An interesting article that I came across today; bolded some points that struck me as dangerous grounds ...
Sound Check by Alan Cross
February 12, 2010 12:30 a.m.
Back in November, I wrote about ACTA, the secret anti-counterfeiting trademark agreement involving Canada, the U.S., Mexico, the EU and nine other countries. Representatives have been meeting behind closed doors for two years to hammer out a treaty that will inevitably affect every single person on the Internet.
Yet there has been almost zero transparency. None of the draft texts have been made public and those outside the inner circle are bound by tough non-disclosure agreements.
This doesn’t mean there haven’t been some leaks.
Aside from measures to fight counterfeiting, there have been discussions about a worldwide “three strikes” rule. Accused (not caught, proven or convicted) of file-sharing music three times by an aggrieved rights holder, and you’re banned from the Internet. For life.
Internet service providers and telecoms would be liable for copyright infringements by their users. To avoid prosecution, that means they’ll have to find some way of sniffing through all the data — YOUR data — that passes through their pipes. And even though you may have a legitimate right to, say, ship a music file from point A to point B, there’s the potential for red flags at the ISP. Accused three times (not caught, proven or convicted) and you’re done. Not just with your current ISP, either. They’ll be required by international law to publish your name to an Internet no-fly list that will prevent you from ever having an Internet account in your name ever again.
And it gets better. Within the document is a second called Border Measures. There’s the real possibility that some border guard will have the power to make you prove all those music files on that iPhone in your pocket are, in fact, not pirated. Can’t do it? Bye-bye, iPhone. Oh, and you could be charged and fined.
This is more than just file-sharing for stopping fake Louis Vuitton bags. It’s about privacy, civil liberties, and legitimate use of the Internet for commerce and innovation.
The seventh round of negotiations is underway in Mexico — secretly, of course, partly because U.S. President Barack Obama has declared this an issue of national security. Same thing for the next round in April in New Zealand.
And because this is an international treaty, it’ll just be rubber-stamped into law. No public debate.
Be informed. Read what the Electronic Frontier Foundations says at eff.org/issues/acta.
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Sources:
http://www.metronews.ca/toronto/com...ifetime-ban-from-the-internet-it-could-happen
http://www.metronews.ca/toronto/comment/article/509570--the-orwellian-plan-to-track-your-music
http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2010/06/02/copyright-bill-clement-montreal.html?ref=rss
http://www.eff.org/issues/acta
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Counterfeiting_Trade_Agreement
Updates:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqE8SuLOQxo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2XPiqhN_Ns&annotation_id=annotation_910879&feature=iv
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=210429284986#!/group.php?gid=210429284986&ref=nf
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10467337-38.html
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/03/your-life-will-some-day-end-acta-will-live-on.ars
http://news.google.com/news/more?um=1&cf=all&ned=us&cf=all&ncl=d7q9CZNjAmTXtvMz0xI_8sjNmJ6cM
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=6275575&postcount=40
* EDIT *
FYI; the EFF is a good starting point for those who decide they want to do something - they may also be able to recommend an equivalent organization in your country.
thats pretty messed up. if it happens in the us, im sure itll end up in the supreme court and declared unconstitutional. this is way above what the powers the constitution granted to the government. after all, the government needs consent of the people or else its not a democracy anymore.
Unfortunately, since ACTA is considered to be an International treaty, it can be passed into law without public debate.
... and that's just the "tip of the iceberg". All one has to do is imagine the scenarios and since most of the treaty is being kept confidential, we don't know how far the reach and impact of the treaty will be. Here's a few other ongoings that most folks aren't aware of:
Rein In ACTA: Tell Congress to Open the Secret IP Pact
https://secure.eff.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=420
In The News: Cellular User Privacy at Risk
http://www.eff.org/press/mentions
Control is arriving to internet...
Wow,
It is amazing about this article.
I really hope this won't succeed, as this trespasses the limits of control and privacy.
As next meeting will be here in México, I´ll try to fond out more locally...
Wow, definately hope this is a No Go
If this has any truth to it, yet another reason why i hate obammer
I get the feeling though that for every ISP that followed the no-fly list, another ISP like Google's new high speed internet would let someone on that list connect.
It reminds me of "Home Taping Is Killing Music. And It's Illegal" campaign.
And a opposing campaigns called,
"copyright is killing music - and it's legal"
"Home Taping is Skill in Music"
"Home Taping Is Killing the Music Industry: Killing Ain't Wrong"
Hope this doesn't become a law. If so, we may have to migrate to Iran (where there is no copyright law).
zizou417 said:
I get the feeling though that for every ISP that followed the no-fly list, another ISP like Google's new high speed internet would let someone on that list connect.
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Let's say for the sake of argument that this treaty is passed ...
As the majority of services are paid via credit card or pre-authorized bank debit, it would seem to me that the person would never be able to get another Internet service under their true identity. Speculating further, the "no-fly" list would likely contain name, address, location, financial, and possibly other government information that establishes a person's unique identity - passport, birth certificate, etc. Some questions that come to mind:
Would this mean that the person would be banned from using cellular or other dial-up means to connect to the Internet?
Should the person use someone else's identify, would they be exposed to criminal prosecution and would the person who's identity was used be banned as well?
Taking it one step further; let's say some disgruntled person or company decides they want to shutdown a competitor, website, or other person, all they need to do is report the key stakeholder anonymously to the authorities (or governing body) a sufficient number of times so as to exceed the threshold ... and voila, banned! In a matter of a few calls, a person such as the owner of a website could be banned from accessing the Internet therefore taking down their website in the process.
Furthermore, countries could be "strong-armed" into adopting the treaty if they wish to conduct commerce over the Internet with countries that are part of the treaty.
I think, it is less likely that some thing like this treaty coming into existence.
I do not know about other developed countries. But, in developing and underdeveloped countries, virtually everyone uses the internet to share the music,movie,software.... So, if you ban all the people form the internet what business these ISPs and e-commerce people are going to do?
And you know, the major market are these countries due to their population. So, developed countries doesn't want to jeopardize their market.
May be, a stricter law to curb such copyright infringement can be applied. But, I hardly see effectiveness of these laws in developing and underdeveloped countries.
(May be China is more happier to apply such law and ban everyone form the internet. Which it is already doing with different means ).
What a "Brave New World" we live in..
hmmmmm, interesting read. Don't agree with this to be honest, but not much I can really do....... I wonder if this could be applied to spammers
raghu13uk said:
I think, it is less likely that some thing like this treaty coming into existence.
I do not know about other developed countries. But, in developing and underdeveloped countries, virtually everyone uses the internet to share the music,movie,software.... So, if you ban all the people form the internet what business these ISPs and e-commerce people are going to do?
And you know, the major market are these countries due to their population. So, developed countries doesn't want to jeopardize their market.
May be, a stricter law to curb such copyright infringement can be applied. But, I hardly see effectiveness of these laws in developing and underdeveloped countries.
(May be China is more happier to apply such law and ban everyone form the internet. Which it is already doing with different means ).
