Together, we beat SOPA in a huge victory for internet freedom. But this Saturday, internet freedom protests are breaking out in over 200 cities across Europe. Why? Because the companies behind SOPA are using international trade agreements as a backdoor to pass SOPA-style laws SOPA's supporters are pushing two agreements: ACTA and TPP1. ACTA would criminalize users, encourage internet providers to spy on you, and make it easier for media companies to sue sites out of existence and jail their founders. Sound familiar?That's right, ACTA is from the same playbook as SOPA, but global. Plus it didn't even have to pass through Congress2. TPP goes even farther than ACTA, and the process has been even more secretive and corrupt. Last weekend (we wish this was a joke) trade negotiators partied with MPAA (pro-SOPA) lobbyists before secret negotiations in a Hollywood hotel, while public interest groups were barred from meeting in the same building.3 Trade agreements are a gaping loophole, a secretive backdoor track that--even though it creates new laws--is miles removed from democracy. Trade negotiators are unelected and unaccountable, so these agreements have been very hard for internet rights groups to stop. But now the tide is turning. Fueled by the movement to stop SOPA, anti-ACTA protests are breaking out across the EU, which hasn't ratified ACTA. The protests are having an impact: leaders in Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia have backtracked on ACTA.4 Now a massive round of street protests in over 200 cities is planned for this Saturday February 11th. We're planning an online protest this Saturday to support the protests in the streets. Why? Because together we can drive millions of emails to key decision makers--and start tipping the scales like we did on SOPA. Can you take part? Click here to get the code to run on your site! We just built an ACTA & TPP contact tool, and it's not just a petition. It's code for your site that figures out the visitor's country and lets them email all their Members of European Parliament--the politicians who will be voting on ACTA in June--or the trade negotiators behind TPP. This direct contact between voters and their officials, driven by websites of all sizes, was instrumental in the fight against SOPA. We can use the same tactics to defeat ACTA & TPP, but we need your help! Support the street protests with a flood of emails to the officials responsible for ACTA & TPP. Get the code for your website! Don't have a website? Tell officials in your country to scrap ACTA & TPP! And spread the word about Saturday's protests! This is going to be tough fight. But we need to make secretive trade agreements harder to pass than US law. If we don't, our internet's future belongs to the lobbyists behind SOPA. This is just the beginning, --Holmes Wilson, Tiffiniy Cheng, Joshua Blount & the whole Fight for the Future team. P.S. This map of ACTA street protests in Europe is amazing. The largest has almost 50,000 RSVP's! Sources: 1. For more information on ACTA, read these excellent articles from Techdirt and La Quadrature du Net. For information on TPP, read this Ars Technica piece. For video, watch this. 2. Obama's signing of ACTA may have been unconstitutional. See Anti-counterfeiting agreement raises constitutional concerns and Techdirt. 3. Hollywood gets to party with TPP negotiators, public interest groups get thrown out of the hotel. 4. Ars Technica: Czech, Slovak governments backing away from ACTA, too.
glad you posted this, r29k, and a very thorough piece of work it is! but for a month or so, i`ve been screaming, that if we stop them one way [like sopa,] they will get back in another way, [like acta,] and that is a loosing battle.. what is needed is the public voting with their wallets, and no longer buying this all-american garbage, imho. and yes, we can only adress a small minority, i am aware of that. but i`ll just keep on trying anyway..
I got it in mail from Fight for the Future thingy. I just re posted it so people can be informed about the planned protests.
Why can't we just go in there and just kick these policy makers in the nuts and pull their panties over their heads.
because it requires coordination.. we may agree here, but we are but a tiny minority on the www.. and there is no genius to coordinate our attemps..
now this looks like a good idea.. http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/296...n-black-march-anonymous-protest-acta-sopa.htm
that`s right, acrsn, it hits the nail right on the head, trouble is, these copyright zombies are still using the moneybags to get legislation through. i`m all for a black march to put them in their places..
The more I see such outcomes and compare them to the alleged intended goals, the more I have but one word for such shisters: sociopaths...
The EU Commission blows smoke up to the US government's ass by making concessions and at the same time they fool the EU citizens. And the country's governments do nothing.
exactly!! The most troubling part is it has become accepted policy/behavior to lie and deceive people and populations seemingly unaware or tragically unwilling to hold those responsible to account.
if only it were that simple, redroad.. well, it aint.. it may be hard to realise when you live in another part of the world, that all those fine european democracies have created an undemocratic monster, in brussels and strassburg, devouring vast resources, wielding a truly gargantian bureaucracy, and enabling things like acta to be decided behind closed doors, without the populations in europe finding out untill it is almost a fait accompli.. and as for holding those responsible to account, that is easier said than done..the brussels monster is not in itself responsible, it is being remotely controlled by the powers that be.. you can shoot down a drone, but you cannot shoot down those who control it..