NYPD Sergeant Says 'Guilty Until Proven Innocent' Is Just The Price We Pay For A 'Free Society'
May 11, 2013
Source: Tech Dirt
We've been dealing with the New York police department lately, thanks to the mayor and thepolice chief using the recent Boston bombing as an excuse to increase surveillance efforts and enact other policies to further encroach on New Yorkers' civil liberties. Whenever something terrorist-related occurs, it seems as though the NYPD's reps can't keep their opinions to themselves, even as the department itself drifts further and further away from being a sterling example of How Things Should Be Done.
In a recent Christian Science Monitor article dealing with "teenagers, terrorism and social media" (focusing on the recent Cameron D'Ambrosio arrest for making "terrorist threats" via some improvised rap lyrics posted to Facebook), Sgt. Ed Mullins of the NYPD shows up tomake some very disturbing statements about your rights and responsibilities as a (mere) citizen. It starts with the worst kind of "policy" and goes downhill fast.
Mullins goes even further than this, though, asserting that the burden of proof lies with the person charged, not the person bringing the charges. This flips our judicial system on its head (along with the judicial systems in many other countries) and, if applied the way Mullins views it, puts accused citizens in the impossible position of trying to prove a negative. This is just completely wrong, and it's a dangerously stupid thing for someone in his position tobelieve, much less state out loud. (Mullins also heads the Sergeants Benevolent Association, the second-largest police union in New York City.)
Believe it or not, Mullins is not done talking. What he says next doubles up on the "dangerous" and "stupid."
This is the price Mullins is charging to live in the NYPD's severely stunted version of a "free" society. The NYPD has been harassing young minorities at the rate of 500,000 impromptu stop-and-frisks per year for the better part of the last decade. For the past 10 years, the NYPD has been regularly trampling citizens' civil liberties simply because they attend a mosque. The NYPD and Mayor Bloomberg have worked ceaselessly to make New York the most-surveilled city in the U.S.
That's the price New Yorkers are paying. It has nothing to do with living in a free society. The NYPD takes liberties away and high-ranking cops like Mullins have the gall to suggest there's some sort of equitable exchange occurring. Mullins doesn't seem to understand (or just doesn't care) that if you take away freedom you no longer have a free society.
It has been said that eternal vigilance is the price of liberty, but "eternal vigilance" isn't shorthand for oppressive surveillance and zero tolerance policies that make freedom less "free." "Eternal vigilance" isn't treating the Constitution like a relic too worn and tattered to serve any purpose in these "dangerous" times. And being an officer of the law isn't an excuse to shut your intellect off and allow your brain stem and broad policies to "work" in concert in order to treat loudmouth teens on Facebook like a guy with a trailer home full of explosives.
This "vigilance" is supposed to be put to use by citizens in order to prevent authorities like Mullins from encroaching on our liberties. It's not solely limited to a united military effort against foreign powers. There are plenty of people apparently willing to attack our freedom from the comfort of the home front.
http://www.thecommonsenseshow.com/2013/05/11/america-is-already-an-occupied-nation/
by Dave Hodges - thecommonsenseshow.com
http://libertyblitzkrieg.com/2013/05/10/guess-whats-hidden-in-the-immigration-bill-a-national-biometric-database-for-citizens/
Using a zero tolerance approach to track domestic terrorists online is the only reasonable way to analyze online threats these days, especially after the Boston Marathon bombing and news that the suspects had subsequently planned to target Times Square in Manhattan, Mullins says. The way law enforcement agencies approach online activity that appears sinister is this: “If you’re not a terrorist, if you’re not a threat, prove it,” he says."Zero tolerance" is never "reasonable." It never has been and it never will be. In fact, it's the polar opposite. Zero tolerance policies simply absolve the enforcers of any responsibility for the outcome and grant them the privilege of ignoring mitigating factors. It allows them to bypass applying any sort of critical thinking skills (the "reason" part of "reasonable") and view every infractions as nothing more than a binary IF THEN equation.