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Agreed; but how does one determine a true copyright violator? And obviously, it won't stop at audio and/or video. And what is the purpose of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) then? Was that act not supposed to be for this purpose? And how many companies/people are aware that the ACTA treaty is in the process of being finalised behind "closed doors"?
Of additional interest is the provision to empower border security such that they can search any/all electronic equipment. As the article points out, this means that no information is confidential. So if one happens to encounter a border security person having a "bad day", one could be faced with confiscation of their cellular phone or laptop as a result of not being able to prove that the information found on the device was legitimately paid for (ex: audio, video, application). Attempting to retrieve a wrongly confiscated item is costly both legally and personally.
Additionally, there are numerous articles on the Internet that already highlight the fact that most authorities have the means to bypass most encryption algorithms so as to extract the contents of hard drives and cellular devices. In some countries, it is even a federal offense to use certain depths of encryption - for the longest time, France only permitted 40-bit encryption.
Imagine this scenario;
You're browsing the Internet while waiting for your flight. You happen to connect to a compromised website which redirects you to several pornographic websites. An announcement over the PA system announces that your flight has been moved to a different gate and you realize that the gate is at the opposite end of the airport.
You close your laptop, stuff it in the bag and rush to the new gate just in time to see that people are boarding the plane. You board the plane, stow you laptop and later during the flight, you turn it on to do some work and then stow it away again forgetting to clear your history and browser cache.
When you arrive at your destination, border security instructs you to provide your electronic devices for scanning. During the scan, they discover the browser cache full of pornographic images.
Now what?
Imagine this other scenario;
What happens if this treaty provides large corporations with the power they require to close down websites that are considered hostile to their revenue or websites that provide information on how circumvent mechanisms that are in their products? And what happens if the treaty empowers the authorities to obtain all of the trace-back information of all of the people who frequented such a website so as to ban/prosecute them?
If they do this, i'm gonna sue someone important!!!
I would NOT want to see this thing passed. It's our internet, and they don't have the right to kick us off of it. Watch this video on the topic here, this one is more likely to happen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqE8SuLOQxo
What happened to that law that stated we could use any type of music/media as long as we don't make a profit on it?! this is so wrong imo. Sorry saw this thread and had to join.
I would much rather see tax dollars going to matters of national security, and helping the job market right now, then pay for big expensive servers that dedicate their time to crawling through everyone's internet, filtering out everything that's deemed "bad." What if you have say, a niece or nephew, that comes over to your house frequently and gets on the computer. They in turn download music, or go a a forbidden website, or something stupid like that, more than a few times. Bam! Your banned for life because of your brother or sister's child's mistake? I would be furious.
I can not see this going into effect without a HUGE public uproar. From us, as consumers, but also from the ISP companies. They will start taking HUGE revenue losses because of this.
Oh, and the border filtering... you've GOT to be freakin kidding me, right? Before I say any of this, let me make it perfectly clear that I am no racist. I either love, or hate people based on their personalities and actions. Okay, not a racist? Understood. Okay. Why not, instead of filtering electronic devices through the borders, they protect the borders a little better? I'm all of immigration, let them all come over, if they want, but make them do it the legal way. That's all. If that technology filter is applied at our borders, then I can see a huge uproar from a lot of racists, and non-racists, in the Texas, California areas.
There are way too many holes in this. It'd be like trying to hold water in a mesh container. In it's current state, there's no way this will be effective.
2012: The Year The Internet Ends
This will happen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2XPiqhN_Ns&annotation_id=annotation_910879&feature=iv
Badwolve1 said:
If they do this, i'm gonna sue someone important!!!
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You won't be alone, let's make it a Class Action lawsuit!
I'm sure there will be plenty of constitutional lawyers ready to pounce on this one...
Related
Ok, so I figured this would be the best place to post this. This directly relates to EVERYONE here.
If this lawsuit gets passed we are ALL screwed. Essentially, Sony is trying to get a case passed against some security researchers that have been able to "jailbreak", "root", "reimage" their PS3s so that they can once again put an "OtherOS" on like when they originally released. BUT, they are not stopping their, they are trying to get a precedent passed that would allow a device manufacturer to bring legal actions against people for modifying their devices AFTER they have purchased them. Meaning, in our case, if you buy a phone and modify the OS from exactly what the manufacturer has "approved" YOU are committing a CRIMINAL OFFENCE.
I SAY "F-YOU SONY!!!"
This is directly from the EFF, Electronic Frontier Foundation, if you are unaware of who they are or what they do I stress to everyone here that you learn a little about them from www.eff.org.
January 19th, 2011
Sony v. Hotz: Sony Sends A Dangerous Message to Researchers -- and Its Customers
Commentary
Co-authored by Corynne McSherry and Marcia Hofmann
For years, EFF has been warning that the anti-circumvention provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act can be used to chill speech, particularly security research, because legitimate researchers will be afraid to publish their results lest they be accused of circumventing a technological protection measure. We've also been concerned that the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act could be abused to try to make alleged contract violations into crimes.
We've never been sorrier to be right. These two things are precisely what's happening in Sony v. Hotz. If you have missed this one, Sony has sued several security researchers for publishing information about security holes in Sony’s PlayStation 3. At first glance, it's hard to see why Sony is bothering — after all, the research was presented three weeks ago at the Chaos Communication Congress and promptly circulated around the world. The security flaws discovered by the researchers allow users to run Linux on their machines again — something Sony used to support but recently started trying to prevent. Paying lawyers to try to put the cat back in the bag is just throwing good money after bad. And even if they won — we'll save the legal analysis for another post — the defendants seem unlikely to be able to pay significant damages. So what's the point?
The real point, it appears, is to send a message to security researchers around the world: publish the details of our security flaws and we'll come after you with both barrels blazing. For example, Sony has asked the court to immediately impound all "circumvention devices" — which it defines to include not only the defendants' computers, but also all "instructions," i.e., their research and findings. Given that the research results Sony presumably cares about are available online, granting the order would mean that everyone except the researchers themselves would have access to their work.
Not content with the DMCA hammer, Sony is also bringing a slew of outrageous Computer Fraud and Abuse Act claims. The basic gist of Sony's argument is that the researchers accessed their own PlayStation 3 consoles in a way that violated the agreement that Sony imposes on users of its network (and supposedly enabled others to do the same). But the researchers don't seem to have used Sony's network in their research — they just used the consoles they bought with their own money. Simply put, Sony claims that it's illegal for users to access their own computers in a way that Sony doesn't like. Moreover, because the CFAA has criminal as well as civil penalties, Sony is actually saying that it's a crime for users to access their own computers in a way that Sony doesn't like.
That means Sony is sending another dangerous message: that it has rights in the computer it sells you even after you buy it, and therefore can decide whether your tinkering with that computer is legal or not. We disagree. Once you buy a computer, it's yours. It shouldn't be a crime for you to access your own computer, regardless of whether Sony or any other company likes what you're doing.
