that's not correct. Let's say it's optional, not mandatory like in the US. Here, you get your campaigning expenses reimbursed from tax money if you happen to get more than x% (with x being somewhere between 0.5 and 3 in most countries that have this system) of the votes. That's doable for most halfway serious political parties.
The point is that we're not as used to seeing politicians get cozy with business tycoons as the US people are. For us, it's still reeking of some shady deals, of lobbying (don't say that word aloud here, it's often used synonymously with corruption), of, well, corruption. We have a party that's more or less known to be the political arm of the industry, and even THEY don't dare to be seen shaking hands (or worse) with business leaders.
And, frankly, I prefer it that way. Politicians will be bought. One way or another. Campaigning costs money, and someone has to foot the bill, a bill that no ordinary person (hell, even a well off person) cannot foot. He will be bought.
So it's better that OUR pockets buy him.
EU Parliament is pretty cool (Score:5, Informative)
I don't know... While it's common (especially in USA) to claim that all politicians are scum, let's look at the European Parliament's stance on ACTA, as supported by something like 98% of the members in 2010. European Parliament resolution of 10 March 2010 on the transparency and state of play of the ACTA negotiations [europa.eu]. The relevant parts:
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+1 informative, thanks for posting that.
But...if all that's true then how come we're still voting on it nearly two years later?
Re:EU Parliament is pretty cool (Score:5, Insightful)
Because the EU Commission can continue to draft and negotiate ACTA for as long as they like, but ultimately they have to put it to the EU Parliament to vote on before it can become law. There are a couple of things they can try if the Parliament rejects it, but those can still be vetoed by a 2/3rds majority of the Parliament and history has shown that they generally don't like it when the Commission tries to do an end-run around them.
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Because Parliament keep giving the "wrong" answer.
Re:Futile (Score:5, Insightful)
They say that the best defence is an offence. Why not go on the a counter-attack. Let's make Internet access, or simply access to adequate telecommunication, a fundamental human right. This would protect net-neutrality and work against arbitrary disconnection laws.
Re:Futile (Score:5, Interesting)
A better solution would be net neutrality is required if you use public land or public owned cables to run your ISP. Because it allows for the most amount of net neutrality (nearly all ISPs use public owned cables to do business with customers) but allows the greatest amount of freedom (if the ISP doesn't want to implement net neutrality don't use public land or cables).
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I do agree with you though, it should not be a right. It should however be free from any one governments influence. That's not what it was created for.
Re:Futile (Score:5, Informative)
Remember the telephone? Electricity?
Government mandates and sponsorship are what got the province of Saskatchewan serviced with those facilities, and in the '70s, my grandparents finally got electricity and a phone while I was a kid. It's well within MOST people's lifetimes to remember that infrastructure has to be supported, not boondoggled with cries of "why should I pay" by selfish yokels in the cities.
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As for electricity, government sponsorships is the entire reason why we have this sudden push for immature "green" energy. In the US before dear dictator FDR'
Re:Futile (Score:5, Insightful)
You DON'T pay for it. The people of Saskatchewan did.
But why should the Saskatchewan city dwellers pay?
So the farmers can produce food.
So the farmers can live like human beings.
So the small towns can be home to small businesses instead of congesting everything in the cities.
So the farmers can run the equipment they need to do the job.
But you don't really care about that, do you? Well, good luck surviving in the cities without food if the farmers all go belly up because they can't use the internet to sell their crops, find parts, locate equipment, review new equipment, etc.
THAT's why you shouldn't be a selfish, navel-gazing jerk about subsidizing rural development.
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Government solutions are absolutely the best for natural monopolies.
Saskatchewan's state-run electric, gas, and telephone companies are the reason it has some of the lowest rates in the country. All this despite having very low population density, which make the servicing costs much higher.
When the horrible evil socialists came to power there, shortly after WWII, there was basically no asphalt, electricity, or telephone outside of city limits. No private companies would step up, as it was far too long term
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Forget those, how about the US Postal Service? It was mandated in the US Constitution (much to the chagrin of today's Teabaggers), with the requirement that it provide service equally to everyone in the nation, no matter where they lived. The Founders knew that good communications were essential to a healthy democracy, and with mail being the most advanced communications form at the time, they enshrined it in the Constitution and prevented one's location from being a barrier to communicating, by "socialis
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You are creating a strawman here. The government doesn't provide the means to utilize rights so they wouldn't be required to provide internet access. If you are born without a tongue the government doesn't pay for the surgery to make one. If your tongue gets cut off the government doesn't foot the bill to sew it back on. Making internet access a right prevents the government from turning it off when people have it. It doesn't require the government to provide the access in the first place.