Mullins goes even further than this, though, asserting that the burden of proof lies with the person charged, not the person bringing the charges. This flips our judicial system on its head (along with the judicial systems in many other countries) and, if applied the way Mullins views it, puts accused citizens in the impossible position of trying to prove a negative. This is just completely wrong, and it's a dangerously stupid thing for someone in his position tobelieve, much less state out loud. (Mullins also heads the Sergeants Benevolent Association, the second-largest police union in New York City.)
Believe it or not, Mullins is not done talking. What he says next doubles up on the "dangerous" and "stupid."
“This is the price you pay to live in free society right now. It’s just the way it is,” Mullins adds.No. It isn't.
This is the price Mullins is charging to live in the NYPD's severely stunted version of a "free" society. The NYPD has been harassing young minorities at the rate of 500,000 impromptu stop-and-frisks per year for the better part of the last decade. For the past 10 years, the NYPD has been regularly trampling citizens' civil liberties simply because they attend a mosque. The NYPD and Mayor Bloomberg have worked ceaselessly to make New York the most-surveilled city in the U.S.
That's the price New Yorkers are paying. It has nothing to do with living in a free society. The NYPD takes liberties away and high-ranking cops like Mullins have the gall to suggest there's some sort of equitable exchange occurring. Mullins doesn't seem to understand (or just doesn't care) that if you take away freedom you no longer have a free society.
It has been said that eternal vigilance is the price of liberty, but "eternal vigilance" isn't shorthand for oppressive surveillance and zero tolerance policies that make freedom less "free." "Eternal vigilance" isn't treating the Constitution like a relic too worn and tattered to serve any purpose in these "dangerous" times. And being an officer of the law isn't an excuse to shut your intellect off and allow your brain stem and broad policies to "work" in concert in order to treat loudmouth teens on Facebook like a guy with a trailer home full of explosives.
This "vigilance" is supposed to be put to use by citizens in order to prevent authorities like Mullins from encroaching on our liberties. It's not solely limited to a united military effort against foreign powers. There are plenty of people apparently willing to attack our freedom from the comfort of the home front.
http://www.thecommonsenseshow.com/2013/05/11/america-is-already-an-occupied-nation/
America Is Already An Occupied Nation
by Dave Hodges - thecommonsenseshow.com
http://libertyblitzkrieg.com/2013/05/10/guess-whats-hidden-in-the-immigration-bill-a-national-biometric-database-for-citizens/
Guess What’s Hidden in the Immigration Bill? A National Biometric Database for Citizens
Oh just another eight hundred page “bipartisan” bill that nobody will read, mainstream media will refuse to cover, and that will merely further destroy any remnants of freedom left in these United States. Never forget the George Carlin quote on bipartisanship:
“Bipartisan usually means that a larger-than-usual deception is being carried out.”
From Wired:
The immigration reform measure the Senate began debating yesterday would create a national biometric database of virtually every adult in the U.S., in what privacy groups fear could be the first step to a ubiquitous national identification system.
Buried in the more than 800 pages of the bipartisan legislation (.pdf) is language mandating the creation of the innocuously-named “photo tool,” a massive federal database administered by the Department of Homeland Security and containing names, ages, Social Security numbers and photographs of everyone in the country with a driver’s license or other state-issued photo ID.
This piece of the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act is aimed at curbing employment of undocumented immigrants. But privacy advocates fear the inevitable mission creep, ending with the proof of self being required at polling places, to rent a house, buy a gun, open a bank account, acquire credit, board a plane or even attend a sporting event or log on the internet. Think of it as a government version of Foursquare, with Big Brother cataloging every check-in.
“It starts to change the relationship between the citizen and state, you do have to get permission to do things,” said Chris Calabrese, a congressional lobbyist with the American Civil Liberties Union. “More fundamentally, it could be the start of keeping a record of all things.”
David Bier, an analyst with the Competitive Enterprise Institute, agrees with the ACLU’s fears.
“The most worrying aspect is that this creates a principle of permission basically to do certain activities and it can be used to restrict activities,” he said. “It’s like a national ID system without the card.”