Finally, even if the researchers had used Sony's network, Sony's claim that it's a crime to violate its terms of use has been firmly rejected by courts in cases like United States v. Drew and Facebook v. Power Ventures. As those courts have recognized, companies like Sony would have tremendous coercive power if they could enforce their private, unilateral and easy-to-change agreements with threats of criminal punishment.
Sony's core arguments — that it can silence speech that reveals security flaws using the DMCA and that the mere fact of a terms of use somewhere gives a company permanent and total control over what you do with a device under pain of criminal punishment — are both sweeping and frightening, and not just for gamers and computer researchers. Frankly, it's not what we expect from any company that cares about its customers, and we bet it's not what those customers expect, either.
Attachment Size
Sony_Complaint.PDF 2.59 MB
Sony_Motion_For_TRO.pdf 207.03 KB
Related Issues: Coders' Rights Project, DMCA, Free Speech, Innovation, Terms Of (Ab)Use
Related Cases: Facebook v. Power Ventures, US v. Drew
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looks like they wont be releasing the bootloader for the x10 any time soon....
Next thing you know car manufactures will be trying to get legal approval so if somebody modifies the car in anyway they will be committing criminal offense.........yeah right! lol
But seriously, we pay so much money for a device and not being able to modify it freely is just dumb. Personally I would sell those devices and not bother to buy any anymore since I wouldn't want to support such a company with such a attitude.
I think it is kinda fun.
As I jumped to the page I had been logged out and what was the add that was displayed in my original post??
Discounts on PS3s, games, and move. Ironic, dontchya think??
LOL
Actually even if sony wins it will only apply to consoles (for now), but if they lose the legal precedent will be changed from allowing mobile phones (a closed system) to be modified to allowing game consoles, mobile phones, and who knows what else. This is a bit of old news if you keep up on the psp/ps3 scene though but still interesting and at times funny. If you guys want to see the guy in question here http://www.ps3-hacks.com/2011/01/14/attack-of-the-show-with-geohot/ it's the same guy who jailbroke the iphone for the first time. He beat apple before, now let's see sony go down and even more systems open up legally.
But seriously, we pay so much money for a device and not being able to modified freely is just dumb.
start getting use to it now
it used to be that the huge companies couldnt stop people from hacking, so they just kept tabs on it and used the threat of losing your account as 'leverage'.
now that they have the upper hand, the law will work with them much more.
sony always had the updates trick. again, they couldnt stop people hacking, but the hackers couldnt hide it either, so a new update messed up your hacks and sometimes your device.
now they are gonna give you all hell...
you think sony wants you to play your own mp3s and watch your own videos???
if sony had the power to stop you eating food that you didnt buy through playstation, they would happily watch you starve to death.
its the entertainment industry. key word: industry, ie, to make money.
if they made a better device, with more fair options instead of trying to milk everyone dry, then they would gain so much from the people like me (and millions others) that dont want to give them our money because they are ****s.
I bet they'd make a lot more money if they allowed modifications, and supported them (for a price!)
wow... if they did that android devices would go extinct... theyre barely functional without mods
You guys are missing the point. If sony wins it only applies to systems not already in the DMCA which right now says "mobile phones". We're safe regardless unless you're also into console/handheld modding. Sony is just throwing a hissy-fit because their security got bent over a barrel.
I though people jailbroke the PS3 so they can play PS2 games because, you know, the PS3 can't do that.
j/k I think this is a bad move by Sony. How is jailbreaking a console any different than jaibreaking a mobile phone? Someone please explain that to me.
kizzmyanthia said:
...they are trying to get a precedent passed that would allow a device manufacturer to bring legal actions against people for modifying their devices AFTER they have purchased them. Meaning, in our case, if you buy a phone and modify the OS from exactly what the manufacturer has "approved" YOU are committing a CRIMINAL OFFENCE.....
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what if i steal a phone, and modify it, or if someone gives it to me as a gift
corporation > human
so
money > human
thats how it is nowdays
btw didnt apple try the same thing with jb-ing and they ruled jb is legal but voids warranty at the end ?
are u some apple fanboy or ur head just got pulled out of something warm and moisty ?
souljaboy said:
corporation > human
so
money > human
thats how it is nowdays
btw didnt apple try the same thing with jb-ing and they ruled jb is legal but voids warranty at the end ?
are u some apple fanboy or ur head just got pulled out of something warm and moisty ?
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Methinks the jailbreak precedent makes it impossible for Sony to get any traction in this case. The jailbreak precedent has been set in stone and the judges have already tossed out cases involving jailbreaks.
The only winners in this case will be lawyers.
sakai4eva said:
Methinks the jailbreak precedent makes it impossible for Sony to get any traction in this case. The jailbreak precedent has been set in stone and the judges have already tossed out cases involving jailbreaks.
The only winners in this case will be lawyers.
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Thankfully you're right. This has been covered by the cydia case.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
I didn't see a post for this elsewhere (though some may recall that I have an exceptional ability to miss the obvious ), and you will not hear about this on the news, and it's barely even being covered in print or online. I'm usually too much of a cynic to bother with this sort of activism but this is a big deal, so please grant me 5 minutes of your time; you won't regret it.
The big deal? The "Stop Online Piracy Act" (SOPA). Well wait now, that doesn't sound so bad. We all download music for free here and there, maybe use an "extended trial" of Photoshop, but we know that piracy is technically stealing...so this can't be that bad, right? Wrong. Horribly wrong.
The fact that no news agency is covering this is absolutely insane. We criticize countries like China and Iran for censorship, but at least they don't attempt to conceal it within a vague anti-piracy bill. It is no exaggeration to say that this is one of the most significant bills to come through congress in the past decade, and most people don't even know it exists; much less that discussion began on it today. Of those that do know about it, half of them don't understand why it's a bad thing because H.R.3261 has such an innocuous name (it is also called the Protect IP Act of 2011 in the Senate). Don't be fooled.
"American Censorship Day" - Information on the Internet Blacklist BillsI urge you to take the time to educate yourself on H.R.3261 "SOPA" and write and/or call your Senators and Congress(wo)men! I guarantee if you spend 10 minutes reading about this, you will understand why I'm using an annoyingly large, bright red font.
The Wikipedia Article has a brief section ("Supporters") that shows--in a nutshell--how some politicians are deceptively framing this as a "pro-jobs" bill, among other pleasant sounding things; this couldn't be further from the truth. This is, in a manner of speaking, trying to apply archaic copyright laws to a 21st century Internet, rather than taking the effort to rewrite the copyright laws to make sense in the modern world.
You can find a lot of information explained very well at "American Censorship Day" website (scroll down past the petition), and I would encourage you to do your own research as well. Sign the petition if you want, but really, it is considerably more effective to call or write (or both!) your representatives.
A few more good links:
"Contacting The Congress" - Easily lookup the names/contact information of your Reps/Senators.
SOPA Wikipedia Article - References - These references link to a variety of websites/articles that are both for and against this bill. I would like to personally point out how most of those in support are entities of a political nature, while those against are largely non-political technology-oriented entities.
Full Text of H.R.3261 [PDF] - A relatively "short" 78 pages.
