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America’s Future: Russia and China Use Copyright Laws to Crush Government Criticism
Leading American Internet businessmen warn that the draconian anti-piracy bill copyright on the verge of being passed by Congress would let the US government use censorship techniques "similar to those used by China, Malaysia and Iran."
If you want to know what the United States would look like after these bills are passed, just look at what's been happening in Russia. The Russian government has been crushing dissent under the pretext of enforcing copyright law.
As the New York Times noted last year:
Across Russia, the security services have carried out dozens of similar raids against outspoken advocacy groups or opposition newspapers in recent years. Security officials say the inquiries reflect their concern about software piracy, which is rampant in Russia. Yet they rarely if ever carry out raids against advocacy groups or news organizations that back the government.
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[A] review of these cases indicates that the security services often seize computers whether or not they contain illegal software. The police immediately filed reports saying they had discovered such programs, before even examining the computers in detail. The police claims have in numerous instances been successfully discredited by defendants when the cases go before judges.
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The plainclothes officers who descended upon the Baikal Wave headquarters said they were from the division that investigated commercial crime. But the environmentalists said they noticed at least one officer from the antiextremism department, which tracks opposition activists and had often conducted surveillance on the group.
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Baikal Wave’s leaders said they had known that the authorities used such raids to pressure advocacy groups, so they had made certain that all their software was legal.
But they quickly realized how difficult it would be to defend themselves.
They said they told the officers that they were mistaken, pulling out receipts and original Microsoft packaging to prove that the software was not pirated. The police did not appear to take that into consideration. A supervising officer issued a report on the spot saying that illegal software had been uncovered.
Before the raid, the environmentalists said their computers were affixed with Microsoft’s “Certificate of Authenticity” stickers that attested to the software’s legality. But as the computers were being hauled away, they noticed something odd: the stickers were gone.
In all, 12 computers were confiscated. The group’s Web site was disabled, its finances left in disarray, its plans disclosed to the authorities.
The police also obtained personnel information from the computers. In the following weeks, officers tracked down some of the group’s supporters and interrogated them.
“The police had one goal, which was to prevent us from working,” said Galina Kulebyakina, a co-chairwoman of Baikal Wave. “They removed our computers because we actively took a position against the paper factory and forcefully voiced it.”
“They can do pretty much what they want, with impunity,” she said.
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Mr. Kurt-Adzhiyev said he now realized that the authorities were not so much interested in convictions as in harassing opponents. Even if the inquiries are abandoned, they are debilitating when they require months to defend.
Since the American copyright bills (SOPA and PIPA) target online activities, the same thing happening to Russian critics' computers could happen to the websites of any Americans who criticize the government, the too big to fail banks, or any of the other powers-that-be.
Indeed, the American copyright bill is modeled after the Chinese system. As I noted Monday:
Given that Joe Lieberman said that America needs an internet kill switch like China, that the U.S. economy has turned socialist (at least for friends of those with control of the money spigot), and that the U.S. government used communist Chinese torture techniques specifically designed to produce false confessions in order to sell the Iraq war, I guess that the bill’s Chinese-style censorship is not entirely surprising.
Of course, it might seem over-the-top to worry about copyright laws being used to stifle government criticism in America ... if it weren't for the fact that:
- The U.S. government has been using anti-terrorism laws to crush dissent
- In modern America, questioning war, protesting anything, asking questions about pollution or about Wall Street shenanigans, supporting Ron Paul, being a libertarian, holding gold, stocking up on more than 7 days of food, or liking the Founding Fathers may get you labeled as a suspected terrorist
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we are a sham........fixed it for ya
I am sure I am on a list somewhere. I prefer to call them freedom fighters though not terrorists. our government has become the terrorist as in destroys our legal system to maintain control and institute and system the founding fathers wanted to eliminate.
Serious question: Do you guys think using proxies for online stuff will protect us and to what degree?
The Constitution will protect us.
(no, not really)
"using proxies for online stuff will protect us"
The best thing to do is adopt a "I don't give a fuck attitude" and surf away pilgrim.
Drop your firewall, open all ports with worldly read/write/execute privileges and surf like there's no tomorrow.
Once you decide to adopt this attitude make sure it permeates everything around you.
FTW bitchez! Live it.
See my post on page 2 or 3 if you want a serious response.