Good thing the terrorists aren’t winning or anything.
Full article here.
Resistance over 3 D gun embargo has not ended yet......
http://www.blacklistednews.com/_Pirate_Bay_Takes_Over_Distribution_of_Censored_3D_Printable_Gun/25928/0/38/38/Y/M.html
A few days after the blueprints for the world’s first printable gun were published online, Defense Distributed has been asked by the State Department to pull them down, citing possible arms trafficking violations. The blueprints, however, are still available on The Pirate Bay and many other file-sharing sites, which adds a 3D chapter to the IP enforcement debate.The Pirate Bay says it welcomes the blueprints and has no intention of taking the files down.
In late 2012 the 3D blueprint website Thingiverse decided toban 3D gun designs, citing their terms of service which clearly prohibit files used to make weapons.Enter DEFCAD, a site dedicated to hosting designs that have been banned at Thingiverse. Namely, the entirely printable 3D gun design which clocked up more than 100,000 downloads within its first two days of release.
This did not sit well with the Department of State Office of Defense Trade Controls who kindly requested that DEFCAD remove the availability of the 3D printable gun documents, enthusiastically named “The Liberator,” citing a possible violation of International Traffic in Arms Regulations.
In the letter from the State Department, which can be read in full at Forbes, the Government explains that it wants to review whether the designs are in compliance with arms export control laws.
While the attempted censorship of the 3D gun blueprints may come as no surprise, the popularity of these files is a vivid example of the daunting task faced by those charged with censorship of information.
While DEFCON promptly complied with the request to remove access to the design, it was shared so widely during the short window of availability that it is now virtually impossible to prevent any further distribution. Currently, there appears to be several torrents available for the design at The Pirate Bay and the site informs us that these will not be censored.
“TPB has for close to 10 years been operating without taking down one single torrent due to pressure from the outside. And it will never start doing that,” A Pirate Bay insider told TorrentFreak.
Censorship lives on.....
9/11 ‘Conspiracy Theorist’ Removed from UN Panel After B’nai B’rith Request
May 10, 2013Source: The Algemeiner
A former MI5 intelligence officer who has said that the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks were orchestrated by the U.S. government “as a pretext for war and… to erode our freedom” has been removed from a June 6 United Nations panel discussion in New York.
B’nai B’rith International, a Jewish humanitarian, human rights and advocacy group, had written to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and to the Permanent Mission of Switzerland to the United Nations to request that the 9/11 conspiracy theorist, Annie Machon, be removed from the panel.
In addition to her views on 9/11, Machon is known for claiming the Israeli Mossad was behind the 1994 bombing of Israel’s embassy in London. “Her outrageous and offensive views do not deserve a prominent platform—let alone in the city most scarred by the horrific events of 9/11,” B’nai B’rith said in a statement after the announcement of Machon’s removal from the program.
Read article...
Human experimentation lives on....
If the pain ray just affects the skin, as the military has said for years, why do the “Human Surrogate” systems need simulated organs?
The spokesperson mentioned in the piece below said that the surrogate will be, “A common test target that can be used across the spectrum of non-lethal stimuli.”
That’s fine, nothing to see here, obviously. But don’t be surprised if the pain ray has some other modes that .mil hasn’t mentioned yet.
Via: Wired:
The Pentagon’s electromagnetic pain weapons are about to make a new friend. It’s an anthropomorphic test dummy that’s gonna get blasted by everything the Pentagon’s non-lethal weapons agency can throw at it.
In its latest round of small business research proposals, the Navy announced it’s seeking a sensor-outfitted “human surrogate” for use in an array of non-lethal weapon tests. That includes ”electromagnetic radiation in the L, S, and W-bands,” noted the request for proposal. Even further, there are plans to subject the luckless mannequin to everything from noise, blast pressure, electrical currents, thermal energy, and light from flashbang grenades.
