Go to Prison for Sharing Files? That's What Hollywood Wants in the Secret TPP Deal

[dixiegrrrrl]

The US is pushing for a dangerously broad definition of a criminal violation of copyright, where even noncommercial activities could get people convicted of a crime. The leak also shows that Canada has opposed this definition. Canada supports language in which criminal remedies would only apply to cases where someone infringed explicitly for commercial purposes.

This distinction is crucial. Commercial infringement, where an infringer sells unauthorized copies of content for financial gain, is and should be a crime. But that's not what the US is pushing for—it's trying to get language passed in TPP that would make a criminal out of anyone who simply shares or otherwise makes available copyrighted works on a “commercial scale.”

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/02/go-prison-sharing-files-thats-what-hollywood-wants-secret-tpp-deal

[Karmadillo]

1. Kick

[mother earth]

2. Let's all just say no to TPP! K & R, dixiergrrrl. :)

[dixiegrrrrl]

8. Yes......but......

It does not seem to matter that we are saying no.
The first world Gov. and corporations are running amok now.

[seveneyes]

3. Not long after they pry the final bits from my cold dead hands

Time will go on and the elements of many natures will bloom.

[bigwillq]

4. Say NO to TPP! (nt)

[Octafish]

5. Was the late Aaron Swartz a test case?

White House rejects petitions to fire prosecutors who drove Internet activist Aaron Swartz to suicide

By Nick Barrickman
World Socialist Web Site, 12 January 2015

The Obama administration formally rejected on Wednesday a pair of petitions to fire the prosecutors whose vindictive pursuit of Internet pioneer and activist Aaron Swartz drove him to suicide in 2013.

The petitions had called for the firings of US Attorney for Massachusetts Carmen Ortiz and Assistant US Attorney Stephen Heymann, who had overseen the malicious prosecution against the open Internet activist, charging him in 2011 with numerous felony counts under the 1986 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) for downloading copies of academic journal articles through the digital library JSTOR.

Swartz, who had warned that “The world’s entire scientific ... heritage ... is increasingly being digitized and locked up by a handful of private corporations,” had sought to make the journal articles publicly available.

At the time, Ortiz had sought to equate Swartz with a common thief, declaring that “stealing is stealing whether you use a computer command or a crowbar,” insinuating that the well-known advocate for Internet freedom was attempting to personally profit from the web site’s scholarly material.

SNIP...

In 2013, US Attorney General Eric Holder called the prosecution of Swartz “a good use of prosecutorial discretion.”
The tragic death of Swartz, an esteemed activist and web technology innovator, prompted a wave of popular outrage against the US government and the draconian measures it went to in order to make an example of him. The petitions, which had long ago received the required 25,000 signatures meriting a response from the White House, had called for both Ortiz’s and Heymann’s removal for their roles in instigating Swartz’s suicide.

CONTINUED...

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2015/01/12/swar-j12.html

[dixiegrrrrl]

9. I am watching Citizenfour....

and wishing Swartz and Manning had done what Snowden did, in terms of personal safety.

Octa, you GOTTA watch it.
Altho I have to take breaks every 20 minutes or so, just to let my BP go down.

[JaneyVee]

6. Isn't that already illegal?

[dixiegrrrrl]

10. Kinda sorta...but we are talking about what the penalties should be.

Life in prison for file sharing is a tad wee draconian, don't ya think?

[riderinthestorm]

7. Wait. I thought we were supposed to let them iron out the details first

None of these leaks are worthy of discussion.

Shush!

Obama will never agree to anything that might be bad for us!