Hearing Information - House Judiciary Committee - This bill is on "the fastrack," meaning its authors are trying to push it through as quickly as possible...This hearing is where the bill began it's journey today (11/16/11).
I thank you for taking the time to read this; if you choose to reply to this thread, bash me as much as you like, but please keep your responses to each other civil.
Alright, back to rooting my Revo (before doing so is a felony ).
Sincerely,
James
Good stuff the masses don't even realize how important this is
Sent from my SPH-D710 using XDA App
Basically when this bill passes we have no freedom of speech on the internets. The US government can block websites hosted on servers outside it's borders. And you can get sued for having a song playing on the radio heard in your video posted online.
jaszek said:
Basically when this bill passes we have no freedom of speech on the internets. The US government can block websites hosted on servers outside it's borders. And you can get sued for having a song playing on the radio heard in your video posted online.
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This is ridiculous we must stop them!
Sent from my SPH-D710 using XDA App
Must stop big brother government before it's too late!
Its getting near time for the guns to come out boys...
Brb, there are strange men in suits at my door....
Sent from my SGH-T959V using XDA App
Great Job was about to post something about this on here but you beat me to it anyway here are some more links to articles,info and petitions:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-segal/stop-the-internet-blackli_b_739836.html
*
http://americancensorship.org/
http://demandprogress.org/blacklist/*
http://demandprogress.org/blacklist/?referring_akid=a2655379.916925._mXAo4&source=auto-taf
P.S keep spreading the word guys!
I think XDA should censor their logo/ and or have the javascript popup to support it http://americancensorship.org/
I have done it to my website for support purposes. come on guys we need this to be halted! So if you have a website/ blog please join the movement and censor your website for a day!
I guess this is the day when we finally found out for sure that govenments can be bought and paid for by greedy corporations.
You are now no longer being ruled by an elected body, but by a fat-cat in a pin-stripe suit.
This is the new world order i guess.
Very well written. I know quite a bit about this topic, since we will get something called "vorratsdatenspeicherung" where I live (austria). Basically The government logs your internet connection and it logs when and who you call/write a sms/ send an email and where you were by doing that.
Should be published on the portal!
I do what i want, because I can.
THIS IS CRAZY
This has to be one of those interpretation of the law issues though surely? I mean... you can't be prosecuted for lying on a dating profile about your height, weight, age etc. There'd be nobody left on match.com
Mykocorum said:
This has to be one of those interpretation of the law issues though surely? I mean... you can't be prosecuted for lying on a dating profile about your height, weight, age etc. There'd be nobody left on match.com
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The way the law is written does allow for scenarios like the one you propose. The retort of the politicians is, "We won't ever (ab)use this power for doing stuff like that, never ever." I don't know about you, but that's not too reassuring for me. If it's not abused now by these politicians, it'll be abused later by future politicians. Not to mention the precedent it sets...Once you give the government a little bit of control, it becomes very easy for them to get a lot of control.
Even if this were solely an interpretation of the law issue I'd still be against it, because Congress shouldn't be writing laws that can be so easily misinterpreted.
A link to the full text is up there, I plan on reading it tomorrow.
I totally agree the law should be written so that there is no room for interpretation.. you know if what you are doing is illegal from day one, ignorance is not a defence, but as devils advocate the counter is that you end up with thousands of very specific laws for hundreds of situations whilst occurrences the lawmakers didn't think of at the time are getting through loopholes and running away.
Circumstantially you should really be able to use the end purpose of why you are doing what you are doing as to the criminality of what's going down. I don't think anyone on this board would argue that a 40 year old man pretending to be a 13 year old girl on a forum or website to talk to other teenagers should be made illegal and is a very wrong thing - but who hasn't said they are two inches taller on a dating profile or put their build down as "athletic" rather than "a few extra pounds"
Bear in mind that the UK equivalent to this, the 'Digital Economy Act' was passed into law some time ago with barely a whimper of protest. Just like ProtectIP, it was kept quiet and barely reported on until it was too late. We just woke up one morning to draconian new laws. Again, it was bought and paid for by big media.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Economy_Act_2010
I doubt anything can be done to stop the same happening in the US, but perhaps enough pressure can be brought to bear to force some changes to the act. At least you guys have advanced warning to do something about it.
Edit: Big Content stacks Senate Committee
"US Senators have done their level best to give Big Content the law it wants to basically lock up citizens who might think of piracy or file sharing without having to worry about that pesky thing called constitution. The House Judiciary Committee today held an important hearing on the Stop Online Piracy Act but only those witnesses who would not object to the law being invited. This was designed to give the impression that all the witnesses were in favour of the law."
Bump this baby. Also voted for frontpage!
I do what i want, because I can.
DirkGently said:
Bear in mind that the UK equivalent to this, the 'Digital Economy Act' was passed into law some time ago with barely a whimper of protest. Just like ProtectIP, it was kept quiet and barely reported on until it was too late. We just woke up one morning to draconian new laws. Again, it was bought and paid for by big media.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Economy_Act_2010
I doubt anything can be done to stop the same happening in the US, but perhaps enough pressure can be brought to bear to force some changes to the act. At least you guys have advanced warning to do something about it.
Edit: Big Content stacks Senate Committee
"US Senators have done their level best to give Big Content the law it wants to basically lock up citizens who might think of piracy or file sharing without having to worry about that pesky thing called constitution. The House Judiciary Committee today held an important hearing on the Stop Online Piracy Act but only those witnesses who would not object to the law being invited. This was designed to give the impression that all the witnesses were in favour of the law."
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Thanks for posting this...It's absolutely crazy...I'm sure they'll find a way to completely circumvent a public hearing that gives opponents a chance to speak throughout the entire process.
jamRwoo said:
Thanks for posting this...It's absolutely crazy...I'm sure they'll find a way to completely circumvent a public hearing that gives opponents a chance to speak throughout the entire process.
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As always, the people can have a say.. at the ballot box!
I'm pleased to report that the government that introduced the DEA in the UK, lost in the next election shortly afterwards. (After being in power for thirteen years).
Karma b*tches!
Bumping this due to some developments...
Well, this is finally seeing the light of day and getting coverage by some news agencies; caught these articles on Drudge Report.
I just want to say that I hope Chris Dodd dies in a fire. Slowly. FYI: He's a former Senator spearheading this bill AND the new head of the MPAA. Primarily by attempting to bribe members of Congress. Gotta love that the Hollywood/Record Label lobbyists are getting all the airtime, while the people who actually understand this stuff are being silenced as much as possible.
Not too late to call/write your representatives. You can also share these links with your friends...tweet them, facebook them, reddit them, do whatever. If these links don't scare the living s**t out of you, well...idk...too many benzos perhaps. Feel free to copy this post and use it wherever, if you wish.
All of these articles are great and cover a different aspect (with some overlap) of the consequences of this legislation. Props to The Hill for giving this so much coverage; glad someone's doing it.
---
MPAA Head Chris Dodd on Online Censorship Bill: China's the Model -- http://bit.ly/u7kgXy
"When the Chinese told Google that they had to block sites or they couldn't do [business] in their country, they managed to figure out how to block sites."
