Two critical notes to the general "holland is fantastic" fuzzy feelings. The Netherlands are European leaders when it comes to wiretapping communications. Its laws gives the intelligence communities extensive powers to tap, filter and store. This was already the case well before 9/11. Secondly, privacy is usually not a political or social issue of any real significance.
The Netherlands recently passed a law on Net neutrality stating that a warrant is required for internet wiretapping: https://www.bof.nl/2012/05/08/netherlands-first-country-in-e... I don't see anything wrong with wiretapping with a warrant. Do people who argue against them also argue against home search warrants?
Dutch parliament rejects ACTA, prohibits government to sign or ratify.
41–50 of 52 posts
Re: Dutch parliament rejects ACTA, prohibits government to sign or ratify.
#42And on the other and now the majority of ISP are blocking access to the PirateBay. As much as I like the Netherlands (living here from 2006, I'm Italian), these inconsistencies in their systems are really annoying[^1]. Net neutrality, ACTA rejection on one side, blocking web sites on the other. [^1]: I won't mention the other kind of inconsistencies, but if you really curious about some health care system madness, I…
Re: Dutch parliament rejects ACTA, prohibits government to sign or ratify.
#43How do we get our govt to stop churning out multi-thousand page piles of pork-barreling instead of simple, straightforward resolutions like this?
Re: Dutch parliament rejects ACTA, prohibits government to sign or ratify.
#44Wow, is this really what bills in the Netherlands look like? 500 words, half a page? How do we get our govt to stop churning out multi-thousand page piles of pork-barreling instead of simple, straightforward resolutions like this?
Re: Dutch parliament rejects ACTA, prohibits government to sign or ratify.
#45Wow, is this really what bills in the Netherlands look like? 500 words, half a page? How do we get our govt to stop churning out multi-thousand page piles of pork-barreling instead of simple, straightforward resolutions like this?
The actual law or laws that will be changed or created are not nearly as pretty. (Although judges here are allowed to pass judgement in the "spirit of the law" rather than taking the text literally, so there is less of an incentive to get every little detail nailed down on paper)
Re: Dutch parliament rejects ACTA, prohibits government to sign or ratify.
#46Wow, is this really what bills in the Netherlands look like? 500 words, half a page? How do we get our govt to stop churning out multi-thousand page piles of pork-barreling instead of simple, straightforward resolutions like this?
Re: Dutch parliament rejects ACTA, prohibits government to sign or ratify.
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
Which is a marginally better excuse than the standard 4 year old's "someone else did it and ran away", but only just.
For the record - Polish PM backed off after few weeks of mass protests in Poland, and said he was wrong, and Poland won't ratificate ACTA. I still don't like him for his other decisions, and the lies he told about ACTA before he changed his mind, but at least he can say he was wrong.
Re: Dutch parliament rejects ACTA, prohibits government to sign or ratify.
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
is that in theory where the queen steps in?
Not sure; it has never happened yet and it would certainly get ugly, so she might. She does usually step in at a few other places, though. We're getting off-topic here; for a very nice but not yet complete overview, see http://www.quirksmode.org/politics/ .
Re: Dutch parliament rejects ACTA, prohibits government to sign or ratify.
#49And on the other and now the majority of ISP are blocking access to the PirateBay. As much as I like the Netherlands (living here from 2006, I'm Italian), these inconsistencies in their systems are really annoying[^1]. Net neutrality, ACTA rejection on one side, blocking web sites on the other. [^1]: I won't mention the other kind of inconsistencies, but if you really curious about some health care system madness, I…
In this case the judge has decided that TPB mostly facilitates illegal downloading and that therefore a block is allowed.
This is a, technically, correct decision because the net neutrality law gives judges enough room to block websites.
Re: Dutch parliament rejects ACTA, prohibits government to sign or ratify.
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not sure; it has never happened yet and it would certainly get ugly, so she might. She does usually step in at a few other places, though. We're getting off-topic here; for a very nice but not yet complete overview, see http://www.quirksmode.org/politics/ .
Hmm, I may have misunderstood adavies42 slightly here; I thought (s)he meant what would happen if a motion of no confidence were ignored, which has never happened and would be quite a shock. When a motion of no confidence is passed by parliament, either against the entire government or against one or more of its members, which has happened several times, usually the target of the motion goes to the queen to resign; t…
yes, that's what i meant. thanks for the info!