Eventually, the goal is to “quickly collect data to understand injury potential by detecting, presumably via sensor systems, the effects of various non-lethal stimuli on different parts of the human body,” Alicia Owsiak, deputy chief of the Pentagon’s Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate Technology Division, tells Danger Room in a statement. The JNWLD, which manages the Pentagon’s non-lethal weapons program, is coordinating the tests. “Given that the risk of injury for a non-lethal stimuli is often influenced by hit location, the test target is envisioned to be a human surrogate with respect to internal and external anatomy.”
That means these dummy people will have dummy organs.
The agency didn’t comment on the specifics of how electromagnetic weapons like the military’s Active Denial System could be used against a dummy or how its organs could be designed to react. Kelly Hughes, a spokesperson for the directorate, tells Danger Room the surrogate will be “a common test target that can be used across the spectrum of non-lethal stimuli.”
The spokesperson mentioned in the piece below said that the surrogate will be, “A common test target that can be used across the spectrum of non-lethal stimuli.”
That’s fine, nothing to see here, obviously. But don’t be surprised if the pain ray has some other modes that .mil hasn’t mentioned yet.
Via: Wired:
The Pentagon’s electromagnetic pain weapons are about to make a new friend. It’s an anthropomorphic test dummy that’s gonna get blasted by everything the Pentagon’s non-lethal weapons agency can throw at it.
In its latest round of small business research proposals, the Navy announced it’s seeking a sensor-outfitted “human surrogate” for use in an array of non-lethal weapon tests. That includes ”electromagnetic radiation in the L, S, and W-bands,” noted the request for proposal. Even further, there are plans to subject the luckless mannequin to everything from noise, blast pressure, electrical currents, thermal energy, and light from flashbang grenades.
Eventually, the goal is to “quickly collect data to understand injury potential by detecting, presumably via sensor systems, the effects of various non-lethal stimuli on different parts of the human body,” Alicia Owsiak, deputy chief of the Pentagon’s Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate Technology Division, tells Danger Room in a statement. The JNWLD, which manages the Pentagon’s non-lethal weapons program, is coordinating the tests. “Given that the risk of injury for a non-lethal stimuli is often influenced by hit location, the test target is envisioned to be a human surrogate with respect to internal and external anatomy.”
That means these dummy people will have dummy organs.
The agency didn’t comment on the specifics of how electromagnetic weapons like the military’s Active Denial System could be used against a dummy or how its organs could be designed to react. Kelly Hughes, a spokesperson for the directorate, tells Danger Room the surrogate will be “a common test target that can be used across the spectrum of non-lethal stimuli.”
Food stamp Nation - Puerto Rican in focus...
1/3 Population of Puerto Rico Gets Food Stamps from U.S. Gov’t — $2 Billion in 2012
May 10, 2013
Source: cnsnews.com
The federal government spent more than $2 billion to provide food stamps to Puerto Rico in 2012, up to 25 percent of which is untraceable because it is distributed in cash and there is “no way to verify that funds are spent on food,” according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
The funds are used to supply more than one-third of the population of Puerto Rico with food stamps.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Nutrition Assistance Program (NAP) for Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States, received $2 billion in Nutrition Assistance Block Grants in fiscal year 2012.
Read more
Boston Officials flip official script.....
The federal government spent more than $2 billion to provide food stamps to Puerto Rico in 2012, up to 25 percent of which is untraceable because it is distributed in cash and there is “no way to verify that funds are spent on food,” according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
The funds are used to supply more than one-third of the population of Puerto Rico with food stamps.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Nutrition Assistance Program (NAP) for Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States, received $2 billion in Nutrition Assistance Block Grants in fiscal year 2012.
Read more
Boston Officials flip official script.....
Source: Washington Examiner
Boston authorities could have prevented last month’s deadly Boston Marathon bombings if federal law enforcement agencies had adequately shared information and followed through on warnings about accused bombers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, witnesses told Congress Thursday.
“I believe that though it would not have been easy, it was possible to have prevented the terrorist attacks in Boston,” former Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., told the House Homeland Security Committee. “In a literal sense, the homeland security system we must acknowledge that we built after 9-11 to protect the American people from terrorist attacks failed to stop the Tsarnaev brothers.”
