Friday, May 30, 2008

Bullies and their over-reach

Do you ever wonder why the copyright lobby is so able to get governments to support their overreach, or why goverments seem so eager to stomp freedoms?
As a fairly staunch defender of rights, I do. Recently I've been thinking that I'm swimming against the stream. Might as well start campaigning against basic human rights and freedoms because that's where we're headed anyway. Go with the flow.
So now, if I head back to Canada for to visit my folks or what not customs officials may start looking through every one of my iPod songs for copyrighted material.
Canadian border guards to check iPods for infringment - Boing Boing
The federal government is secretly negotiating an agreement to revamp international copyright laws which could make the information on Canadian iPods, laptop computers or other personal electronic devices illegal and greatly increase the difficulty of travelling with such devices. The deal would create a international regulator that could turn border guards and other public security personnel into copyright police. The security officials would be charged with checking laptops, iPods and even cellular phones for content that "infringes" on copyright laws, such as ripped CDs and movies.

The guards would also be responsible for determining what is infringing content and what is not.

Canadians, time to write your MP! This was on the front page of the daily tabloid in Vancouver, so hopefully Jim Prentice will be forced to actually consult the public before he sells us all up the river.

In half related news, one of the entertainment industry hired thugs launched a DoS attack against Revision 3. MediaDefender attacks and cripples Revision3 for locking out its spy-bots - Boing Boing
MediaDefender, the thugs paid by the entertainment industry to spy on file-sharers and attempt to cripple file-sharing networks, attacked a legitimate Internet TV company called Revision3 over the weekend, launching a massive denial-of-service attack in retaliation for having their spy-bots locked out of R3's BitTorrent trackers

Check the back of your matchbook law degree. It's illegal for you to do that shit!
This is what we're going to be putting up with if people don't start standing up for themselves.

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