Short answer is no. You are naked. Got your BOB, your BOV, and your BOL at the ready? The SWAT team is in your driveway.
Paranoia?
Facebook anyone?
'You are naked.' Yes, in a pile of about another billion or so. The proverbial needle in a haystack ... until ... cause arises to drill down to y.o.u., then yep, pretty naked.
Let's all dump MS and switch to open linnux. I'll get going on that.
Seriously, somewhere's between none and zero. Perhaps if you had a lightning quick system to remail and redirect through numerous off-shore servers, maybe. Even then I doubt that it would not appear on some analysts screen as "anomalous" behavior. Besides Echelon and its Euro counterpart Galileo, there are also insidious software bots to contend with.
It's probably a safe bet that most if not all who post here are on at least one PT list.
Only one...you are not trying. ;-)
Haha, that's funny. The emotional part of me wants to blurt out whatever, but the intellectual part strives to avoid "key" words that would trigger being added to a list. In the early days of Echelon, only a few dozen words would reroute an email to analyst, now I imagine it's literally thousands including phrases and patterns of words, compiled, profiled and then routed. Technology unfortunately, can work both ways.
Nuclear
Bomb
Assassinate
President
Destroy
Hijack
Jihad
Pentagon
Coordinate
Attack
Washington
Biological
Weapons
Allah
Imperialists
Great Satan
Target
Embassies
Suicide
Truck Bombs
Sabotage
Kidnap
Congressmen
Senators
Assassinate (can never repeat that one enough)
Oh, and FUCK YOU, NIA!
Put any two or three of those in a single coherent sentence and let us know what happens, if you can...
The Great Satan, in its neocon-inspired Jihad against "Radical Muslim Extremists", has targeted Iran as the next domino to fall to the perverted PNAC, and is going to launch an attack, possibly nuclear, against Iran, destroying a vast amount of infrastructure and murdering tens of thousands of innocent civilians --- but will only further advance its own financial and geopolitical suicide.
"You can't say 'bomb' on an airplane", can you say it on a Gila 'Copter?
Jehovah Jesus Abraxas A beka segge alatt "Kill for Allah, Kill for Jesus... 1980's shit"
+1...your arrow is broke I clicked it as hard as I can.
TSA..by virtue of being logged on to this site, I assure you, you're already on "a list".
Of that I have no doubt. But luckily I am also listed in His book.
From BoingBoing.net: How SOPA became a bill:
http://bit.ly/vrxYkR
not if, it will pass
Yep, my computer is safe. I'm working on a citrix system with all certified software, and if I would lose my pc, THERE'S NOTHING ON IT!
I just take a new laptop, install a new cloud, and I'm up and running in 5. Or take a Ipad, install the free citrix app and I'm up in 5.
And for my documents, you'll need to serious warrant to read anything and better start looking where those are stored.
if your cloud files are stored in the US, they have already been searched and indexed by CIA BOT, FBI BOT, DOJ BOT, DOT BOT, DOD BOT, etc etc - same goes for servers in Canada, Mexico, Cuba, Nicaraugua, Columbia, Brazil, etc etc
You miss the entire point of the article. Like T S A tactics are not about transportation security, this bill is not about copyright infringement as much as it is about control of internet content.
>>>it is about control of internet content<<<
and the "cloud" could become your worst enemy.
speaking of the TSA, could they check every laptop that goes through security, and if it doesn't have the Microsoft sticker on it, they keep it?
Of course, Macs would be exempt.
Let em' take the MS stuff, it's buggy bloatware anyways. If it wasn't a work laptop I'd driven over it a couple dozen times by now.
I build my computers and as long as the gaming world is left alone (Server admins) there is no problem.
For all we know games sell for millions, and are worth more than that in marketable data that is collected through steam and origin among others on everyone.
Let's say the Internet did get nuked. WHat happens next?
Proxy servers in Nations that still have computers up and running, even if you have to dail a number to connect via old fashioned modem.
Sure they can kill the net. But they will have to kill the satellites, cell towers and everything connected to the Civilian internet and that also includes the telephone system in the USA.
The people wont stand for that very long.
"If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory is sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves."
Winston Churchill
WC was a punk!
IMVHO....only a punk would say something to that effect.
