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ACTA will force border searches of laptops, smartphones for pirated content

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Re: ACTA will force border searches of laptops, smartphones for pirated content

#91

Post by tlrobinson »

tatsuke95 wrote: post #84
haakon wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The friend may claim he has forgotten his part of the passphrase, though. I wonder what would happen in that case.

If they want the key from you, they're going to get the key. That's what will happen. Ask the inverse: they decide to detain you, indefinitely, until you produce the encryption key or admit that there's some base level of contraband on your computer that you're responsible for. What happens in that case? Maybe as a Canadian I see this differently. At least as an American you will have certain rights that you can hope…

Solution: Encrypted data is indistinguishable from random data. Use TrueCrypt (or similar) hidden volumes: http://www.truecrypt.org/docs/?s=hidden-volume

Re: ACTA will force border searches of laptops, smartphones for pirated content

#92

Post by tlrobinson »

coryl wrote: post #14
yason wrote: post #13

Regardless of ACTA, I have already established a personal policy to: 1) encrypt my partitions (other than root, to make upgrades and reinstalls easier; I use LUKS) 2) copy the essential first megabytes of each LUKS partition to my server or shell account somewhere, encrypted with GPG 3) fill that space with random data 4) travel and go through customs 5) access the GPG encrypted LUKS blocks over internet, decrypt and…

Not a lawyer here, but I've heard some BS laws about encryption. In some cases if you refuse to decrypt or are unable, you can be at fault and still be detained. Needs citation though.

TrueCrypt hidden volumes are one solution: http://www.truecrypt.org/docs/?s=hidden-volume

Re: ACTA will force border searches of laptops, smartphones for pirated content

#93

Post by mrdingle »

Lets take this seriously for a second. Say we're actually trying to catch cyber criminals and child pornographers and we're discussing enacting this law. Someone speaks up and says, "For all the discomfort and trouble we're putting innocent people through, the real criminals will just store their data online and travel with cleaned computers." How do you continue enacting this legislation? I'm trying to be as serious as possible.

How does any legislator look at the people they represent and come to the conclusion that this is a good idea?

Re: ACTA will force border searches of laptops, smartphones for pirated content

#94

Post by lunarscape »

eternalban wrote: post #85
guard-of-terra wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

USA is behind it, they're almost the only ones who really want it, they write it and also their world view gets into it and then imposed on the other countries.

> USA is behind it Prove it. Isn't it about time Europeans started to take responsibility for their ("democratic") governments? Why did your government sign the dotted line? If answer is "US made us", then news flash: You do not live in a democracy. If you insist you Europeans have your act together (where as we boobs in US don't) then clearly it is your own government that is behind it. ACTA: http://trade.ec.europa.…

>Prove it

Thanks to Wikileaks and other sources we do have evidence of long running pressure and threats by the US to influence or in some cases directly write other countries laws in respect to copyright. One recent example about piracy: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/jan/05/us-pressure...

Re: ACTA will force border searches of laptops, smartphones for pirated content

#95

Post by c16 »

Surely you'd be better off having an empty netbook and using RDP to connect to a home server? At least then nothing is encrypted, they are free to look at the hard drive and could happily confiscate it without you having any issues. Worst comes to the worst, if you use dynDNS, you could just change the URL you use to connect.

Re: ACTA will force border searches of laptops, smartphones for pirated content

#96

Post by Craiggybear »

arethuza wrote: post #88
Craiggybear wrote: post #70

How can they tell it is pirated? I mean, the audio files may have been ripped from a legit CD. They can't tell for sure. Similarly, I may have ripped an AVI from a legit DVD. For my own convenience while traveling. I sometimes do.

"I may have ripped an AVI from a legit DVD" Ripping a DVD is, I believe, a criminal act in the US and a number of other countries (including the UK). http://www.audiostream.com/content/ripping-crime

Is it? I thought it was fair use.

Like cassette recording an album in ye olden analogue days. To stop vinyl wear-and-tear. That was certainly perfectly legal as long as it wasn't distributed.

Sigh. I'm a criminal and don't even know it.

I'm fucking sick of paying taxes and yet still being labelled a criminal by people who don't even know me. I'm sure I'm not alone.

Re: ACTA will force border searches of laptops, smartphones for pirated content

#97

Post by ivanbernat »

mrdingle wrote: post #93

Lets take this seriously for a second. Say we're actually trying to catch cyber criminals and child pornographers and we're discussing enacting this law. Someone speaks up and says, "For all the discomfort and trouble we're putting innocent people through, the real criminals will just store their data online and travel with cleaned computers." How do you continue enacting this legislation? I'm trying to be as serious…

In my opinion this is exactly like SOPA, a corporation-sponsored bill. Why would any government care if you "pirate" a movie? There is no tax on cinemas, but you pay an tax + extra fees if you're buying blank CD/DVDs -- because they presume you're going to write ("burn") illegal content.

Re: ACTA will force border searches of laptops, smartphones for pirated content

#98

Post by [deleted] »

vladd wrote: post #80
scotty79 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you run a company that's the rules. If you can't prove that you are licensed to use every single piece of software that you have on your computer then you can have your whole computer (or just the hard drive) confiscated and held for indefinite amount of time by the police probably long enough to technology become obsolete and your withheld data to become meaningless. At least that's how it looks in Poland. Using…

> Using any non opensource software is so scary that I wonder why would anyone pay and take the risk. In Romania, businesses must fill each month online statements, but such fillings can only be done with Microsoft Internet Explorer, and there's no option to fill them in person. So you're forced to use non opensource software.

[deleted]

Re: ACTA will force border searches of laptops, smartphones for pirated content

#99

Post by arethuza »

Craiggybear wrote: post #96
arethuza wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I may have ripped an AVI from a legit DVD" Ripping a DVD is, I believe, a criminal act in the US and a number of other countries (including the UK). http://www.audiostream.com/content/ripping-crime

Is it? I thought it was fair use. Like cassette recording an album in ye olden analogue days. To stop vinyl wear-and-tear. That was certainly perfectly legal as long as it wasn't distributed. Sigh. I'm a criminal and don't even know it. I'm fucking sick of paying taxes and yet still being labelled a criminal by people who don't even know me. I'm sure I'm not alone.

I believe it's because DVDs do have a trivial copyright protection scheme on them - ripping the DVD involves breaking this and it's this part that causes the real trouble:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ripping#Circumvention_of_DVD_co...

Re: ACTA will force border searches of laptops, smartphones for pirated content

#100

Post by batista »

tjoff wrote: post #89
pwg wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> how on earth has it come to this?? First they came for the communists, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak out because I was Protestant. Then they came for me and there was n…

The scary part is that I don't imagine any politician actually wanting this. Or am I just too naive?

I'll go with the too naive.

What they want is maximum power/profit.

And it's not politicians --those are mostly puppets.

America is/is becoming a corporate state, and corporatism was the very essence of Mussolini's fascism.

The very notion of lobbyist groups is fascistic (Mussolini himself partitioned the power system in Italy to consist of various group interests in a great extend).

Power and law become then an exchange between groups (lobbying), experts (often paid lackeys of said groups), and politicians, and democracy goes out of the window.

The democratic alternative would have been several opposed political parties, so that the play for power is open to the general masses --the population that supports them-- directly, and is carried out as a public struggle for the vote.

But the differences between Republicans and Democrats in most matters are mostly marginal or a joke, and mainly in issues that don't matter to the actual power play --- like playing pro or against "gay marriage" to appeal to conservative or progressive voters, the same voters that both parties pass laws to make them poorer and more controlled in every possible way.

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