ACTA "internet enforcement" chapter leaks

http://www.boingboing.net/2010/02/21/acta-internet-enforc.html

by dantheman • 16 years ago

80 52 16 years ago

I am always depressed when I read virtually any proposed law dealing with the internet. My only hope is that eventually the generations that grew up with computers will age into politics as previous generations age out, and we'll stop seeing these types of proposals.

randomwalker• 16 years ago

But the rate of technological progress is accelerating, and sadly we can only expect the gap between policy and technology to get bigger with time. By the time the new generation gets into politics, maybe Internet regulation won't be the hot-button issue; but I'd bet it's going to be something even worse — for a random example, how about the ability to tinker with the genome to make new life-forms. I can't imagine that's going to be unregulated for too long.

m0nty3• 16 years ago

"the generations that grew up with computers will age into politics as previous generations age out"

With respect, I keep hearing things like this, usually framed as "things won't get better until the Baby Boomers die out." It's wrong. Greed and stupidity are not correlated with age. There are young greedy and stupid people out there as well as the old ones.

cabalamat5• 16 years ago

> I keep hearing things like this, usually framed as "things won't get better until the Baby Boomers die out."

I don't think that means the same thing. Baby boomers are people over 50 or so; digital natives are people under 25.

Just about everyone turning 18 today is a digital native -- someone who's grown up with the internet and takes it for granted. Very many of these people have no time for crap like ACTA.

Incidently, over half of male voters under 25 in Sweden voted for the Pirate party in the European parliamentary election. If this is a glimpse of the future, I welcome it.

ErrantX2• 16 years ago

I think the issue is this.

I see the problems with current politics; I personally think I could do a lot to fix it. I've even been close to stepping up and trying to actually do something the last few months.

Problem is I can see that fire slipping away already. I can see how much effort it would take just to give it a shot where on the other hand I know I can live comfortably, start and provide for a family within my current career.

Why step up when no one else will.

This is the problem: Im sure there are thousands of individuals of my generation with the drive, passion and (crucially) common sense to fix the mess in the future generation of politics. But they all lose interest or faith in the system.

So we end up with the second raters in charge (while the smart ones go off and do cool stuff)

cabalamat5• 16 years ago

> we'll stop seeing these types of proposals.

We'll stop seeing them when politicians get the message that they are vote losers.

olefoo• 16 years ago

Actually the whole reason that this particular pile of excrement is being negotiated behind closed doors is that treaties are an end run around the legislature. For the US, treaties are binding law of the land once ratified by a two-thirds vote of the senate (not the house of representatives) and signed by the president.

So long as the interests driving a piece of legislation can keep it out of the news until it's a _fait accompli_ , it's not going to cost any Senator votes he hadn't already lost.

dantheman4• 16 years ago

I'm hoping that the changing mindsets will result in more systems thinking & realizing the limits of control.

jamesbritt2• 16 years ago

"My only hope is that eventually the generations that grew up with computers will age into politics as previous generations age out, and we'll stop seeing these types of proposals."

I thought that might happen with regards to drugs, but yesterday's stoners have become today's busybodies and know-betters.

I have no expectation that next-gen grown-ups will be any more enlightened.

keefe• 16 years ago

http://norml.org/ med marijuana has made great strides, actually

uriel3• 16 years ago

I thought people said that Obama really understood technology!

elai• 16 years ago

Obama isn't congress, the senate, or the democrat party. He is not king obama.

CamperBob• 16 years ago

This would be the same Obama who appointed half the RIAA's legal staff to the Justice Department?

ErrantX2• 16 years ago

This whole speculation thing is a mess: the pirates [sic] are probably bigging up the horror as much as the pro-DMCA crowd big up spposed benefits - everyone in the middle is throwing extreme bad/good scenarios too.(I sit in the middle, as it happens, and I reckon it will just be generally bad all round).

But what really depresses me is that this is done in secret.

That is the thing that concerns me most. I cant see any situation, even if this were a harmless treaty, where such a situation is healthy.

uriel3• 16 years ago

It is not done in secret from big content, the RIAA, the MPAA and any lobbyist that wants has full access to the discussions, it is the public that is kept in the dark.

ACTA "internet enforcement" chapter leaks

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