SOPA, ACTA and WIPO: where is the copyfight headed?

Michael Geist sez, "I've posted a video version of a recent talk on SOPA activism and what it means for the next generation of global copyright agreements such as the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement and the Trans Pacific Partnership. The talk is about an hour as it also assesses the global strategies employed by the U.S. and copyright lobby groups of shifting away from WIPO toward closed negotiations (like ACTA) and domestic copyright pressure (like the Canada's Bill C-11, which is a combination of DMCA + potentially SOPA)."

Beyond SOPA: ACTA, WIPO, and the Global Copyfight (Thanks, Michael!)

• [MB44]

     Can we please stop saying that this is simply about copyright? This issue goes deeper than copyright and the discussion needs to reflect that fact more. This legislation is using the issue of copyright as a trojan horse to put a kill switch on the most powerful tool that the world has ever seen for expressing dissent and organizing the oppressed majority against the status quo. It really just is not about some entertainment interests that do or do not get paid for a garbage illegal download of Hollywood’s latest ejaculation for simpletons. The elite in this country observed what happened in the Middle East last spring and realized that the potential for that happening in the US existed if the people here were ever to wake the fuck up on a massive level and organize against their oppressors. They are using copyright to create a much greater power than the ability to prosecute pirate bay downloaders. I am just worried when we leave it at copyright and forget that it is really about maintaining control over us at a far greater level. I also hope that the protests against this garbage legislation continue as they try to push this in through the back door ( which, believe me, they will do). If these assholes put a kill-switch on the internet it will be the last thing that is needed to solidify the overlord’s positions until they devour every resource on this planet and it becomes uninhabitable.

  Whew, sorry I blacked out for a second. Just venting. 

  • [SoItBegins]

    “The internet interprets censorship as damage and routes around it.”

    You might be surprised how deep this goes.

    • [MB44]

      I agree but the problem with depending upon that logic to save the Internet as a free and open source for all is the the fact that, as it is now, it can be accessed by all who desire to access it with little to no technological know-how. When it comes to using a proxy-server to browse or encryption to shield the information that one sends online, there is only a select group of people that understand how to do it. The key to the web is the ease with which information is accessed. If we lose that ease the the majority will not be able to use the internet as a tool for organization anymore.

    • [jackbird]

       …unless the censorship is in the routers.

  • [Hakuin]

     Yes.

• [Marcus Schoen]

  ^^  Agreed.  We now know that the powers are paid and corrupt.  Let’s threaten the establishment with a 3rd party.  If we can get a 3rd, we can probably get a 4th, and at some point they can’t buy everyone.

• [Slinky the Drunk]

  i think that there needs to be a few more big brother memes to get this across

• [Oliver Crosby]

  Somehow it excited me that Cory Doctrow is promoting Micheal Geist, as you are both people I’ve been loosely following for a few years and always assumed you would never have heard of each other…

• [Florian Bösch]

  “Where copyright is headed”

  1) In the wrong direction
  2) The way of the dinosaurs who eventually died out due to inability to adapt to a radically changed environment.

• [CognitiveDissident]

  I almost expect to hear a speech from Winston Churchill if the bad guys win:
  “From Staten Island in the Atlantic to Venice in the Adriatic, a silicon curtain has descended across the Internet. All because the citizens fell for a shiny new trojan horse.”