On the surface, proposals like SOPA, PIPA, ACTA and all the others from around the world appear to be anti-piracy legislation. It certainly is what the powers that be want you to believe. But all of these proposals go far beyond the piracy issue. The real ramifications of these potential laws won't be felt for years or possibly a decade or two. But one thing that is sure is that they will be used by both leftwing and rightwing governments to squash free speech rights not just in their own countries, but around the world. If it's now ok to shut down or block a website because it has copyright material belonging to Hollywood, what's to stop the government from shutting down an opposing political site because it contains copyright material belong to various media giants?
Sound preposterous? Don't think anyone would abuse our free speech rights in this manner? Well then look at what Righthaven has been doing. If you are unfamiliar with them, which would not be surprising, they are a group of lawyers headed by an Obama buddy who attacks bloggers for using even a snippet of copyrighted material from the media. Righthaven sued and seized many sites, including an autistic man's blog for $150,000 for including a Denver Post photo of a TSA pat down, before finally being stopped by a handful of brave judges. And it didn't hurt that Righthaven went after sites that actually had the money to defend themselves, like the Drudge Report.
But where was the US government in all of this? Nowhere to be found. Not President Obama, who's wife Michelle worked with Righthaven's chief executive Steven Gibson in Chicago, nor the US Senate or the House of Representatives believed that this gross attack on our free speech rights was deserving of even a mention, let alone any real discussion. As for the media, they pretty much side stepped this whole thing, showing once again how irrelevant they can be. NPR's On The Media was the one shining exemption.
If they are comfortable with what Righthaven has been up to, there's no reason to think any of them will stand in the way of SOPA/PIPA abuses.
At this point, Righthaven has taken one beating after another this past year. The bully has been given two black eyes and a bloody nose. And there are now plenty of other fists just waiting to take a swing at them.
Thankfully, SOPA & PIPA appear be heading for the same sort of thrashing.
And in Poland, Anonymous is attempting to prevent ACTA from becoming law:
Quote: Poland Defends Stance On Treaty After Web Attacks
by The Associated Press
WARSAW, Poland January 23, 2012, 12:43 pm ET
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Polish officials vowed Monday to stick to plans to sign an international copyright treaty that has outraged Internet activists and prompted an attack on government websites.
....
"The ACTA agreement in no way changes Polish laws or the rights of Internet users and Internet usage," Boni, the minister of administration and digitization, said after a meeting with Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Culture Minister Bogdan Zdrojewski.
Internet opponents of ACTA fear it could lead to censorship online.
Monday's developments came after a Twitter account using the name "AnonymousWiki" announced plans on the weekend to attack government websites to protest the government's support for ACTA.
Within hours on Sunday, the websites of the prime minister, parliament and other government offices were unreachable or sluggish, the hallmarks of a denial-of-service attack.
.....
In an initial response Sunday,
government spokesman Pawel Gras suggested there hadn't been an attack at all on the sites. "This isn't an attack by hackers, but just the result of huge interest in the sites" of the government offices, he said, a comment that quickly became a source of ridicule on Facebook and other Internet sites.
By Monday, with the sites still paralyzed, the prime minister held a meeting to reconsider their stance on the treaty.
"It was a velvet attack by hackers, but still it was an attack. Pawel Gras was wrong," said Slawomir Neumann.....
Boni acknowledged in a radio interview Monday morning that the government had failed to hold enough consultations with the public on the matter.
An opposition party, the Democratic Left Alliance, also called on the government to not sign the treaty in a gesture of solidarity with those who warn it could hurt Internet freedom.
....
"Dear Polish government, we will continue to disrupt and interfere with your government official websites until the 26th. Do not pass ACTA," one tweet by AnonymousWiki said.
It also threatened more trouble should Poland sign ACTA.
"We have dox files and leaked documentations on many Poland officials, if ACTA is passed, we will release these documents," AnonymousWiki said in a separate tweet.
Although its scope is broader, ACTA shares some similarities with the hotly debated Stop Online Piracy Act, which was shelved by U.S. lawmakers last week after Wikipedia and Google blacked out or partially obscured their websites for a day as part of a protest against Web censorship.
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