I would go farther
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If you remove the politicians who are selling out, they'll just be replaced by other sellouts. It's not enough to defeat bad laws as they come up, new laws affirming the freedom of data need to be fought for and won. The best defense is a good offense, and that is something sorely lacking in the IP wars. And the great difficulty with mounting that offense, is deciding what the objectives should be.
There's still some hope. (Score:4, Interesting)
I doubt I'll see that. Yet, I can still hope.
Re:There's still some hope. (Score:5, Insightful)
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The last time it happened? Oh, round about the time some dangerous up-start invented the printing press. And look at all the trouble they caused!
It ruined economies and nation were aflame!
Err...or not.
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One of the reasons the US grew so powerful was its blatant disregard for intellectual property in the old world. And now, many years later, as the US is in decline, guess which other growing nation doesn't give a flying fuck about what the US thinks about intellectual property.
I guess 50 years from now the US and Europe will be on the same side trying to fight off Intellectual Property laws being crammed down our throats by the Chinese. Assuming, of course, they need to resort to such silly things as laws t
Re:There's still some hope. (Score:5, Insightful)
It's neither. A population can take a lot, but only so much. It's when the last straw snaps that people are willing to die to overthrow their government in protest.
It's only a matter of time before terrorism will be practised by western people against the west and not just by some random extremist nutcase-organisations.
There maybe enough laws, technology, police and military personel, but they are all outnumbered once an entire population sais "Fsck it! I'm not taking this shit any longer!" and then the shit hits the fan, at 100.000 miles/hour.
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Re:There's still some hope. (Score:4, Insightful)
People haven't changed. When soldiers have to make the decision to shoot relatives (brothers, sisters, grandma, mom) many will reside with the population. That is when governments fall.
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Ask the Irish. They managed to figure out a way.
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My knowledge of Irish revolutionary history is mainly from movies, but I thought they did it mainly by attacking English soldiers (and their hired thug mercenaries), killing them, stealing their guns, and then killing even more, until the English assholes decided to leave. So basically, guns were the answer, but they had to take them from the oppressors first, instead of using their own.
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It makes no difference. If they have no guns you don't need guns to take over. Actually it makes them more vulnerable. But there are people with guns, the military. Armies are made of people and if there is a popular uprising movement members of those armies will support it and bring the portion of the arms they control with them.
Here in the US for instance, the military still takes an oath to defend the people and the Constitution. When mass collectives of the people are organizing to fight tyranny and res
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Yup, keeping guns restricted to a small portion of the population actually makes them (the government) more vulnerable in the end. Nobody is well prepared for organized armed revolt and it takes a smaller number of guns to be effective. A small and clever armed force of 100 could probably take most of the towns and cities in Britain with nothing more than small arms in a direct assault. Delays would just give government time to react and arm.
Good luck trying that in the US. You won't even warrant calling th
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I favor a 'continued use' inheritable copyright for fiction, and a 20 year or so copyright for printed non-fiction. With the condition that once something is broadcast, that quality of media (or lower) is public domain.
Patents for actual technological advances, only. None of this drek about patenting the 'look' of an iToy.
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I'd give 5yr terms at most for copyright of anything. Today's world moves too fast. Twenty year old software wouldn't be of any use to the public. Copyright exists to facilitate more material being created and filling the public domain. That's not much of a deal for the public if the material only enters the public domain after it has lost its value.
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Good luck with that. Some of these laws were made in the 18th century (which in law terms was a lot like right now), and we are still suffering from them. If food corporations use waste in the food production, get yourself an FDA for example. But the FDA mainly assures that it is legal to use all kinds of junk in the production of food. As like today, the laws were usually fighting symptoms, not problems. So working hours got regulated, but massive theft of land (the Enclosure) was supported. And an Enclosu
Hope yet for the human race? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Hope yet for the human race? (Score:5, Interesting)
Should we dare hope?
No. But vote. And it would be a good idea to plan ahead for what to do after something similar gets passed.
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"You can be a sniveling, whiney little apathetic coward who lets other people decide for him how his life is going to be, or you can grow a pair, stand up, be heard, and have some say in what your world looks like."
