We won’t have class on Tuesday, 11/24. You are to work on your paper/presentation.
For those doing papers, they are due 12/3.
Here is presentation schedule:
12/1: Heath and Michael
12/3: Justin #1 and Justin #2
12/8: Kelsey and Travis
I expect everyone to attend each presentation. These papers and presentation will determine you final course grade.
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The plan is modeled on the ridiculously misnamed “free trade agreement” between the US and South Korea from a few years back. It’s misnamed because it wasn’t about free trade at all, but massive protectionism for the American entertainment industry. The end results haven’t been pretty. The treaty pushed South Korea to implement new copyright laws that are perhaps the most draconian around, getting the country to be the first to kick people off the internet based on accusations of file sharing, and putting so much liability on third parties that various user-generated content services have had to turn off the ability to upload all sorts of content (no videos on YouTube, no music on blogs) and has resulted in ISPs even banning any kind of advertising that might make them liable for copyright infringement.
via TechDirt
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The Trans Atlantic Consumer Dialogue forum states in its ‘Resolution on the enforcement of copyright, trademarks, patents and other intellectual property rights’ that ACTA “lacks transparaency and legitimacy, and needs safeguards for consumers.” (Sec. 3.b)
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IT is structured like NAFTA. Turns border guards into copyright police. Essentially laptops, ipods and cell phones would be checked for file content that infringes copyright.
http://wikileaks.org/wiki/ACTA_trade_agreement_negotiation_lacks_transparency
According to the Canadian government the treaty will cover commercial activity not noncommercial activity. The treaty will not extend copyright protection, but instead focus on the enforcement of current laws. International thought crime police will have all access to IP information. Will include a brainwashing campaign to increase public support for the loss of their rights. Will set up boards to represent corporate, distributor, and consumer interest “equally”. Will increase penalties for internet piracy, will also criminalize knowing about the process of piracy. Possible establishment of an “IP Crime Task Force” in every country which signs the treaty. The public will be subject to search and seizure of counterfeit information but private sector organizations will not. A centralized trademark system will be created. There are nation states that want to remove due process rights to enforcement of ACTA, others want due process rights are maintained. Statutory damages will be granted. Etc., etc., etc. Essentially all of these provisions are possible and their opposites are also on the table.
http://wikileaks.org/leak/canadian-acta-consultation-report.pdf
The US, EU, Japan, Switzerland, Canada, Australia, Korea, Mexico, and New Zealand are all negotiating on ACTA. There have been reports of various disturbing developements (the intellectual property rights industry was contacted with information on trade nagotiations but not public interest groups). More of the same.
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/story.html?id=ae997868-220b-4dae-bf4f-47f6fc96ce5e&p=1
Essentially I found out that this treaty should be called BBTCPSFTW (Big Brother’s Thought Crime Police State For The World). Shit like this caused the Pirate Party to form.
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Search and post information about ACTA. This is an international treaty on copyright protection. Be careful of opinion only spots. See if you can find any “news” sources. I would like the source links posted, too.
Copyright is the topic for Thursday.
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net neutrality – equal access to contant, no preferred treatment to profitable.
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Network Neutrality is the inability of ISP’s and corporate interests to act as a sort of “gatekeeper” to online content. It is an issue that has been debated through the last 3 Congresses with, of no surprise to this liberal, the right lining up (some of it to be fair) in favor or regulating internet access in support of business interest and the left rallying for neutrality. There are a number of interest group/organizations who have rallied their support for net neutrality, one being appropriately named savetheinternet.com, an online coalition of non-profit organizations, businesses and citizens alike. The latest blogs include such titles as “Why the Future of Online Speech Depends on Net Neutrality,” essentially headlining the claims that the principles of free speech are not only applicable but should be protected/preserved on the internet. I have to include this because it is a little (haha) funny… I have been trying to open HR3458 the Internet Freedom Preservation Act (2009) and do some reading, not that it has any sufficient bearing on anything, however I have not been able to connect to the server for 10 minutes… it has already begun =P. Well, at any rate, more legislation on net neutrality has been proposed in the House, not surprisingly by a Democrat…
A lack of net neutrality would be the beginning (slide down this slippery slope with me) of a series of degradations of fundamental freedoms (speech) and the inequality of competitive e-commerce. Countries like China and Iran don’t/didn’t have net neutrality, we don’t want to be like China and Iran do we?
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I will be back. Net neutrality will be the topic on Thursday. See my earlier post below on what you need to do. Also, remember the update on your project is also due. Again, see the post below.
Your cold virus plagued professor signing off.
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The first time i heard about net neutrality was a few years ago when Colin Powell’s son was in charge of the FCC. The conservatives were pushing the FCC to do away with net neutrality in support of the service providers. As i understood it then, and as i still believe, this was nothing short of a power grab to support big business rooted in ideology. Net neutrality requires that all information on the internet be treated equally regardless of its source or destination. All packets have to travel at the same rate in accordance to given bandwidth. If net neutrality is removed, service providers can control the rate in which information travels across networks. Theoretically, the service providers can give favorable rates to its clients and data and impede the data being streamed from competitors by customers on their networks. Therefore, the Daily Show analogy of fucktimewarner.org becomes possible if not likely. It is understandable that corporate interests would pursue this kind of policy. Afterall, they stand to gain what is likely large sums of money and control over cyberspace. I’m just glad that Congress put the kabosh on the whole thing and all but one of the conservatives on the FCC that pushed this insanity is gone. However, since the current “conservative” big business laissez faire ideology still prevails amongst most elected Republicans; McCain’s support of the service providers and the introduction of his Orwellian entitled bill is not surprising. Given the current make-up of Congress and the ground level, grass roots, and general public uproar over the last time this was brought up i think McCain’s bill will go nowhere. But, once again, given current Republican business uber alles attitudes combined with the service providers deep pockets it is unlikely that the issue will go away. It wouldn’t surprise me if support of net neutrality becomes a plank in the Democratic party platform in the near future. I say this because Byron Dorgan, Dick Durbin, Nancy pelosi, and Steny Hoyer have all issued declarations of support for net neutrality over the last couple of years and they are the majority of the elected Democratic party leadership. I support net neutrality. Because even though the internet is not currently the platform for democratization that a lot of people think it is, the elimination of net neutrality virtually destroys any possibility for the internet becoming a democratizing force, and allows the corporate sector to exert undue influence on yet another aspect of our lives.
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Write a post for this blog that states what the issue of net neutrality is about; who is for it; who is against it and why. This is a straightforward political analysis assignment. Though, if you want to post something fun for others to see on this issue, feel free.
Also, your updates on your projects are do on Thursday. What I want is an update on what you have done so far; what your plans are now and as much info as possible on what your paper/presentation will cover. An outline is fine, but not required. Information will allow me to help you. No information will just mean no help.
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