Internet the Hill to Die On?

“…men of strong zeal and devotion, who in spite of the passing of time have preserved their love of freedom, still remain ineffective because, however numerous they may be, they are not known to one another…”  Étienne de la Boétie

Many of you have probably seen this already as Brad Spangler has posted it to his Facebook page a couple of times.  Reports are claiming that those portions of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement relating to the internet have been leaked and, if accurate and if the government could enforce them (two very big ifs, fortunately), the measures within would have drastic effects on free speech.

From Cory Doctorow’s BoingBoing story that Spangler linked to, the provisions would include…

• That ISPs have to proactively police copyright on user-contributed material
• That ISPs have to cut off the Internet access of accused copyright infringers or face liability
• That the whole world must adopt US-style “notice-and-takedown” rules that require ISPs to remove any material that is accused — again, without evidence or trial — of infringing copyright
• Mandatory prohibitions on breaking DRM, even if doing so for a lawful purpose

Doctorow provides deeper analysis of the implications of such measures in the article linked above.  To me it is clear that such a treaty would be less about protecting copyright and more about constructing a government monopoly over the distribution of misinformation.

As Brad Taylor has been covering we are already seeing an increase in persecution of anti-state bloggers.  Clearly the bad guys are waking up to the idea that the information age is their death knell and they are going to react to it the only way they know how.

While their skill at destruction is well-documented (hell, it’s the one thing they are really any good at), their ineptitude at prohibition is even more legendary.  If government tries to restrict something then we can only assume that it will be available.  In abundance…

To discuss this issue further come on into our social network and check out the Oppose Internet Regulation group.