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Kroes Throws in Towel on ACTA

blogs.wsj.com

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Re: Kroes Throws in Towel on ACTA

#3

Thats great. But I smell a slight of hand trick here. Lead the audiences attention away while you stuff cards down your sleeve. Stay wary, stay vigilant.

I agree. This cat and mouse game between lawmakers and the people is quite exhausting. If it isn't SOPA, it's PIPA, CISPA, ACTA... and they'll just keep coming until one of them makes it into law.

I think we should be focusing our power into pushing for legislation that prevents these kinds of bills to be passed, rather than fighting them off time and time again.

Re: Kroes Throws in Towel on ACTA

#4
post #3

Thats great. But I smell a slight of hand trick here. Lead the audiences attention away while you stuff cards down your sleeve. Stay wary, stay vigilant.

I agree. This cat and mouse game between lawmakers and the people is quite exhausting. If it isn't SOPA, it's PIPA, CISPA, ACTA... and they'll just keep coming until one of them makes it into law. I think we should be focusing our power into pushing for legislation that prevents these kinds of bills to be passed, rather than fighting them off time and time again.

This headline strikes me as a cynical (if not undemocratic) attempt to push acronym fatigue.

Re: Kroes Throws in Towel on ACTA

#5
post #3

Thats great. But I smell a slight of hand trick here. Lead the audiences attention away while you stuff cards down your sleeve. Stay wary, stay vigilant.

I agree. This cat and mouse game between lawmakers and the people is quite exhausting. If it isn't SOPA, it's PIPA, CISPA, ACTA... and they'll just keep coming until one of them makes it into law. I think we should be focusing our power into pushing for legislation that prevents these kinds of bills to be passed, rather than fighting them off time and time again.

It's rather obviously one between the rightsholders and other people, with lawmakers as the playing pieces. It's just that the it's a lot easier for rightsholders to write large checks and buy the representation they want. Like all marketing, election campaigns are very capital-intensive.

Re: Kroes Throws in Towel on ACTA

#6
post #3

Thats great. But I smell a slight of hand trick here. Lead the audiences attention away while you stuff cards down your sleeve. Stay wary, stay vigilant.

I agree. This cat and mouse game between lawmakers and the people is quite exhausting. If it isn't SOPA, it's PIPA, CISPA, ACTA... and they'll just keep coming until one of them makes it into law. I think we should be focusing our power into pushing for legislation that prevents these kinds of bills to be passed, rather than fighting them off time and time again.

The only way to limit what congress can do is with a constitutional amendment. Anything else, and they can just overwrite it.

Re: Kroes Throws in Towel on ACTA

#8
post #4
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. This cat and mouse game between lawmakers and the people is quite exhausting. If it isn't SOPA, it's PIPA, CISPA, ACTA... and they'll just keep coming until one of them makes it into law. I think we should be focusing our power into pushing for legislation that prevents these kinds of bills to be passed, rather than fighting them off time and time again.

This headline strikes me as a cynical (if not undemocratic) attempt to push acronym fatigue.

[deleted]

Re: Kroes Throws in Towel on ACTA

#9
The conference where she delivered the speech was at the re:publica in Berlin (http://re-publica.de/12/). I've seen her talk in entirety on Friday, and I was deeply impressed with her opinions. Usually, when politicians (particularly older politicians) talk about Internet topics, their opinion is mingled with half-knowledge and the hope to enslave the internet and make it a read-only thing. However, Kroess' speeach was fantastic and it made me almost happy to see such a level of understanding of the importance of the internet, and the questions, dangers, and opportunities it raises for the future to come, in a politician. Especially someone who has such an important position in the EU.

Re: Kroes Throws in Towel on ACTA

#10
post #6
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. This cat and mouse game between lawmakers and the people is quite exhausting. If it isn't SOPA, it's PIPA, CISPA, ACTA... and they'll just keep coming until one of them makes it into law. I think we should be focusing our power into pushing for legislation that prevents these kinds of bills to be passed, rather than fighting them off time and time again.

The only way to limit what congress can do is with a constitutional amendment. Anything else, and they can just overwrite it.

Yes and no. It's true that you can't just have Congress pass a law that says "future Congresses can't do xyz," because future Congresses can just repeal it.

But you can do something even better. Pass legislation that takes a step in the other direction. Repeal the DMCA anti-circumvention clause and demand an international treaty that requires other countries to do likewise. Reduce copyright terms. Eliminate statutory (as opposed to actual) damages for noncommercial infringement.

This would do three things. First, all of those things are good policy, and passing them would help us. Second, it would put the copyright extremists on the defensive and makes them spend their political capital to try to prevent a series of sensible bills from being passed. And third, when we succeed in passing them, it shifts the status quo, so that the next outrageous bill they propose looks like an even larger departure from the baseline, making it easier to defeat.

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