Are We Being Taken Over By A Culture Of Surveillance? – With Video

Mar 27, 2009 1 Comment ›› Pat Dollard

There is some cautious skepticism on this … however, is it really out of the realm of possibility … or even probability?

BTW … The USTR office does have more than several documents on ACTA … I’m just sayin’.

Russia Today:

A not-so-private PC

The personal computer may soon be not-so-private, with the U.S. and some European nations working on laws allowing them access to search the content held on a person’s hard drive.

President Obama’s administration is keeping unusually tight-lipped on the details, which is raising concerns among computer users and liberty activists.

Almost everyone today owns a music player and a laptop. But what if the Government decided to allow itself to access these personal devices for no specific reason whatsoever?

In extreme secrecy from the public, the Obama administration is hammering out an international copyright treaty with several other countries and the European Union.

Under the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), governments will get sweeping new powers to search and seize material thought to be in breach of copyright.

While the Obama administration calls these secretive plans a development of “national security,” Richard Stallman, a prominent American software freedom activist, calls it a secret “war on sharing”:

“Because we wouldn’t like it if we knew, they are trying to do policy laundering,” Stillman says. “Democracy gets bypassed and they can do to us whatever they want. I can only guess that it’s going to be nasty, because if it weren’t going to be nasty, they wouldn’t need to keep a secret”.

Up until now, the breach of copyright has been a civil matter. The Obama administration seems to now want to criminalize it.

And even though recent reports suggest that on average more than 800 illegally copied songs can be found on a teenager’s music player, this has hardly ever been seen as a reason for “national security” concerns.

One of the things the treaty is said to be aimed at is peer-to-peer sharing, meaning passing on software from one user to another. But what it would do on a larger scale is let Big Brother watch you, this time on a completely different level.

Leaks of the text suggest that border guards will get unprecedented powers to search travelers without warning.

They will be able to go through, copy and confiscate any digital material people have on their laptop. This means music, movies, and games as well as any other personal material.

Some people compare a personal computer and the files it contains to an underwear drawer, and are convinced that the government should not go through it. Or, at least, it should have a good reason to do so.

Others add that the whole process of drafting the new legislation goes completely against the policies with which Obama ran for office, notably the policy of transparency.

It has also been brought to attention that the countries working on the treaty don’t include important international players like China, Russia and Brazil.

ACTA???

Results of an inquiry to the Obama Admin. concerning ACTA:

Electronic Frontier Foundation:

Government Blocks Release of Documents on Secret IP Enforcement Treaty
Despite Obama’s Order for Openness, Americans Still Kept in the Dark About ACTA

Washington, D.C. – The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) is withholding hundreds of documents about a secret intellectual property enforcement treaty currently under negotiation between the U.S. and more than a dozen other countries.

In a pending federal lawsuit, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and Public Knowledge are demanding that background documents on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) be released under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). But the USTR has claimed that more than 1300 pages should be withheld because they implicate national security or expose the USTR’s deliberative processes. The USTR has released only 159 pages for public viewing.

ACTA raises serious concerns about citizens’ civil liberties and privacy rights. The contents and text of ACTA remain secret, but a document leaked to the public last year shows that ACTA could include stronger criminal measures, increased customs border search powers, and requirements for Internet service providers to cooperate with copyright holders. Some public suggestions from content companies have included requiring ISPs to engage in filtering of their customers’ Internet communications for potentially copyright-infringing material, mandatory disclosure of personal information about alleged copyright infringers, and adoption of “Three Strikes” policies requiring ISPs to automatically terminate customers’ Internet access upon a repeat allegation of copyright infringement.

“ACTA could lead to new invasive monitoring of Internet communications by your ISP and raises serious potential due process concerns for Internet users,” said EFF International Policy Director Gwen Hinze. “Because ACTA is to be adopted as an Executive Agreement, it will bypass normal processes of Congressional oversight. Therefore, it is crucial that citizens have access to information about its contents in a timely manner. The USTR’s decision to withhold documents that citizens are entitled to see as a matter of law prevents citizens from evaluating ACTA’s impact on their lives and expressing their opinions to their political leaders before it’s a fait accompli.”

Despite the vast amount of relevant information that was withheld, the documents that were released disclosed some interesting information about ACTA, including records revealing U.S. government policy that ACTA documents should only be shown to government officials or others who work closely with a country’s consultation process. The records also show that the U.S. government intends to “hold ACTA documents in confidence for a fixed period after negotiations conclude.” But not everyone has been kept in the dark about ACTA. Officials from the USTR met privately with the major U.S. proponents of the treaty: the Global Leadership Group of the International Chamber of Commerce’s Business Action to Stop Counterfeiting and Piracy and the Coalition Against Counterfeiting and Piracy at least three times in 2008.

EFF and Public Knowledge first made their FOIA request of the USTR in June of 2008. After the agency dragged its feet in responding, EFF and Public Knowledge filed suit in federal court in Washington, DC, in September of 2008. EFF plans to ask the court to stay further action in the case pending the release of new guidelines by the Attorney General implementing President Obama’s January 21 memorandum stating that all agencies “should adopt a presumption in favor of disclosure, in order to renew their commitment to the principles embodied in FOIA, and to usher in a new era of open Government.”

“We are disappointed with the USTR’s response so far,” said Public Knowledge Staff Attorney Sherwin Siy. “With the guidance of this new policy, we hope that the USTR will reassess its less-than-forthcoming compliance with our FOIA request and provide the public with the much-needed transparency and accountability about this important global agreement.”