Please keep in mind discussion of real world politics is not permitted.

I find it interesting that even people who are mostly apolitical are totally against this sort of legislation.

It's almost like I can hear them saying, "Down with this sort of thing!"

ACTA is supposedly a few years old, from what i've heard SOPA is newer so it's possible that SOPA is the cause of the discovery of ACTA


ACTA won't go into effect until it's past the signing phase and has a group of officials for it similar to the U.N.

I'm aware that it's been in the works since at least 2008 or so, but it only recently reached the point where countries are signing it. And while sufficient pressure will move a government to break a trade agreement, I'm pretty sure it's easier to get them to not sign on in the first place. Of course, it is difficult to rally against something you're not even aware of...

2010-ish, it got some attention on numerous blogs I read, I recall. Also the FSF and EFF pretty much instantly started rallying against it when they found out in 2008. Still, only people like you and me bother with such groups and places, otherwise this may have broken out sooner (I remember emailing my senator about it, not that it did any good since congress never did touch the trade agreement)

From my own very limited experience of government consultation, I'm surprised that there has not been more effort to find a win-win solution with all stakeholders before drafting legislation.

I doubt whether responsible organisations like Google and Wikipedia would oppose action against piracy if it were framed in terms that minimised cost and risk to legitimate internet users.

http://boingboing.net/2012/02/03/slovenias-ambassador-apologi.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

First the Special Rapporteur for the EU (!), then the Pols, now Slovenia's Ambassador.

Where's our alternate, safe-haven, Plan-B internet already?

I'm afraid http://netsukuku.freaknet.org/ isn't quite ready yet. Even https://freenetproject.org/ (and other such projects) needs work, and it's 'merely' a piece of software using the current infrastructure.

The most i've heard of SOPA is that it might affect Facebbok and Youtube. No major company would be idiotic to takedown any of those sites, and i imagine the general public would know this too, hence a lot of apathy.

Don't see why Freenet and such need to be used. I could imagine a P2P system that doesn't need a lot of encryption to take the place of something like youtube.

That's an excellent project. Was wondering when this would happen. I'm part of a local wireless user group already. Fast and endless bandwidth, no ISPs, and a tight-knit, knowledgeable community -- that's all I need out of my net-life. At the mo we're in the planning stages of setting up a news site. We'll also be copy-pasting Wikipedia onto a server at some point. All ad- and commerce-free.

Any word on when Netsukuku might be ready? A guesstimate, even?

Problem: many ISPs use https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandvine to slow P2P traffic to a crawl, if they don't disconnect you from the Internet first.

Anyone else finding the timing of MegaUpload's close and TPB's move to .se a little too timely?

Why do we even need ACTA/SOPA/PIPA if the legal framework already exists to prosecute and destroy non-domestic websites and thier owners?

Feels almost like, especially since the State of the Union, that I'm being told : "We don't care about your feelings on the issue, thxbai."

There's a definite narrative going on here, and I don't like it.

I don't know about you guys, but the etc. bill really scares me.

Accidentally posted before ready.Maybe I shoulda used the actual http://lab.dyne.org/Netsukuku rather than the wiki. Also, I possibly should have paid more attention to the last news update. On the other hand, there has been some recent activity on their http://lists.dyne.org/lurker/list/netsukuku.en.html, and there's a little recentish additions and resolutions on the http://bugs.dyne.org/my_view_page.php. So it looks like it's either dead or on life support, though I could be missing something. However, if lots of people show an interest and advertise it a bit, people with relevant skills might get interested too and pick it up .

There are ways to deal with that. A good VPN service, for example, will make the data you're transferring pretty much immune to that kind of thing. Of course, there are other angles of attack that ISP's could go with, but I don't think businesses would take kindly to their networks being breached (since one of the biggest uses for Virtual Private Networks is employees accessing corporate networks while off-site), and I imagine it'd start getting too costly to be worthwhile.

In a world that believes in free speech *most of it* I find these bills to be really insulting. It truly is a vain attempt at controlling the "monstrous entity" known as the internet. Really I foresee another RIAA thing where companies start attacking people demanding companies give up the IP addresses of their uploaders. After that they persecute these people demanding obscene amounts of money to supplement what they have "lost" in the process. There are good and bad people out there with the good ones getting slapped down along with the bad.

Person enjoys making music videos and if any type of bill like these gets passed that will end. Videos will be targeted and terminated swiftly with their uploader being deemed a criminal. Worst bill I heard of so far was one that would put in a 3 strike penalty against people. On your third strike you were banned from the internet and truthfully that was a laugh since it's hard to prevent people from getting on the internet.

Hopefully bills of this type will die with these companies realizing their vain attempt at controlling people.

etc bill=Evilfish Touches Children Bill? HIDE YO KIDS!

@Zyghart- Honestly, I was thinking the same thing about Megauploads suddenly going down after all that jazz with SOPA failing. I bet you it was that movie giant from Hollywood who really pushed the FBI to find him on SOME technicallity.

Man, that's disappointing. That site is a mess, too... I'm quite sure they're not going to attract much talent if they don't give better "face"... This can't be the only project of its kind, though. Time to do some net searching. To the Google-mobile!

I was trying to download some audio samples (clicks, bangs and stuff) to use for modding Skyrim, from Filesonic (or Fileserve, I always mix those two up yes, it's Filesonic), and it turns out they've disabled all of their filesharing. You're only allowed to DL and UL from your own account...

Looks like what happened to Megaupload has them scared. If it's encouraging them to figure out a way to better police their service, great. Too bad this also involves them hamstringing legitimate users.

Don`t surprise me at all. It gets worse all the time with the government and companies in there trying to control more and more of everything and anything the people do. They back off for a bit, but then try again.

Steam and Origin is a small example of what encourages these people.

Excuse me?

Pedofinder General will find you. Under English law, you are innocent until speculated guilty.

There are some topics I don't joke about.

And I certainly don't like being the subject of them.

Just sayin'.

The filthy rich don't need to be any richer, the money they lose is nothing to the money they still make, all in all it comes down to greed, lust for power and absolute control. They can keep it up, but they forget they are not immortal, they will rot in the ground like the rest of us, money will not save them.

That is all.

Nu huh, they got life expanding mechanics in their basemant! Then there is those self replicating animated history books, I'm glad the Gengis Khan era didn't have them.

Are these bills/acts still getting pushed or has everyone just gave up caring?

ACTA is the current one, and there is another bill being drafted. The “Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2012”, which exempts service providers form all legality if they give up all their user info to the U.S. gov. in the name of "national security".