In the first congressional hearing into the April 15 bombing that killed three and injured more than 200, Lieberman and other witnesses testified about a lack of information sharing between federal agencies and between federal authorities and local police. Republicans and Democrats alike joined in the criticisms.
“We cannot ignore that once again it has taken a tragedy to reveal problems in our vast, varied and numerous federal databases,” said Rep. Bennie Thompson, of Mississippi, the committee’s top Democrat.
Full story here.
Boston authorities could have prevented last month’s deadly Boston Marathon bombings if federal law enforcement agencies had adequately shared information and followed through on warnings about accused bombers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, witnesses told Congress Thursday.
“I believe that though it would not have been easy, it was possible to have prevented the terrorist attacks in Boston,” former Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., told the House Homeland Security Committee. “In a literal sense, the homeland security system we must acknowledge that we built after 9-11 to protect the American people from terrorist attacks failed to stop the Tsarnaev brothers.”
In the first congressional hearing into the April 15 bombing that killed three and injured more than 200, Lieberman and other witnesses testified about a lack of information sharing between federal agencies and between federal authorities and local police. Republicans and Democrats alike joined in the criticisms.
“We cannot ignore that once again it has taken a tragedy to reveal problems in our vast, varied and numerous federal databases,” said Rep. Bennie Thompson, of Mississippi, the committee’s top Democrat.
Full story here.
http://www.naturalnews.com/040286_false_flag_Benghazi_distraction.html
(NaturalNews) This is a short but urgent warning: A false flag event, an act of war, a bombing or some other headlines-grabbing orchestrated event is very likely to occur in the next seven days precisely because the Obama administration is under intense fire right now and needs a quick distraction. In stage magic, it's called the "art of misdirection." In politics, it's called the "Clinton method."
This is exactly what Bill Clinton did over and over again during his administration: Any time he was about to be raked over the coals for some political scandal, he would simply order the bombing of another "terrorist factory" somewhere around the globe. Magically, the Clinton News Network (CNN) would shift coverage to this heroic act of "national defense" and stop asking questions about his scandal back at home. That would give the Clinton administration enough time to intimidate, threaten or murder whoever might have been involved. (Vince Foster, remember?)
Right now, Hilary Clinton and President Obama are facing the possible downfall of their political careers over the Benghazi cover-up. Thanks to recent testimony, we now know that the Obama administration actually ordered the stand-down of U.S. military forces, directly causing the death of a U.S. ambassador as well as those in the embassy who attempted to save his life.
This is a scandal many times more explosive than Watergate. As the Benghazi investigation unfolds, it may very well end up in the forced resignation of Obama himself.
Hence the red zone of the False Flag-O-Meter. It's now sitting in very dangerous territory, and the worse the scrutiny gets over Benghazi or the recent revelations that the IRS targeted conservative groups and Jews for punitive scrutiny during the 2012 elections, the more likely a false flag event becomes.
Just so you understand real history here, false flags are the primary way governments affect sweeping policy changes. They are acts of political theater played out for the purpose of causing enough real mayhem and carnage -- and blaming the right culprits -- so that the public will demand government action. This plays right into the hands of government which incessantly wants to concentrate power and destroy civil liberties. Every crisis that unfolds allows it to move one step closer to its goal of dictatorial police state control.
FBI agents are no doubt scurrying across the country right this very minute, taking inventory of all their pre-planned terror plots and trying to determine which one they can make "real" at short notice. The FBI, in case you didn't know, openly plots and carries out terror attacks all across the USA in order to show that it's "stopping terrorism." This has by the New York Times, which rarely admits anything true about terror plots.
Whatever it is, this false flag event needs to be visually and emotionally shocking. So expect children to be sacrificed as part of it. Nothing grabs headlines on CNN faster than the blood of children, and that's what Hilary Clinton needs right now more than anything else: a powerful, revolting distraction from her own abject criminality.