The real Churchill was a mass-murdering, Rothschild puppet and all that freedom stuff he is quoted on was a psy-op on the people he wanted to kill for him. Check out these links:
http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=churchill&sa=Search&domains=rense.com&sitesearch=rense.com
Churchill was a racist, imperialist warmonger, who advocated the use of poison gas on civilians:
In 1919, as Colonial Secretary Churchill advocated the use of chemical weapons on the "uncooperative Arabs" in the puppet state of Iraq. "I do not understand the squeamishness about the use of gas," he declared. "I am strongly in favor of using poison gas against uncivilized tribes."
- mises.org
Good 'leader' to have on your side when facing the Nazis, though. The man could certainly write a speech.
Read Mein Kempf by Adolf Hitler (The Uncensored version) then read it if it does not sink in.
Hitler was like todays; Ron paul, against the corruption and apathy of politicians and international jewry which predated economic situations for their own benefit.
I did not read any lines about murdering Jews, but there was a clear goal to remove them from Germany. This is why the USA or London would not take Jew refugees before 1939. They held the same views and Jewish bankers and Jews in general were despised like today;s Muslims.
My grandmother was in a camp, and the starvation occurred because supply lines were cut. She had to cook horses head for a German officer. The pictures of emaciated Jews were propaganda for the Israeli state. Becuase she was a Ukrainian Christian she never was compensated fully she was offered $800 dollar in 1990's and told the Germans to go fuck themselves.
If I were Jewish I would be fleeing to Israel, because unless you are part of the Zionist club, you'll be fleeced like all the Jews in Germany during the 1930's. The elite Jews fled to Israel.
Betcha a donut U.S. Copyright Office is an avid reader of ZH and GW's blog.
Government is the problem. As usual.
Government overstepping it's Constitutional authority is the problem. As usual.
Government rarely fails to overstep its authority. That's what happens when you give an elite class the right to use force against you supposedly for your own good.
Yes, and the simple reason for not holding to the Constitutional limits is always because it profits the ones breaking the limits. Until the Constitution is restored as rule, expect tyranny to rule. The Constitution is our only hope to secure freedom and justice and Liberty for all, equally.
Restoring the Constitution would be a great first step.
"I heartily accept the motto, "That government is best which governs least"; and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I believe -- "That government is best which governs not at all"; and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have." -- Henry David Thoreau's Civil Disobedience
Until men become angels the need for rules to order society is necessary. Now the rules should reflect things which we know are right, thus serving justice for all. However, when the rules are unjust then the goverment becomes illigitimate and in need of replacement. It should be obvious that man will never be prepared 'for a government that governs not at all.'
No person has a right to force another person who is minding his own business to do something that is against his own interest and his own will. You can not reconcile that obvious truth with the institution of government.
government, or the "people" that infiltrated and took control of government...
Government is predicated on a monopoly of the use of force. Of course it's going to be "infiltrated" by people who want nothing more than to use that force to enrich themselves and impoverish others. That's the nature of the beast.
And this very well describes the reason for the need of Rule of Law, versus rule of man. It should then follow that there must be some governing force to ensure the rule of law is enforced. Otherwise, the rule of man would be in force, and there are always those who wish to enrich themselves at the expense of others. And if it was the rule of man that is in force, then what's to stop him? How else is it possible to restrict this evil, other than some governing body enforcing the Rule of law?
Government is the epitome of the law of the jungle. It is the law of brute force. One becomes civilized only in the realization that no person has the right to initiate violence against another person.
According to natural law no person has the right to do damage to another person or another person's property. If a threat is made against a person or property one has a right to protect one's interests in proportion to the threat.
The vast majority of people want safety and security. Individuals can make voluntary arrangements with others in order to gain that safety and security. In a voluntary society no one has the right to initiate violence but force can be applied in order to defend against those who do initiate violence. There is no need to select an elite class with a monopoly in the use of force against all others in order to protect the many who want peace and safety from the few who do not.
In many cases the government creates the conditions from which violence arises. Take the War on Drugs as a case in point. In order to stop the victimless crime of drug use, laws against such use increase drug prices which simply means that addicts have to burglarize and attack more people for more money. The money then flows up the criminal chain and makes the dealers that much richer and more powerful.
Well said. Humanity seems to drift in cycles of forgetting and recalling that truth
The beast has a name Dicknewt Gingrichcheney
Two legs bad, four legs good?
Will this version of Troll Guard be patented, or can anyone use it?