EU Paves the Way For Three-Strikes Cut-Off Policy 272
Mark.JUK writes "The European Parliament has surrendered to pressure from Member States (especially France) by abandoning amendment 138, a provision adopted on two occasions by an 88% majority of the plenary assembly, and which aimed to protect citizens' right to Internet access. The move paves the way for an EU wide policy supporting arbitrary restrictions of Internet access. Under the original text any restriction of an individual could only be taken following a prior judicial ruling. The new update has completely removed this, meaning that governments now have legal grounds to force Internet providers (ISPs) into disconnecting their customers from the Internet (i.e. such as when 'suspected' of illegal p2p file sharing)."
Ah, that nice French law... (Score:2, Interesting)
To be fair, it got revoked later on, and was voted on honestly. But the first passing of the law was a big sham.
Oh great! (Score:2, Interesting)
Apply it on MPs and Ministers first (Score:5, Interesting)
If hackers like ParMaster still exist, the best way to ensure this law is repealed is to ensure that MPs and Ministers are caught under this law and disconnected from internet.
Like the immortal Jim Hacker once said: "Not until you face it yourself do you realize what a stupid law you have passed."
Damn French... (Score:5, Interesting)
I wonder how this will affect the recently passed law here in Finland that internet access is a legal right for all citizens. I'm getting pretty tired of France running the show in the EU and getting their ridiculous laws enacted at the EU level.
Greater freedom in Europe? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Apply it on MPs and Ministers first (Score:5, Interesting)
Like the Police raid on a Mayors home that left two family dogs dead [cato-at-liberty.org] over a package of marijuana that was delivered to their home, even though Police were well aware that a drug-smuggling ring was using the home addresses of uninvolved people as the destination for the package delivery. [cato-at-liberty.org]
Re:Damn French... (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Unconstitutional (Score:2, Interesting)
It is in Finland: http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/10/14/2229231 [slashdot.org]
Strangely, France is also listed here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_access#Internet_access_as_a_human_right [wikipedia.org] oO
Re:Shadenfreude (Score:5, Interesting)
It shouldn't. They are playing leap frog. One side of the Atlantic implements an oppressive law, tax, or spy on your own citizens regime, and then the other side of the Atlantic says, see they did it and it was good so we shall do it too and we can do it even better. Repeat over and over and .... BAMMMM ..... you are living in Fascist world.
Both sides of the Atlantic are also passing these same obscene laws because the same multinationals are lobbying, bribing and pressuring politicians the world over to legislate their profitability.
At this point I mostly debate if I lived in a world dominated by Fascist governments or governments which are for all intents and purposes organized crime syndicates, I think a little of both. They are taking vast sums from ordinary people and transferring it to their rich friends and themselves. It boggles the mind that working people in the U.S. are taxed at least 25% income tax and 12.5% payroll taxes(counting the employer half) for 37.5% at a minimum. Billionaire hedge fund operators are taxed at 15%. These same hedge funds manager tax their own clients more than that, over 20% (2% management fees and 20% of profits).
I was watching Frontline on PBS last night on Brookseley Born [wikipedia.org]. A great story. During the Clinton administration she tried to use the authority she had at the obscure Commodities Futures Trading Commission to regulate derivatives. If she had succeeded she might well have prevented at least the AIG part of the recent financial crisis. Instead she was crushed by Alan Greenspan, Phil Graham, Bob Rubin and Larry Summers. Long Term Capital Management collapsed during this period trading derivatives, nearly sparking a major panic, proving Born right and they continued to crush her.
Alan Greenspan supposedly told Born that she was NOT suppose to pursue fraud in derivatives or commodities though it was explicitly in her agencies charter to do just that.
Bob Rubin went on to help lead Citigroup in to complete ruin and billions of tax payer bailouts.
Phil Graham's wife was on the board at Enron, he went to UBS where his Swiss bank ran tax shelters for thousands of wealthy Americans, and was a leading player in the collapse during which he called us all a bunch of whiners.
Larry Summers is now Obama's senior economic adviser.
All four of these people should be run out of every government position, boardroom or any other position of authority because they are a delightful mix of stupid and criminal. Its especially obscene for Larry Summers to be calling the shots on financial matters in the Obama administration. Paul Volcker might actually fix the bankster problem but he has been completely shut out by Summers and Geitner.
Law of unintended consequences (Score:3, Interesting)
This would pave the way to mesh networking. No ISPs. Right now, mesh is in it's infancy. 10 years from now, people will be rolling their own mesh inter-network to get to these resources.
Re:Damn French... (Score:3, Interesting)
cultural protectionism (Score:4, Interesting)
in the usa, the story is purely idiot distributors fighting their irrelevancy in the age of the internet
in europe, there is another potent issue that does not exist in the usa: cultural irrelevancy. the french have been fighting to retain french culture for decades: funding french arts, fighting the emergence of english words into french usage, etc
its all rather silly and absurd from an american perspective: hey france, history spoke, and you lost, and the british won. now everyone speaks english in the world, shut up, get over it, and deal with it
but from the point of view of french national pride, you can see why the fight here is not simple and straightforward as it is in the usa
heck, even if you are danish, or belgian: how the hell are you suppose to preserve danish and belgian culture in the face of the english onslaught? protectionism seems appealing. even if, of course, it really makes no difference. its just nostalgia. resistance is futile
perhaps the canadians know best how to deal with being in the cultural shadow of a dominant neighbor: they send their comedians and actors to the usa where they feed that culture sometimes even better than the americans do. i always wondered why the hell there are so many successful canadian comedians in the usa: is there something fundamentally more absurd about being canadian? (snicker)
Re:Ah, that nice French law... (Score:5, Interesting)
The early years of the U.S. were not perfect - but it was headed in the right direction - with near-perfection achieved between 1870 and 1930. The three thousand-year-old slavery/serfdom institution had finally been killed off, the Bill of Rights had risen to prominence, and the government was so small most Americans never even noticed it.
But since 1910 it seems we've been going backwards. We are being turning back into serfs with the oligarchs as our master, and no rights as individuals. It's almost exactly the same pattern that happened in Rome from 300-500 A.D... the landlords slowly but surely turned the middle class into a serf class of debtors... and medieval Europe was born.