Voting is an example of the former not the later. Growing a pair isn't participating in the existing corrupt system and pretending your vote affects something before being tossed in the digital shredder. Growing a pair is getting your fscking guns together and steeling your will for the inevitabl
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"your attitude will create more problems than it will solve and I will not condone it. Take it somewhere else."
Excuse me? Last I checked I've been here a hell of a lot longer than you have. YOU take it somewhere else.
"your pro-violence attitude just justifies the violations of people's Constitutional rights being committed by police and officials around the country"
That is utterly ridiculous. The Constitution came into being in the first place because people were willing to fight for those rights. Tyranny i
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I'll be over here, with the INTELLIGENT people, working to REPAIR my countr
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"fuckhead.. fucking coward"
Obviously you aren't at a maturity level that allows you engage in intelligent debate.
"start shooting, NOW"
You need to work on your reading comprehension. I've already stated my view with regard to this a few times. Proceeding as you indicate would be stupid and if someone wants to question my conviction they need to demonstrate some of their own to be taken seriously.
By your own admission you have no conviction to act and consider anyone who does to be 'pro-violent.' Instead it i
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I feel no need to justify or defend myself to you or anyone else. Go to hell.
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Vote and agitate. Be annoying, be pesky, don't give up and challenge them at every opportunity. Be their boss don't let them be your boss.
Some lateral thinking, the single biggest target right now should be "TAX HAVENS". The US and Europe could shut them down overnight, ban trade in tax haven currencies and zero their value. Either cough up details and provide full access or choke or you organised criminal banking activities.
Want a sign of real change, that's exactly where it starts. Substantially redu
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The EU is not showing some backbone. Poland and Czech are showing some backbone. Especially for Poland this is new. It must be related to Donald Tusk who looks like someone with a brain and ethics which is very seldom in politicians. Not to forget he is a conservative (by European standards).
Thanks for that from Germany.
What's the point? (Score:5, Insightful)
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This is the EU, where that sort of slight of hand is more difficult. Well, or at least they do things in different clandestine ways. Or something.
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Yeah, like the software patent stuff, which was trying to slip by in the Agricultural and Fisheries Commission [theregister.co.uk]. Luckily, it didn't work out.
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Yep, and since this is the EU, they actually take the time to read the bills being proposed, unlike in the US where they just say Yes to the bill with the most financial backing. As a result of this, any unpopular law that somehow finds it's way into a completely unrelated bill, get's vetoed and removed before the bill can continue it's path, again unlike the US.
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[I]n the US where they just say Yes to the bill with the most financial backing.
That, and the one with the tenuous backronym or name which makes you look like a terrorist child abusing communist sympathiser if you vote against it.
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They already tried the "save the children" thing. They failed. They have been caught. In Germany the government and parliament even submitted an act for web filtering. The commerical TV launched a campain to support the "save the children" topic with a "hunt the child abuser" show. Well the show was fake. And the law was never executed, due to massive public protests. Recently the made a new act which revoked the old one.
They over used children and terrorists. But maybe they come up with something new. The
Hey editors, thank you... (Score:5, Informative)
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Welcome to Slashdot, where submissions are dumbed down to the lowest common denominator. Thanks Geek.Net!
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Be there a "hacker" amongst ya'll? (Score:1)
If a "hacker" reads this, please explain what it is that "Anonymous" intends to accomplish by releasing the private info of Czech gov't officials publicly. It seems stupid.
These acts will most likely provoke paranoia and promote web censorship. How is this furthering the agenda that "Anonymous" supposedly has? Is "Anonymous" just a few script kiddies stupid enough to risk imprisonment over a misguided sense of morality?
Or maybe I'm missing the point. Please enlighten me.
Not a group (Score:3)
Really, who knows what they intend to accomplish with this. But undoubtedly there are some "members" of Anonymous who agree with it and undoubtedly there are some that disagree.
Prague Spring comes to mind or not. (Score:3)
It certainly does. if you dont know what it is, google it.
Protests in many, many European cities (Score:5, Interesting)
What is also quite impressive are the protests planned by Pirate Parties and others in numerous cities all over Europe (+ some other continents). Many events are to be held this Saturday, February 11st. The map looks absolutely breath-taking:
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=212120558776447282985.0004b7b33e16f13c710c7&msa=0 [google.com]
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They'll change their minds... (Score:1)
once we start cutting off aid, military support, impose trade embargos, etc.