And believe me, these people would order a thousand children killed if it was necessary to save their political careers. Have no illusions about the kind of power-addicted monsters who are running the U.S. government today. There is nothing they won't do to weasel out of being caught in a devastating lie.
I hope I'm totally wrong about this prediction, but just in case you may want to be extra vigilant for the next week or so, and if something does happen, don't believe the White House narrative which is almost 100% guaranteed to be complete fiction.
False Flag-O-Meter reaches the red zone: Why a government-orchestrated distraction event is highly likely to occur in the next 7 days
 Sunday, May 12, 2013by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger Editor of NaturalNews.com (See all articles...) |
(NaturalNews) This is a short but urgent warning: A false flag event, an act of war, a bombing or some other headlines-grabbing orchestrated event is very likely to occur in the next seven days precisely because the Obama administration is under intense fire right now and needs a quick distraction. In stage magic, it's called the "art of misdirection." In politics, it's called the "Clinton method."
This is exactly what Bill Clinton did over and over again during his administration: Any time he was about to be raked over the coals for some political scandal, he would simply order the bombing of another "terrorist factory" somewhere around the globe. Magically, the Clinton News Network (CNN) would shift coverage to this heroic act of "national defense" and stop asking questions about his scandal back at home. That would give the Clinton administration enough time to intimidate, threaten or murder whoever might have been involved. (Vince Foster, remember?)
Right now, Hilary Clinton and President Obama are facing the possible downfall of their political careers over the Benghazi cover-up. Thanks to recent testimony, we now know that the Obama administration actually ordered the stand-down of U.S. military forces, directly causing the death of a U.S. ambassador as well as those in the embassy who attempted to save his life.
This is a scandal many times more explosive than Watergate. As the Benghazi investigation unfolds, it may very well end up in the forced resignation of Obama himself.
"Greenlighting" a pre-planned operation
To avoid that from happening, Clinton, Obama and all the other globalist minions in Washington D.C. are trying to figure out what false flag scheme they have ready to go right now. They desperately need to pull the trigger on something: a bombing, a mass shooting, a hundred dead kids bleeding out on public sidewalks or something that can distract the media (and the public) from asking too many questions on Benghazi.Hence the red zone of the False Flag-O-Meter. It's now sitting in very dangerous territory, and the worse the scrutiny gets over Benghazi or the recent revelations that the IRS targeted conservative groups and Jews for punitive scrutiny during the 2012 elections, the more likely a false flag event becomes.
Just so you understand real history here, false flags are the primary way governments affect sweeping policy changes. They are acts of political theater played out for the purpose of causing enough real mayhem and carnage -- and blaming the right culprits -- so that the public will demand government action. This plays right into the hands of government which incessantly wants to concentrate power and destroy civil liberties. Every crisis that unfolds allows it to move one step closer to its goal of dictatorial police state control.
Watch for a major event in the next 7 days
Understanding this, there is a high probability of a false flag event occurring within the next seven days: A staged terror attack on a U.S. embassy, a shooting on U.S. soil, a bombing of a government building, someone blowing up a bridge... anything to get the attention off Benghazi-gate.FBI agents are no doubt scurrying across the country right this very minute, taking inventory of all their pre-planned terror plots and trying to determine which one they can make "real" at short notice. The FBI, in case you didn't know, openly plots and carries out terror attacks all across the USA in order to show that it's "stopping terrorism." This has by the New York Times, which rarely admits anything true about terror plots.
Whatever it is, this false flag event needs to be visually and emotionally shocking. So expect children to be sacrificed as part of it. Nothing grabs headlines on CNN faster than the blood of children, and that's what Hilary Clinton needs right now more than anything else: a powerful, revolting distraction from her own abject criminality.
And believe me, these people would order a thousand children killed if it was necessary to save their political careers. Have no illusions about the kind of power-addicted monsters who are running the U.S. government today. There is nothing they won't do to weasel out of being caught in a devastating lie.
I hope I'm totally wrong about this prediction, but just in case you may want to be extra vigilant for the next week or so, and if something does happen, don't believe the White House narrative which is almost 100% guaranteed to be complete fiction.