Google chairman says online piracy bill would 'criminalize' the Internet -- http://bit.ly/tRWEnj
"It's not a good thing. I understand the goal of what SOPA and PIPA are trying to do," Schmidt said of the Senate counterpart bill, the Protect IP Act. "Their goal is reasonable, their mechanism is terrible. They should not criminalize the intermediaries. They should go after the people that are violating the law."
Internet piracy bill: A free speech 'kill switch' -- http://bit.ly/tY6o6f
Consider this: Under the proposed legislation all that’s required for government to shutdown a specific website is the mere accusation that the site unlawfully featured copyrighted content. Such an accusation need not be proven – or even accompanied by probable cause. All that an accuser (or competitor) needs to do in order to obtain injunctive relief is point the finger at a website.
Legal expert says online piracy bill is unconstitutional -- http://bit.ly/tNBUDH
"Conceivably, an entire website containing tens of thousands of pages could be targeted if only a single page were accused of infringement," Tribe writes. "Such an approach would create severe practical problems for sites with substantial user-generated content, such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, and for blogs that allow users to post videos, photos, and other materials."
---
God, do I hate politicians.
P.S. For those interested in a more detailed analysis of how this is a flagrant violation of free speech: Laurence Tribe, a Harvard law professor and Supreme Court advocate, wrote a memo detailing how SOPA does exactly that -- http://scr.bi/sFSRBg
Closed:
XDA Forum Rules said:
2.4 Personal attacks, racial, political and/or religious discussions: XDA is a discussion forum about certain mobile phones. Mobile phones are not racial, political, religious or personally offensive, therefore none of these types of discussions are permitted on XDA.
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Thread closed. There is already many threads about this. ~TRM
In case anyone is noticing that megaupload links aren't responding.
Megaupload finished: Feds shut down file-sharing giant without SOPA
MegaUpload Shut Down by the Feds, Founder Arrested
Here's the actual indictment filed in an Alexandria, Virginia, US court;
Mega-Indictment
It doesn't look like the service will back anytime soon, so folks may want to consider utilizing other services for uploads, etc.
Good Luck..
Addendum:
Deleted the reference to SOPA/PIPA in my subject heading because this action has nothing to do with those laws. SOPA/PIPA are designed to implement measures so that "suspected" "piracy" sites can have their DNS entries blocked from US internet users which will frustrate efforts to access those sites, and to take away revenue by stopping credit card companies from doing business with them. IOW these are laws targeting the so-called "end users".
This action against Megaupload was a straight up site takedown and arrest of the founders, which was obviously coordinated with multiple law enforcement agencies from multiple countries. (At least the US and New Zealand were involved). This was action targeting the so-called "suppliers".
Having said that, if you're a US voter you should make sure you let your US Congress representatives know how you feel about SOPA/PIPA. Even if phase one of the web protests are over for now.
Horrible day for humanity....
SGSII
****ing bull****
If I have helped or contributed in*ANY*way please hit the*THANKS*button. It is very much appreciated!!
Current-*Samsung Galaxy S2 (stock)*|*Htc Sensation (rooted w/ XE Dr. Dre Beats Technology)*|*Samsung Galaxy Vibrant (rooted w/ cm7)*|*Mytouch 4g (stock)*|*Mytouch Slide (stock)*|*Htc G1 (stock)
They charged people to see copyrighted content. screw them
messed up, 2012 will be a crazy year, millions of websites will get shutdown, with or without sopa =/
http://gizmodo.com/5877679/anonymous-kills-department-of-justice-site-in-megaupload-revenge-strike
Anonymous is striking back.
Wow
this getting out of hand.. The gov needs to chill out ... If we continue down this path we will end up like north Korea .. No offense btw
1984 g.o.
Sgsii
What!?
I use icefilms to watch all mt TV and ice uses all MU links...
I had a 2 year sub for MU too...
Their download speeds were the best!
HRodMusic said:
messed up, 2012 will be a crazy year, millions of websites will get shutdown, with or without sopa =/
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Theyre really showing ppl how SOPA/PIPA can hurt him. If this is what they can do WITHOUT it, im afraid to think what kind of rampage theyll go on after.
Im glad there is nothing else wrong with the country, that the goverment has this kind of thing to focus on.
Wow is all i can say.
GreggoryD502 said:
Im glad there is nothing else wrong with the country, that the goverment has this kind of thing to focus on.
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Correct!
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda premium
Edited OP.
Megaupload should be taken down
and this is a good example that the current laws in the book are good enough if they just enforce them. There is no need for SOPA/PIPA.
Megauploads business model asks for money to see others copyrighted content.
Torrent sites on the other hand dont make any money and are much more complicated legally yet those got taken down before Megaupload. Megaupload should of been the first.
And so began the WAR...
MU business model is unethical. As so many, many copy cats out there such as filesonic, 4shared. It's only matter of time before they get taken down. Megaupload is just an example.
jim93 said:
Megaupload should be taken down
and this is a good example that the current laws in the book are good enough if they just enforce them. There is no need for SOPA/PIPA.
Megauploads business model asks for money to see others copyrighted content.
Torrent sites on the other hand dont make any money and are much more complicated legally yet those got taken down before Megaupload. Megaupload should of been the first.
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Either you're ignorant or your just stupid. MU did not promote copyright material at all, it took down anything that was flagged as infringing. Many many people use MU, doctors sharing cancer cures. Scientists sharing data, teachers sharing work for data, the list goes on. They only charges for premium access which only gave you unlimited download speeds and no limits. With or without you could download copyright material.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda premium
President Obama has taken a stance against SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act), a bill that would allow the justice department to force Internet providers and search engines to block all sites accused of copyright infringement.
For now, it appears that President Obama has stalled the controversial legislation. Read the details according to Forbes.com:
“The growing anti-SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) support that has swept through the gaming and Internet community found a very big ally today. With websites like Reddit and Wikipedia and gaming organizations like Major League Gaming prepared for a blackout on January 18th – the same day that the House Judiciary Committee hearing on HR 3261was scheduled in Washington, D.C. – President Barack Obama has stepped in and said he would not support the bill.
SOPA has been delayed, for now. The House has agreed to revisit the issue next month, but they now know the White House will veto any bill that’s not more narrowly focused.
Much to the chagrin of Hollywood, the Entertainment Software Association (which has been a backer of the bill from early on), and Internet domain company GoDaddy.com (which lost many accounts as a result of its support for the bill); SOPA has been shelved. The Motion Picture Association of America, one of the bill’s largest sponsors, is expected to regroup.”
I foresee prohibition-style shakedowns and takedowns. This issue is going to explode as the two sides engage in strikes and counterstrikes, but I do hope cooler heads prevail.
All respect to other opinions voiced here, but megaupload facilitated a great deal of sketchy shenanigans and did not appear to police its site effectively enough. Of course, a task like that is gargantuan.
I wonder, though, if the g-men will also shut down YouTube and arrest its principals as well? I suspect there is more pirated intellectual property there than on most of the rest of the internet combined. What would make YouTube exempt, and would such an exemption be fair?
