[governance] When will ACTA II be fought out ?

[Louis Pouzin (well)]

Hi Riaz,

Why I think this is the case ?

It takes a bit of revisiting some history to set the scene. Who remembers,
or has forgotten, the ATT-NSA spying net story between 2002 and 2005 ?

You can glance through:

https://www.eff.org/files/filenode/att/presskit/ATT_onepager.pdf
http://cryptogon.com/?p=877

In a nutshell, an ATT technician discovers in 2002 that the whole ATT
backbone traffic (phone, voice, data, web) is mirrored illegally to NSA.
Once retired in 2005 he talks to newspapers, and after much effort gets an
article in the NYT. EFF files a class action lawsuit against ATT. The Bush
admin moves to kill the case, calling the State secret exception. Once
Obama elected the new admin legalizes retroactively NSA's spying, and
declares immune from prosecution all phone companies involved in tapping.

Ergo, Bush or Obama, same tricks. Whatever is illegal becomes legal if the
president says so. A first step into dictatorship ?

The US is no exception. Many governments have deployed illegal and secret
mass surveillance systems. Their motivation is primarily controlling
political opponents. Their natural allies (and financial donators) are
marketing organisations eager to know everything on everybody, i.e.
controlling consumers.

If admins need justifications with their parliament (to get a budget) they
conjure up terrorism, pedophilia, child protection, obscenity, social
disorder, religion, IPR, what have you. It's the sort of decor adequate for
painting spying as a public protection acceptable by the population or the
political opposition, if any.

During the GW Bush admin the first three were the excuse. Now those slogans
have lost emotional drive. IPR is the new excuse, supported by the
republican opposition and their media lobbies, working on more drastic laws
to protect their revenues. Since the market is international the US has to
coax other countries to get on the bandwagon and adopt similar legal
provisions, .. thus similar control systems (a bonanza for the US
surveillance industry), and an easy way for NSA to collect other countries
data.

Apparently this is part of what's going on under the TPP umbrella. It
should be easier for the US to maneuver this limited coalition than the
rest of the world.

Last July general Keith Alexander, NSA's head, became Cyber Command's
Commander. You can google his recent declarations and interviews. He is
dead set on security (read spying). It seems DHS was not good enough, as
Cyber Command (read NSA) is now to coordinate all US departments for
securing ALL networks (read domestic and abroad). Ok, he may have a dream.

All that leaves little else to be interpreted other than a determination to
build a worldwide mass surveillance system centered in USA. IPR and other
opportunistic lures serve as negotiation jokers for aggregating lobbies and
other governments in the gang.

It will be quite interesting to observe what approach will be taken with
China, India, Russia, and EU. ACTA 2012 won't be forgotten any time soon.
New convincing arguments for IPR will sound deja vu. The prospect of US
controlled mass surveillance will look as attractive as a scarecrow. Then,
what else US can offer ? Probably rude arm twisting, a not unusual tactic
in real politics.

I just read that EFF is up against TPP. Resistance goes on.

Cheers, Louis
- - -

More on the subject
http://www.eff.org/legal/cases/att/SER_klein_decl.pdf
http://www.eff.org/legal/cases/att/SER_marcus_decl.pdf
*  The two previous documents were on the web for several years, and have
vanished recently
*https://www.eff.org/issues/nsa-spying
https://www.eff.org/nsa/faq
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSA_warrantless_surveillance_controversy>
NSA_warrantless_surveillance_controversy<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSA_warrantless_surveillance_controversy>
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/timothy-karr/one-us-corporations-role-_b_815281.html
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/01/obama-sides-wit/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Klein
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/07/AR2007110700006_pf.html
http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2006/05/70944
http://www.wired.com/politics/onlinerights/news/2007/05/kleininterview
http://firedoglake.com/2009/08/01/fdl-book-salon-welcomes-mark-klein-author-of-wiring-up-the-big-brother-machine/
http://www.mainheadlinenews.com/video/qrBapXsLcro
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/60204.html
http://osdir.com/ml/culture.war.guerrelec/2006-04/msg00040.html
http://www.dailytech.com/ATT+Accidentally+Leaks+Incriminating+NSA+Info/article2558.htm
http://www.spamdailynews.com/publish/Bush_administration_to_intervene_in_ATT_surveillance_case.asp
http://www.infowars.com/att-whistleblower-spy-bill-creates-%E2%80%98infrastructure-for-a-police-state%E2%80%99/
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=74c_1243652643&c=1
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/04/obama-doj-worse-than-bush
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/03/nsa-denies-wired/

- - -
On Fri, Sep 7, 2012 at 8:30 AM, Riaz K Tayob <riaz.tayob at gmail.com> wrote:

> Why do you think this is the case?
>
> On 2012/09/07 03:34 AM, Louis Pouzin (well) wrote:
>
>> But whatever happens in November, the next USG is unlikely to change
>> policy on IPR. Watch out.
>>
>
>
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