When everyone becomes a criminal ..... anti-circumvention rules put control in the hands of corporations of course .....
Source: EFF
The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) — a sprawling international agreement currently being negotiated in secret meetings between government and industry representatives around the world — claims to be focused on the kind of trade regulations that affect countries and huge corporations. But in fact, many of its provisions would have profound chilling effects on hackers, makers, and tinkerers.
The problems for hackers and makers stem from the so-called "anti-circumvention" rules that have appeared in leaked drafts of the agreement. That language reflects a controversial clause of U.S. copyright law that makes it illegal to bypass technical measures that are put in place to restrict copyrighted content — such as measures that limit the number of devices on which you can play a video you legally purchased.
Even if you are bypassing those restrictions for reasons that don't violate copyright law — say you're remixing a segment of a video under fair use rules, or trying to read an ebook on a different platform — you could still get caught in the anti-circumvention net.
You can express your concern about these problems — and others — that arise from a secret copyright agenda driving international agreements by signing our petition to stop it.
Anti-circumvention rules are supposedly intended to limit "piracy.” But in effect, they allow publishers, studios, and other distributors to write their own private laws about how people can use their legally purchased media.
Anti-circumvention rules help companies restrict your freedoms and choose whether to sell them back to you bit by bit.
When Tinkering Is Outlawed, Only Outlaws Will Tinker
When media companies restrict the way you can use the things you legally buy, they also become a chokepoint on innovation, fair use, and competition. In the U.S., this has resulted in15 years of unintended consequences since the law went into effect. There is now overwhelming evidence that this situation affects hackers and tinkerers both directly and indirectly:- The media you purchase can come burdened with technical restrictions that carry legal weight. Those limit not only how you can remix or mash up that material, but also how you're allowed to watch, read, play, or listen to it.Want to modify a version of your new expensive video game to save files locally so you don't lose your progress when your Internet goes out? You may be out of luck. Want to play back the movie you bought on your free software operating system? You might have to commit a crime to do so.
- Your devices — like your cell phone, tablet, game console, and even increasingly integrated computer systems in cars — come locked down with software handcuffs that are a crime to break. Under TPP's anti-circumvention rules, governments may have to outlaw basic repairs and improvements.Sound far-fetched? It's exactly what we've seen in the U.S. this year with phone unlocking. When you've legally purchased a cell phone, common sense says that you should have the right to connect it to any carrier you want. But because due to the anti-circumvention rules in U.S. copyright law, that situation became much murkier.
One of the mottos of the maker movement is, "If you can't open it, you don't own it." By that standard, the TPP's anti-circumvention rules mean you can't own any of your legally purchased devices. - Anti-circumvention rules end up criminalizing many of the ways hackers make and use free software. DRM software requires hiding information from users about what their computers are doing. That requirement is incompatible with software that is free as in speech, where users must have the right to understand what their software is doing and change it to better suit their needs.
How Did We Get Here? Why TPP Is Especially Dangerous
We know how bad the anti-circumvention rules in TPP are because we've got bad U.S. law to point to — U.S. law that has stifled security research, legitimate competition, free expression through fair use, and more. How did the U.S. get such a bad law?The culprit is policy laundering, the shady practice of slipping regulations into international agreements that aren't subject to the same democratic scrutiny as the national legislative process. Anti-circumvention rules are unpopular because they go against the public interest, but that doesn't matter in the secret backrooms where TPP negotiations take place. And once the rules are written into agreements, some elected lawmakers can feel like their hands are tied in bringing the country into compliance.
TPP would make the situation worse by locking anti-circumvention rules in place in the countries that already have them, and expanding them to the ones that don't.
For these reasons and others, TPP would be a disaster for the Internet and innovation , and continue a terrible trend of secrecy in negotiations. Please take action today: sign our petition to stop the secret copyright agenda in TPP and other trade agreements.
Wonder what they're looking for at Quincy , Mass ? CIA front company for the first plane ?
Quincy
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