"Soup" or no soup, the coming months will prove historic in the life of the internet, an internet that will be forced to grow up beyond the walled garden of its adolescence and thence to play by the rules of the rest of society. You heard it here, folks: The age of internet innocence is over, and sopa/pipa are just early, clumsy practice shots as the media industry and legislators gauge public opinion before launching a more calculated assault.
This is why the retaliatory actions of Anonymous and others cause me great concern. I think they will turn public sentiment against the internet community, paint all opponents of sopa and pipa and similar bad legislation as wildeyed bandits, and thus embolden the powers that be to insist on draconian measures that will force the internet to mature too quickly, severely undermining its usefulness in the process.
Governments of the Industrial World, you weary giants of flesh and steel, I come from Cyberspace, the new home of Mind. On behalf of the future, I ask you of the past to leave us alone. You are not welcome among us. You have no sovereignty where we gather.
We have no elected government, nor are we likely to have one, so I address you with no greater authority than that with which liberty itself always speaks. I declare the global social space we are building to be naturally independent of the tyrannies you seek to impose on us. You have no moral right to rule us nor do you possess any methods of enforcement we have true reason to fear.
Governments derive their "just" powers from the consent of the governed. You have neither solicited nor received ours. We did not invite you. You do not know us, nor do you know our world. Cyberspace does not lie within your borders. Do not think that you can build it, as though it were a public construction project. You cannot. It is an act of nature and it grows itself through our collective actions.
You have not engaged in our great and gathering conversation, nor did you create the wealth of our marketplaces. You do not know our culture, our ethics, or the unwritten codes that already provide our society more order than could be obtained by any of your impositions.
You claim there are problems among us that you need to solve. You use this claim as an excuse to invade our precincts, invade our privacy and take us from our homes. Many of these problems don't exist. Where there are real conflicts, where there are wrongs, we will identify them and address them by our means. We are forming our own Social Contract . This governance will arise according to the conditions of our world, not yours. Our world is different.
Cyberspace consists of transactions, relationships, and thought itself, arrayed like a standing wave in the web of our communications. Ours is a world that is both everywhere and nowhere, but it is not where bodies live.
We are creating a world that all may enter without privilege or prejudice accorded by race, economic power, military force, or place of birth.
We are creating a world where anyone, anywhere may express his or her beliefs, no matter how singular, without fear of being coerced into silence or conformity.
Your legal concepts of property, expression, identity, movement, and context do not apply to us. They are all based on matter, and there is no matter here.
Our identities have no bodies, so, unlike you, we cannot obtain order by physical coercion. We believe that from ethics, enlightened self-interest, and the commonweal, our governance will emerge . Our identities may be distributed across many of your jurisdictions. The only law that all our constituent cultures would generally recognize is the Golden Rule. We hope we will be able to build our particular solutions on that basis. But we cannot accept the solutions you are attempting to impose.
In the United States, you are trying to create/pass a law, The Stop Online Piracy Act & Protect IP Act (SOPA/PIPA), which repudiates your own Constitution and insults the dreams of Jefferson, Washington, Mill, Madison, DeToqueville, and Brandeis etc. These dreams must now be born anew in us.
You are terrified of your own children, since they are natives in a world where you will always be immigrants. Because you fear them, you entrust your bureaucracies with the parental responsibilities you are too cowardly to confront yourselves. In our world, all the sentiments and expressions of humanity, from the debasing to the angelic, are parts of a seamless whole, the global conversation of bits. We cannot separate the air that chokes from the air upon which wings beat.
In the United States (and eventually the entire globe), you are trying to ward off the virus of liberty & freedom by erecting guard posts at the frontiers of Cyberspace. These may keep out the contagion for a small time, but they will not work in a world that will soon be blanketed in bit-bearing media.
Your increasingly obsolete information industries, your dinosaur business model(s) would perpetuate themselves by proposing laws, in America and elsewhere, that claim to own speech, song & video itself throughout the world. These laws would declare ideas to be another corporate industrial product, no more noble than pig iron. In our world, whatever the human mind may create can be reproduced and distributed infinitely at no cost. The global conveyance of thought no longer requires your factories to accomplish.
John Perry Barlow - A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace.
****not my writing but thought I would share****
I see that you said you did not write this but, who did?
Even though not your writing, the author deserves credit. If its not written by "anonymous"
John Perry Barlow - A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus
Bump. .
The amazing part was, if you find the original of this, it had "the Telecommunications Reform Act" instead of SOPA/PIPA.
This was originally written in 1996.
https://projects.eff.org/~barlow/Declaration-Final.html
http://rt.com/news/apple-patent-transmission-block-408/
It's super lame they are going to do this.
the company says the affected sites are to be mostly cinemas, theaters, concert grounds and similar locations
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Who the hell records movies on their phones? Now if I see something at a theater I want a picture of I cant have it just because my phone will think I might be in a movie viewing area? What about all the theaters in malls? No taking pictures in malls because there is a movie theater?!
And concert grounds? They really think they have the right to take our devices capabilities away from us during festivals? Hell I take more pics at festivals than I do any other time!! This pisses me off really bad, its the first step towards the government having total control over all our devices and when we can do what with them. I really thought about putting the swear filter to the test for this post. I am disappoint.
Can't see this going down with the general public....seriously bad move by Apple if it goes ahead....which is good news for android!
slaphead20 said:
which is good news for android!
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I dont see it that way, I think if this goes over it will eventually be required in new phones. But I hope I'm wrong!
WiredPirate said:
I dont see it that way, I think if this goes over it will eventually be required in new phones. But I hope I'm wrong!
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But if Apple has a patent on it?!
WiredPirate said:
I dont see it that way, I think if this goes over it will eventually be required in new phones. But I hope I'm wrong!
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Even if it winds up required (which it wont) there's only one contender with custom Roms that can remove it. I can't seem to remember who though
slaphead20 said:
But if Apple has a patent on it?!
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lol, that would be best for everybody.. Unless it becomes required and manufacturers have to pay Apple to use it by law.
WiredPirate said:
lol, that would be best for everybody.. Unless it becomes required and manufacturers have to pay Apple to use it by law.
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well if you read the article Apple has indeed patented it, and Samsung aren't going to copy that one if they even the slightest bit of common sense
I just read the article and it's coming across as all kinds of morally disgusting. Imagine police brutality that nobody can record on their phones? Or if nobody could record the pepper spray cop walking around paper spraying students? I am not much for conspiracies but this is setting all kinds of bells off.
063_XOBX said:
I just read the article and it's coming across as all kinds of morally disgusting. Imagine police brutality that nobody can record on their phones? Or if nobody could record the pepper spray cop walking around paper spraying students? I am not much for conspiracies but this is setting all kinds of bells off.
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Several states do not want you recording the police, I think some have passed laws against it already.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
WiredPirate said:
Several states do not want you recording the police, I think some have passed laws against it already.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
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Illegal or not if I felt my rights were being violated, I would do anything in my power to record what transpired. If a company worked with police to prevent me from doing that then they obviously don't want my money.
