Other Acts
wahmbulance TPP wahmbulance
The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a secretive, multi-nation trade agreement that threatens to extend restrictive intellectual property laws across the globe.
The TPP will rewrite the global rules on IP enforcement. All signatory countries will be required to conform their domestic laws and policies to the provisions of the Agreement. In the U.S. this is likely to further entrench controversial aspects of U.S. copyright law (such as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s broad ban on circumventing digital locks and frequently disproprotionate statutory damages for copyright infringement) and restrict the ability of Congress to engage in domestic law reform to meet the evolving IP needs of American citizens and the innovative technology sector. The recently leaked U.S. IP chapter also includes provisions that appear to go beyond current U.S. law. This raises significant concerns for citizens’ due process, privacy and freedom of expression rights.
Like ACTA, the TPP Agreement is a plurilateral agreement that will be used to create new heightened global IP enforcement norms. Countries that are not parties to the negotiation will likely be asked to accede to the TPP as a condition of bilateral trade agreements with the U.S. and other TPP members, or evaluated against the TPP's standards in the annual Special 301 process administered by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.
(
Text from Eff.org, click to read more. In that page they have a lot of information on the TPP question, including links to Key Documents.)
Related links
The
TPP Digest is a page that collects the most recent news about TPP.
You should also read the
TPP Watch Q&A section about the partnership.
Read more about it on
Wikipedia.
Take Action
If you're in the U.S. you can take the eff.org's
Action Alert.
If you're elsewhere, you can check the
Action suggests from TPP Watch.
wahmbulance OPEN ACT wahmbulance
From
PCWorld:
"
OPEN would give oversight to the International Trade Commission (ITC) instead of the Justice Department, focuses on foreign-based websites, includes an appeals process, and would apply only to websites that “willfully” promote copyright violation."
The bill pretends to only target foreign websites, while keeping Americans free to surf and post, but the bill’s wording is wide open to pursue American sites. Just one example: when describing an infringing site, it starts with those “that are accessed through a non-domestic domain name,” but continues in section ( 8 )(A)(ii) for any site that “conducts business directed to residents of the United States.”
It sounds like, “in general,” copyright holders will be the ones filing complaints to the Commission, but the writing leaves it open for any complainant to file. The ITC would still have the ability to coerce payment processors and ad networks to cease funding and linking the accused in question. Who could determine “willful” infringement?
OPEN is gaining support from groups like Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Consumer Electronics Association and more.
While it seems admirable that the bill is transparent and open for public comment, most laws of this nature are broad and allow for bigger, no-common sense crackdowns later. Plus, there might only be a couple concessions and the pacifying effects of “being heard.”
One commenter of the bill aptly noted:
‘Reasonable belief’ and ‘credible evidence’ are too vague and have the appearance of inviting highly subjective interpretation with the option for the commission and/or the provider to exercise sweeping powers with impunity.
Whenever any group is appeased after a battle, it cannot be emphasized enough — the lawmakers’ modus operandi will be: aim high, brace for the outcry, make a couple alterations and sneak the bill back in when no one’s looking. Keep it going and going. Call it by a different name. Haggle. It appears there is compromise and reasoning now, but once the bill passes into law, reason goes out the window, and we are the only ones compromised.
- Edited text from InfoWars
"The OPEN Act secures two fundamental principles. First, Americans have a right to benefit from what they've created. And second, Americans have a right to an open internet. Our duty is to protect these rights. That's why congressional Republicans and Democrats came together to write the OPEN Act. But it's only a start. We need your ideas: sign up, comment and collaborate to build a better bill."
Introducing text of the new bill's official site, "
KeepTheWebOpen". In the site you can find
FAQs,
a comparison between SOPA, PIPA and OPEN and you can also "collaborate to build a better bill".
Read more...
A good article about the OPEN act on Ars Technica.
wahmbulance OPERATION: BLACK MARCH wahmbulance
You can check the companies you shouldn't buy from
in here.
wahmbulance H.R. 1981 wahmbulance
It appears that a Senator Lamar Smith who was largely responsible for the SOPA bill could well have another bill related to Child Pornography down his pants, this bill will track all your financial dealings online by forcing your ISP (internet service provider) to do the dirty work for the government.
The data collected will include your IP address, and there are rumours that your search history, credit card and other personal information will also be stored conveniently for 18 months, though this seems to be a little scaremongering above and beyond what is perhaps intended with this bill.
(Text from
Mobile Inquirer. Click to see the whole article.)
Petition
Sign the anti-H.R. 1981 petition on
SignOn.org.
wahmbulance SOPA / PIPA ARE STILL HERE! wahmbulance
Although the majority of the congress turned to decline the SOPA/PIPA project...
There's still 61 supporters! (According to the Pro Publica Website). Let's call these Senators right now!
UPDATED: 55 Supporters! ( Jan. 28 )
You can do your part (if you haven't yet)
here, or you can get in touch with the senators that support the bill directly via
ProPublica.
