I speak of the internet, which is truly an engine of awesome. Think for a moment how it enriches your life, bequeaths knowledge, entertains and interconnects.

It is a device for which none compares.

It is also a threat, a disruption of power and status quo. It removes control from those that have traditionally been able to direct the populace. Yes, it may sound a foolishly romantic notion, but it’s true. One only has to look at how hard governments like China or those in the Middle East fight so hard to maintain a fragile, fleeting control over the content and ideas stored in simple ones and zeros, spread globally across an ephemeral network of computers.

The assault on the internet by government and corporate interest, to regain and assert control over content and ideas has been in overdrive for the past few years. First ACTA (which is still floating out there) and now COICA.

In short, COICA allows the US Attorney General to create two lists. One is a blacklist that must be enforced by ISPs. The other is a suggested list that web sites could end up on, for any reason or bias, that ISPs are recommended to block. This is censorship at its worst.

COICA was unanimously passed by the Senate Judiciary Committee on November 18th.

Unanimously.

That word has never looked uglier.

Enter one Senator Ron Wyden (D) of Oregon. He may very well have saved the internet by placing a hold on the pending bill. I have no idea what Wyden’s record is on anything else, but for this act he should be thanked.

It’s alarming just how close we run to losing one of the most fantastic methods of communication developed by our species. In the words of Maxwell Smart, “Missed us by that much.”

Actually the GAO (Government Accountability Office) just wrapped up a year-long study on piracy and the results are enough to make one spit nails. Reporting from CNET news:

Congress tasked the GAO in April 2009 with reviewing the efforts to quantify the size and scope of piracy, including the impacts of Web piracy to the film and music industries. In a 32-page report issued Monday, the GAO said most of the published information, anecdotal evidence, and records show that piracy is a drag on the U.S. economy, tax revenue, and in some cases potentially threatens national security and public health. But the problem is, according to the GAO, the data used to quantify piracy isn’t reliable (emphasis mine).

In short, all the numbers, money, and bitching the MPAA and RIAA have spewed for over a decade in order to shape policy that pisses all over fair use rights, all the people that have been dragged into court, threatened, cajoled and sued for millions of dollars – well that data is… ooops, wrong.

In what appears to be a setback for Hollywood and the recording industry, the government said that it sees problems with the methodology used in studies those sectors have long relied on to support claims that piracy was destructive to their businesses. The accountability office even noted the existence of data that shows piracy may benefit consumers in some cases.

Indeed this is a damning finding. I cannot convey the level of fucked-up that this is without copious expletives. Go back and read my posts about ACTA and realize that whole treaty is being led around by the nose by the MPAA and RIAA – and the US government has been right behind them trying to ram it down the throats of the rest of the world – all based on incredibly faulty data.

There is no denying that everything from music to movies to toys and parts get pirated – and that they can have a detrimental affect on sales and safety. There is no denying that people pirating said materials are first class douchebags as well.

However, Building harmful policies on crap data is far worse – and the RIAA and MPAA knew what they were doing.

I heartily suggest for the end-all and be-all review of this matter you go listen to Buzz Out Loud’s podcast – episode 1207. They nail this topic forwards and backwards.

That episode is worth listening to, understanding, and getting pissed-off over.

UPDATE: what I should have linked to is episode 1206 this is the super rant on the GAO. Episode 1207 is more relevant to the bits below, and just as worth listening to.

Oh I almost forgot this gem. The icing on the cake. All the fun things the RIAA and MPAA would like the government to do for them. Dirty rat fuckers.

The European parliament voted 663 to 13 in what was generally believed a giant fuuuuuck youuuu to the ACTA treaty.

Good job Europe, you might yet teach everyone about freedom and standing up to those trying to destroy people’s civil rights in secret meetings.

Not surpassingly, given the climate of the last 9 years, reports continue to say the main proponent behind the draconian ACTA laws is the United States. How (yet again) utterly disappointing.

The European Union is starting (finally? thankfully?) to speak out on the secrecy and ultimate stupidity of the ACTA treaty currently being hammered out in not-very-good secrecy in Mexico.

Peter Hustinx, the European Union Data Protection Supervisor published a 20 page opinion on why ACTA is the worst idea since cloning Hitler.

Such practices are highly invasive in the individuals’ private sphere. They entail the generalised monitoring of Internet users’ activities, including perfectly lawful ones. They affect millions of law-abiding Internet users, including many children and adolescents. They are carried out by private parties, not by law enforcement authorities. Moreover, nowadays, Internet plays a central role in almost all aspects of modern life, thus, the effects of disconnecting Internet access may be enormous, cutting individuals off from work, culture, eGoverment applications, etc.

On the upside, this is pretty much what I’ve been saying. So, Peter, you get an A+ in my book. Let’s go get a beer.

To bring you up to speed on ACTA, check out what I wrote last month.

While there have been private concerns shouting as loud as they can about how screwed up the ACTA treaty will be, political noise has been cautious. A few US senators have called for ACTA to be made public, but Obama continues his stance that ACTA must be kept secret because it is a matter or National Security. First, that’s a bullshit, and second it’s more backpeddling on Obama’s decree for a more transparent government.

Good job, jerk.

As Business Week points out, the latest leak continues to confirm that:

The leak also revealed that negotiators, led by the U.S., want ISPs to monitor the content on their networks and to sever internet connections of subscribers who repeatedly upload or download copyright-protected content without permission.

Shall we count the ways privacy will be raped just to make this condition happen? How about turning ISPs into the investigator, judge, jury and executioner?

This is all still predicated on the notion that there will be no peer review, no trial, and no evidence needed to convict people and sever them from using the internet, forever.

This is horrible to the nth degree and everyone needs to be talking about it, and should be concerned about it – especially since ACTA is a treaty and can be passed easily, not a law that will die in our Congress or Senate (where everything goes to die).

This will come to haunt you, your kids, your business, and you life as corporations levy ACTA to their will. Think DRM is bad now? Think Fair Use laws can’t be crushed under the corporate hell?

Wait until they get a load of this…

If you’ve forgotten, ACTA is the fantastic secret treaty where corporations attempt to get you banned from the internet if they suspect you might be pirating their intellectual property. Some people are rightly upset at this and have been working to get it out in the public.

The most laudable man behind blowing the cover and exposing this crap for what it is, Michael Geist, has just put up part three of his continuing look at ACTA and tries to explain from where all the secrecy stems and why.

To sum it up:

The inescapable conclusion is that the ACTA approach is hardly standard.  Rather, it represents a major shift toward greater secrecy in the negotiation of international treaties on intellectual property in an obvious attempt to avoid public participation and scrutiny.

And how. I mean who would think the public would be upset by being banned from the internet for mere suspicion by the RIAA or MPAA. That nice new fancy Apple iPad would be mostly worthless without an internet connection.

Hell, we are waging a battle of words with other countries (China) over internet policies and the next version of the military industrial complex will be squarely focused on said internet.

The internet is the future of information and social exchange – too fucking right there needs to be some public participation and scrutiny on a global treaty where corporate greed is allowed to cut you off from what is fast becoming a basic utility with no due process and no review.

I think everyone owes Geist a beer or two for continuing to keep this matter out in the limelight where it belongs.

TechDirt has a follow-up on the latest happenings with ACTA. It appears two Senators are calling for on open, public discussion about this treaty.

Seems fairly sane since the treaty in its current form is a steaming pile of offal and needs public scrutiny and full disclosure of who exactly thinks it’s a good idea (and then subsequently have those un-representatives removed from office).

If you’re scratching your head in confusion read my original rant on why ACTA is one of the worst ideas in a long time.