063_XOBX said:
Illegal or not if I felt my rights were being violated, I would do anything in my power to record what transpired.
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I agree, and I would too. But the government holds a legal monopoly on the use of physical force, so your going to get your ass whooped or be locked up for taking that picture. Plus the police will just confiscate your device, so better have it uploading in the background or you will never be able to prove it. And even if you do have the pics they will not be usable in court if the law says you cant take the pics.
Craziness. Also one little tweak for hackers to get their hands on and wreak havoc on iOS users. If it's on the phone it's in the code and in theory anyone with the right knowledge could take advantage of it.
MissionImprobable said:
Craziness. Also one little tweak for hackers to get their hands on and wreak havoc on iOS users. If it's on the phone it's in the code and in theory anyone with the right knowledge could take advantage of it.
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I hadn't even thought about that. Hahaha, sucks for them.
WiredPirate said:
I agree, and I would too. But the government holds a legal monopoly on the use of physical force, so your going to get your ass whooped or be locked up for taking that picture. Plus the police will just confiscate your device, so better have it uploading in the background or you will never be able to prove it. And even if you do have the pics they will not be usable in court if the law says you cant take the pics.
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It doesn't matter if they're applicable in court. Groups like the ACLU would have my back on it and I would spare no expense (even beyond support from any groups/organizations that supported me) in making it into a PR nightmare for everyone involved. Just look at the Rodney King trial. He was involved in a high speed chase while driving with a blood alcohol around .19 and wound up being front and center in one of the biggest civil rights cases of the decade. Public perception has a lot more sway over how things are handled than facts.
I just want to clarify that I'm not belittling what Mr.King had to go through, just pointing out that illegal or not, the Police need to be accountable for their actions.
063_XOBX said:
It doesn't matter if they're applicable in court. Groups like the ACLU would have my back on it and I would spare no expense (even beyond support from any groups/organizations that supported me) in making it into a PR nightmare for everyone involved. Just look at the Rodney King trial. He was involved in a high speed chase while driving with a blood alcohol around .19 and wound up being front and center in one of the biggest civil rights cases of the decade. Public perception has a lot more sway over how things are handled than facts.
I just want to clarify that I'm not belittling what Mr.King had to go through, just pointing out that illegal or not, the Police need to be accountable for their actions.
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Agreed, I hope it doesn't come to that though.
This just in, this just in: Apple sucks! Back to you, Jan.
063_XOBX said:
It doesn't matter if they're applicable in court. Groups like the ACLU would have my back on it and I would spare no expense (even beyond support from any groups/organizations that supported me) in making it into a PR nightmare for everyone involved. Just look at the Rodney King trial. He was involved in a high speed chase while driving with a blood alcohol around .19 and wound up being front and center in one of the biggest civil rights cases of the decade. Public perception has a lot more sway over how things are handled than facts.
I just want to clarify that I'm not belittling what Mr.King had to go through, just pointing out that illegal or not, the Police need to be accountable for their actions.
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Click to collapse
And it's okay if you did belittle him. The dude was a piece of crap through and through. It was just the excuse LA needed so the animals could come out and riot, rape, pillage, and murder. You're very right about public perception. The media in all its glory never lets a crisis go to waste. Most police "brutality" videos never show the whole scene/situation from stop to finish. I also wager to say that police brutality occurs at a much smaller rate than what the public "perceives" to take place. Not to mention look at the statistics of how many law enforcement officers exist in the U.S. then compare that to the actual, honest to goodness, police brutality incidents and I bet it's less than 0.5%.
Are there piece of **** cops out there? Yes. But I don't see anyone firing politicians these days for royally ****ing up your life. I don't see any media people losing their job for blatantly swaying public perception and falsifying the news and often times just short of inciting riots.
But hey I'm just a little guy in the DOJ who calls it like he sees it and may have wrote a few thesis papers on police corruption and brutality.
I have no problem with being filmed while on the job. My problem is where you take a snippet of an escalated situation to portray me as going beyond my duties as a law enforcement officer and painting me as a bad guy. More so, law enforcement deals with the worst of the worst on a daily basis. We try to do our jobs to the extent that the law allows while also trying to keep the public happy. We are not here to serve you. (IMHO), nor protect you. Exercise your 2nd amendment right for that. We are here to separate the good from evil before you have to.
Each day I'm tasked with waiting for someone to push my adrenaline on overload, knowing today, could be the day, I go meet my maker. I also have to remember that I represent the agency I work for, and public eyes are always watching. I also remember that no matter how much an individual tries to do harm to me verbally or physically I must act in a manner accordingly to how I've been trained and know when to never go above the needed use of force.
While you may sit there and belittle me, I have to push that aside when you call me to come help, assist, save you from whatever danger came your way. In return I ask that you, from one human being to another, always remember that I too make mistakes. That at any point in time I could be sued, my family could be in danger, or any of us could be killed, all because I had a SPLIT SECOND to make a decision on how to react to a highly stressful and downright pants ****ting situation, because you, John Q Public, along with the law said I must follow my duties of removing bad guy A from the streets.
So I ask you, the next time you see a "police brutality" video streaming all over the web or media, please be sure you have all the facts before you cast your first stone. Put yourself in that officer's shoes from start to finish.
Also you as a citizen, it is you duty to know your rights, as a citizen. Use them if you find an over-zealous "authoritative" figure encroaching them. Be polite, be courteous, and be right. You ask the same of us.
So here's some facts. Law enforcement officers have the highest divorce rates out of any profession in the nation. We also have the highest suicide rates. The average life expectancy of a law enforcement officer is 57 years of age. Coincidentally that is also the maximum age allowed before mandatory retirement in the DOJ. Now ask yourself.....what do these tidbits tell you?
ETA: And some tidbits about me. I think the war on drugs is a waste of time and money. I think Fast & Furious goes all the way to the top of the administration and they should all be in prison. I'm neither democrat nor republican. I do not support socialism. I fully support the 2nd amendment and believe every citizen has a natural born right to carry a weapon. I do not think all prison inmates are guilty. I do think Washington DC needs a reset button. I support the military and the war on terror. I do think Iraq was somewhat of a mistake. I do think the current police state has gone too militarized and should be tamed. I like to think we as a nation can do anything we want, but realize that more and more this becomes a nation of sheep or people that don't concern themselves with the things they should. I think reality TV has ruined 51% of the current population.
And as much as I love technology and Android, I think smartphones have set people's social skills back decades, if not centuries.
got556 said:
And it's okay if you did belittle him. The dude was a piece of crap through and through. It was just the excuse LA needed so the animals could come out and riot, rape, pillage, and murder. You're very right about public perception. The media in all its glory never lets a crisis go to waste. Most police "brutality" videos never show the whole scene/situation from stop to finish. I also wager to say that police brutality occurs at a much smaller rate than what the public "perceives" to take place. Not to mention look at the statistics of how many law enforcement officers exist in the U.S. then compare that to the actual, honest to goodness, police brutality incidents and I bet it's less than 0.5%.