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Hint: Hard to embargo EU members. Clearly illegal for other European countries, hence any embargo would need to be addressed at the whole union, have fun trying to enact such a thing, not mentioning that the WTO would probably rule against any such embargo.
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The US is who does the embargoing and it wouldn't be a direct blatant embargo like that. We control most of the worlds economy and can just start attacking EU interests in various trade lines.
They just don't know how Democracy works! (Score:3)
In a democracy, what is supposed to happen is the government doesn't listen to the people and makes desicions based on the amount of money business contributes to their re-election campaigns. It is dangerous to listen to the people because, as the great and wonderful Steve Jobs said, the people don't know what they want and it's not their job to know what they want. And if the people organize to make themselves heard, they are actually forming a threat against the government which is terrorism and you should never give in to terrorists.
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"In a democracy, what is supposed to happen is the government doesn't listen to the people"
You haven't been paying attention lately. These days the corporations ARE the people.
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Yes, Mitt Romney even told us so!
Well of course not, they're not IP dependant (Score:5, Interesting)
Western Europe is the major source of intellectual property. Look at WIPO's top applicant nations - Germany, France, UK, Netherlands. Look at IMDB's top film making countries - France, UK. Look at the fashion world where you're nobody unless your're based in London, Paris, or Milan. In addition, Central and Eastern Europe are the conduits (if not the source) for many counterfeits. With ACTA, those governments would bear a share of the burden in protecting someone else's economy while their own not-quite-so IP-reliant economies see no benefit. So they'd go from not spending money enforcing someone else's IP while getting economic benefit from those citizen who profit from counterfeit, to spending money enforcing someone else's IP while killing off a pretty nice influx of money. Western EU countries are going to have to offer much more trade incentives to get what they want, but then by increasing trade incentives to get IP enforcement, they will just be switching from one hose siphoning money from them to another hose siphoning money from them.
Gee I wonder why they are so opposed (Score:2, Funny)
is it every day the first thing I do is clean all the .cz .ru and .pl spambots off my forum selling everything from counterfeit Viagra to counterfeit purses and shoes? Of course they are opposed, apparently spam and counterfeiting are the only 2 industries in those dumps.
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He's not being bigoted when Eastern/Central Europe has had a reputation for not respecting IP rights and pirating everything they can get their cheapskate hands on for decades. Many of the big C64/Amiga Pirate groups were Euro-based.
It's why the cheap "home computer platforms" like the C64/Sinclair machines/and whatever they had in Poland, Russia and Romania survived in Europe long after the US/Canada market became more console centric...the major reason was the "free games" a la "why should I buy
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"cheapskate"
Pirating does not make one a cheapskate so I'll ask you to stop tossing slurs around. Pirating is actually a good thing all in all and very important form of protest.
As for the Amiga, being an extremely powerful video editing platform is what kept it alive for so long and that life was here in the US as much as anywhere. Maybe you saw shows like Babylon 5 using Amigas for Hollywood effects years after there was no Amiga.
I bet Czech will sign up... (Score:1)
The Czech Republic will get told, by Hollywood, that if they don't sign up then Hollywood will stop coming to Prague to make movies.
Which movies are shot in the Czech Republic?
Well, there are numerous scenes from "Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol" that were shot in Prague (youtube can help).
That must bring a nice boost to the local economy when the entire troupe from a big production movie like that comes to town.
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I think Europe needs to work on developing its own movie industry more, instead of sucking up to the assholes in Hollywood. I have Netflix, and on it I've seen a bunch of really great European-made movies over the last several years (probably made within the last 10); overall they're much better than the dreck that comes out of Hollywood.
Can you Vote in Europe? Take action NOW! (Score:5, Informative)
UK:
http://www.writetothem.com/ [writetothem.com]
Rest of Europe:
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/members/public/geoSearch.do;jsessionid=EAF5D554A71EBE16A5E8A71092CD2DB9.node2 [europa.eu] [europa.eu]
A brief analysis of the issue, but obviously presenting a one-sided view... so weigh the info as you see fit:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ihere3PEPg&feature=g-all-u&context=G20f3a72FAAAAAAAABAA [youtube.com]
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I think he's already on the ball [europa.eu].
Central Europe Knows Tyranny (Score:2)
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Let me translate that for you (Score:1)
Unhappy (Score:2)