Hey everyone! Hope you enjoyed whatever video you came here from, and if you didn’t, well, then ignore the first part of this sentence. Basically, I’m going to detail this “on-going war on the internet”, starting with the Australian court case involving iiNet, and ending with the ACTA treaty. I’ll update this as more information becomes available. ----Skip down to bottom for a tl:dr----
For those of you that don’t about this court case, basically, iiNet was taken to court by Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT) because iiNet didn’t move on piracy data to its (AFACT) satisfaction. So, at first glance, you might tell yourself “Ahh, okay, well it’s just an Australian anti-piracy group going after an Australian ISP, seems legit.”
The Canberra Wikileaks cables paint a different story. They show that the United States embassy there sanctioned a Hollywood conspiracy to target iiNet through the local court system. How did Hollywood do this? They hired a monitoring company to monitor iiNet customers, and once they finished monitoring, Hollywood delivered a phone-book sized list of IP addresses to iiNet, demanding that they take action against their customers.
When iiNet failed to act quickly enough, AFACT took the ISP to court, and long story short, iiNet won the case, by asserting that “…it needed some kind of judicial oversight to move forward with infringement accusations; it couldn't just cut off its own subscribers on the say-so of a film company.”
So why was iiNet targeted?
-It’s an Australian company. Any common law precedent in Australia would likely have influence in countries like Canada or Great Britain, where their legal systems are comparable.
-Australian telecommunications giant Telstra was judged too large for the purposes of the attack. Owing to its smaller size and more limited resources, iiNet was gauged the perfect candidate.
Since iiNet won the case, the common law precedent was not established, however, if iiNet had lost the case the common law precedent that would have been established is that ISPs are responsible for their customer’s unauthorized file-sharing. What are the ramifications of this? I sure as hell have no idea. My best guess is that it would require the ISPs to cut connection for customers caught sharing unauthorized files, or keep records on their customers, in order to keep them from being liable in court. (Basically, to keep the same thing that happened to iiNet from happening to them.)
So, my government tried to influence copyright laws in other countries by attacking a foreign business, and it failed. Turns out my government (and Hollywood) are sore losers, so they tried to throw SOPA/PIPA at us.
Quick Stats on SOPA
-Stop Online Piracy Act
-Introduced by Lamar Smith (R-TX)
-Per industry, the TV, Music, Movies industry (Hollywood) was his largest campaign contributor ------Over $60,000 in 2010.
-Lamar Smith is the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. This Committee is responsible for overseeing bills involving copyright laws in the House (among many other things).
-SOPA failed to get out of the House Judiciary Committee after the Jan 18th online protests.
-Don’t think for a second this bill has been “deleted” or “shelved”, it has merely be postponed, in all likelihood, it (or a bill like it) will be brought back, once public interest has faded, as ACTA-enabling legislation.
Quick Stats on PIPA
-Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act
-Introduced by Patrick Leahy (D-VT)
-Per industry, the TV, Music, Movies industry (Hollywood) was his second largest campaign contributor, contributing over $371,000 to his campaign in 2007. (Don’t forget, senators serve six year terms). Also, he took over $267,000 directly from individual campaign donations from registered lobbyists.
-Patrick Leahy is the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. This Committee is responsible for overseeing bills involving copyright laws in the Senate (among other things).
-PIPA gets out of the Senate Judiciary Committee after a unanimous vote.
-PIPA pulled from voting due to the Jan 18th protests.
-Once again, don’t think for a second this bill has been “deleted” or “shelved”, it has merely be postponed, in all likelihood, it (or a bill like it) will be brought back, once public interest has faded, as ACTA-enabling legislation.
So, after our “victory” on the 18th, the Department of Justice took down Megaupload on the 19th.
For those of you that don’t know, Megaupload is (was):
-A file sharing website
-Received over 50,000,000 hits a day
-Had over 180,000,000 registered users
-The 13th largest site on the internet
-A Hong Kong based company.
-Ran by a German citizen.
So, after a two year investigation, the DOJ decided to take down Megaupload on a whim, the day after our protests….coincidence?
Now let’s go ahead and move on to the ACTA treaty.
Some quick information on the ACTA treaty:
-Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement
-Signatories include the United States, South Korea, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Singapore, and Japan. Possible signatories include the EU, Mexico, and Switzerland.
-The treaty in itself has no power; it is how the individual signatories decide to pass legislation satisfying the treaty that gives this treaty power. (Think SOPA/PIPA)
-Talks began in 2006, the final draft of the treaty was released in 2010.
-The treaty negotiations were classified by the United States government, and repeated Freedom of Information requests by advocacy groups to get ahold of notes taken during negotiations have been denied by both the Bush and the Obama administrations, citing a “…damage to national security”. So, apparently, anti-piracy notes can damage national security…seems legit.
-For the most part, the treaty seeks to streamline copyright laws in the signatory states. However there are some scumbag steve-ish clauses that can be interpreted various ways.
-For example, there is a clause that may or may not be interpreted to mean that a signatory country must establish a law that basically makes ISPs give up your data (browsing history, financial records) if you are involved in a copyright lawsuit.
-Another example, there is a clause where countries may or may not (this clause can be opted out on) establish laws that give customs officers the authority to search international mail and freight if they have reasonable suspicion there is infringed material contained in the mail or freight. Any infringed material that is found can be used against the sender in a court of law. Without a warrant.
-Countries can also establish laws that allow airport officials, if they are have reasonable suspicion you are carrying infringed material, they may search your luggage or personal items for the infringed material, and anything they find can be used against you in a court of law. Without a warrant.
These are some of the worst clauses of ACTA, and, my hope is that signatory countries will come up with legislation that satisfies the treaty but doesn’t infringe on civil liberties. This treaty could either be fair and effective, or very very very unfair and effective. It is up to us to make sure our respective governments don’t try to pull anything.
UPDATE---On Jan 26, 2010, the EU and 22 member states signed the treaty, with other member states vowing to sign it soon.
UPDATE---On Jan 26, 2010, the EU and 22 member states signed the treaty, with other member states vowing to sign it soon.
Now, lastly, I want to get into something that outright scares me. It is the Protecting Children from Online Pornographers Act of 2011. This bill sounds like it serves a noble cause, and I would agree, however, this bill is a horrible bill.
Quick Stats on PCOPA:
-Introduced by Lamar Smith (sound familiar?) in May 2011.
-Passed through the House Judiciary Committee with a 19-10 vote on July 28.
-This bill, if passed, will force ISPs to keep for 18 months:
-Your name
-Your address
-Your assigned IP address’
-Your bank account numbers
-Your browsing history
-Your credit card numbers
This information can be used against you in a court of law without a warrant.
I have researched this for almost 36 hours straight now, and the more I read into it, the more I believe we are in the midst of a war for the internet. Not only will this legislation affect me, a United States citizen, it will affect the entire world (the US will blacklist any countries that don’t play ball). Not only will this legislation affect me, but it will affect my children, and their children. Please, I don’t know what to do, but please, spread this information. Knowledge is power, and the war we are currently in will use knowledge, not guns, as its weapon of choice.
tl:dr – There is a war occurring right now for our rights on the internet. It started when Hollywood targeted an Australian ISP. Hollywood failed, and then tried to get Congress to pass SOPA/PIPA. Now we have ACTA and PCOPA to worry about. We have many more battles to fight, and if we lose a single one, we could lose the right for a free internet for ourselves and our children.