Are there piece of **** cops out there? Yes. But I don't see anyone firing politicians these days for royally ****ing up your life. I don't see any media people losing their job for blatantly swaying public perception and falsifying the news and often times just short of inciting riots.
But hey I'm just a little guy in the DOJ who calls it like he sees it and may have wrote a few thesis papers on police corruption and brutality.
I have no problem with being filmed while on the job. My problem is where you take a snippet of an escalated situation to portray me as going beyond my duties as a law enforcement officer and painting me as a bad guy. More so, law enforcement deals with the worst of the worst on a daily basis. We try to do our jobs to the extent that the law allows while also trying to keep the public happy. We are not here to serve you. (IMHO), nor protect you. Exercise your 2nd amendment right for that. We are here to separate the good from evil before you have to.
Each day I'm tasked with waiting for someone to push my adrenaline on overload, knowing today, could be the day, I go meet my maker. I also have to remember that I represent the agency I work for, and public eyes are always watching. I also remember that no matter how much an individual tries to do harm to me verbally or physically I must act in a manner accordingly to how I've been trained and know when to never go above the needed use of force.
While you may sit there and belittle me, I have to push that aside when you call me to come help, assist, save you from whatever danger came your way. In return I ask that you, from one human being to another, always remember that I too make mistakes. That at any point in time I could be sued, my family could be in danger, or any of us could be killed, all because I had a SPLIT SECOND to make a decision on how to react to a highly stressful and downright pants ****ting situation, because you, John Q Public, along with the law said I must follow my duties of removing bad guy A from the streets.
So I ask you, the next time you see a "police brutality" video streaming all over the web or media, please be sure you have all the facts before you cast your first stone. Put yourself in that officer's shoes from start to finish.
Also you as a citizen, it is you duty to know your rights, as a citizen. Use them if you find an over-zealous "authoritative" figure encroaching them. Be polite, be courteous, and be right. You ask the same of us.
So here's some facts. Law enforcement officers have the highest divorce rates out of any profession in the nation. We also have the highest suicide rates. The average life expectancy of a law enforcement officer is 57 years of age. Coincidentally that is also the maximum age allowed before mandatory retirement in the DOJ. Now ask yourself.....what do these tidbits tell you?
ETA: And some tidbits about me. I think the war on drugs is a waste of time and money. I think Fast & Furious goes all the way to the top of the administration and they should all be in prison. I'm neither democrat nor republican. I do not support socialism. I fully support the 2nd amendment and believe every citizen has a natural born right to carry a weapon. I do not think all prison inmates are guilty. I do think Washington DC needs a reset button. I support the military and the war on terror. I do think Iraq was somewhat of a mistake. I do think the current police state has gone too militarized and should be tamed. I like to think we as a nation can do anything we want, but realize that more and more this becomes a nation of sheep or people that don't concern themselves with the things they should. I think reality TV has ruined 51% of the current population.
And as much as I love technology and Android, I think smartphones have set people's social skills back decades, if not centuries.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
:good:
got556 said:
And it's okay if you did belittle him. The dude was a piece of crap through and through. It was just the excuse LA needed so the animals could come out and riot, rape, pillage, and murder. You're very right about public perception. The media in all its glory never lets a crisis go to waste. Most police "brutality" videos never show the whole scene/situation from stop to finish. I also wager to say that police brutality occurs at a much smaller rate than what the public "perceives" to take place. Not to mention look at the statistics of how many law enforcement officers exist in the U.S. then compare that to the actual, honest to goodness, police brutality incidents and I bet it's less than 0.5%.
Are there piece of **** cops out there? Yes. But I don't see anyone firing politicians these days for royally ****ing up your life. I don't see any media people losing their job for blatantly swaying public perception and falsifying the news and often times just short of inciting riots.
But hey I'm just a little guy in the DOJ who calls it like he sees it and may have wrote a few thesis papers on police corruption and brutality.
I have no problem with being filmed while on the job. My problem is where you take a snippet of an escalated situation to portray me as going beyond my duties as a law enforcement officer and painting me as a bad guy. More so, law enforcement deals with the worst of the worst on a daily basis. We try to do our jobs to the extent that the law allows while also trying to keep the public happy. We are not here to serve you. (IMHO), nor protect you. Exercise your 2nd amendment right for that. We are here to separate the good from evil before you have to.
Each day I'm tasked with waiting for someone to push my adrenaline on overload, knowing today, could be the day, I go meet my maker. I also have to remember that I represent the agency I work for, and public eyes are always watching. I also remember that no matter how much an individual tries to do harm to me verbally or physically I must act in a manner accordingly to how I've been trained and know when to never go above the needed use of force.
While you may sit there and belittle me, I have to push that aside when you call me to come help, assist, save you from whatever danger came your way. In return I ask that you, from one human being to another, always remember that I too make mistakes. That at any point in time I could be sued, my family could be in danger, or any of us could be killed, all because I had a SPLIT SECOND to make a decision on how to react to a highly stressful and downright pants ****ting situation, because you, John Q Public, along with the law said I must follow my duties of removing bad guy A from the streets.
So I ask you, the next time you see a "police brutality" video streaming all over the web or media, please be sure you have all the facts before you cast your first stone. Put yourself in that officer's shoes from start to finish.
Also you as a citizen, it is you duty to know your rights, as a citizen. Use them if you find an over-zealous "authoritative" figure encroaching them. Be polite, be courteous, and be right. You ask the same of us.
So here's some facts. Law enforcement officers have the highest divorce rates out of any profession in the nation. We also have the highest suicide rates. The average life expectancy of a law enforcement officer is 57 years of age. Coincidentally that is also the maximum age allowed before mandatory retirement in the DOJ. Now ask yourself.....what do these tidbits tell you?
ETA: And some tidbits about me. I think the war on drugs is a waste of time and money. I think Fast & Furious goes all the way to the top of the administration and they should all be in prison. I'm neither democrat nor republican. I do not support socialism. I fully support the 2nd amendment and believe every citizen has a natural born right to carry a weapon. I do not think all prison inmates are guilty. I do think Washington DC needs a reset button. I support the military and the war on terror. I do think Iraq was somewhat of a mistake. I do think the current police state has gone too militarized and should be tamed. I like to think we as a nation can do anything we want, but realize that more and more this becomes a nation of sheep or people that don't concern themselves with the things they should. I think reality TV has ruined 51% of the current population.
And as much as I love technology and Android, I think smartphones have set people's social skills back decades, if not centuries.
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I would never make an unfounded claim about the Police, especially not one about Police brutality. I believe that like all people (they're only human) they are mostly good. However if for even a second I believe that my rights are being encroached upon I will not hesitate to use any resource I can, media included, to bring it to light. Most "controversies" are a bunch of hype and not having all the facts, but if even 1/10th of a percent are real they need to be brought to light. Any time a person is given elevated authority over another there needs to be some kind of check to keep them in line. The media isn't perfect, but it's the closest thing we have to a semblance of something that "watches those who watch over us".