ACTA Vs Anonymous

[Therumancer]

Anonymous. The power of the internet that no one dares to fight. I like them, they're who people seem to turn to when someone threatens the internet. Look at the original ACTA thread, I can assure you at l person said Anonymous would sort out the problem. Whether they succeed or not is something I wish to see.

Well, the reason why I'm not sure if they can on their own, is largely because of the money involved. Let's say that they managed to do something even more effective than they did to Australia. Rather than taking down their internet for most practical purposes for an hour, they manage to pretty much immobilize the online activities of every nation on that list. Obama is getting non-stop Goatse in his private e-mail, federal coorespondance from all those nations winds up publically posted on 4chan, nearly every goverment official is getting their e-mail spam bombed, ad infinium.

None of that would stop them from passing the law, they don't need the internet to do it, and a lot of what this law does regulates physical trade as much as anything. The internet stuff is only one aspect of it (albiet a big one), and all these companies have tons of money they stand to make.

There are limits to how long Anonymous could keep everything locked down if they got that far, and in the end that level of harassment might be embarassing but is nothing compared to the fortunes at stake.

The only way I could see Anonymous winning is if it could somehow rally enough people to take IRL action against the goverment. Put the politicians in fear of their jobs if they don't stop the law, or repeal it, and that might work, of course they also might not care if they are getting big enough industry pay outs where they figure they can just retire to some cabin somewhere to live in the lap of luxury with no internet or whatever.

I'm not the smartest guy in the world, but from where I'm sitting this law seems to be so big in a corperate and monetary sense, that like similar things throughout history the only way to stop it would be armed insurrection... and by this I don't mean terrorism, I mean a literal "people storm the capitol, remove the officials, and hold a new election" type insurrection.

I could be wrong about this, as I have a tendency to overreact when I'm angry. As a group Anonymous seems a lot smarter than I am though, so I am hoping they already thought all of this through (including what I'm talking about) and had a game plan in mind before they basically declared war on the western world.

 

[Breaker deGodot]

As ridiculous as this may sound, who is Anonymous?

 

[Irridium]

Also, now this Cracked article [http://www.cracked.com/photoplasty_90_the-world-tomorrow-if-internet-disappeared-today/] seems a lot less funny now that it may actually be our future...

 

[Atmos Duality]

It is unconstitutional, but ACTA is an international agreement, meaning its above any national law.

I'm wondering if the Supreme Court would like to know that they are being bypassed in domestic affairs. Perhaps someone should mention this to them.

Oh, I know. How about we employ the Patriot Act against the signers of this abomination, because this effectively qualifies as terrorism (under the definition of conspiracy, no less).

 

[BlumiereBleck]

Darn commies. I will riot if that bill passes and so will every other American, German, Brit-ian, Frenchmen, Irishmen, and Scotsmen that has rage against this bill.

 

[captaincabbage]

I don't think anyone with a sense of logic can do anything other than support Anon in this cause.

As another poster said, they really are the lesser of two evils, so to speak. Above everything that Anon stands for, they stand for freedom of speech, both online and off and that concerns us all, so I'd like to formally give my support to Anon. I've already started advertising the evil that is ACTA on my other accounts on different sites and I feel it's important that others do the same.

To Anonymous, I salute you all.


Also, Oprah troll FTW! Just thought I might add that.

 

[Cinnamonfloss]

I like Anonymous, and this whole ACTA thing is awful, so I fully support them. I've always loved it, the whole speech synthesizer videos that are "declaring attacks" on people and stuff, it just seems so awesome, like theirs finally something going to happen, finally, something our generation can be proud of, our fight against tyranny and oppression, it all is very inspiring.

On the other hand, they are very scary people, and powerful people, who often act on a whim. But unlike their other raids, this one seems like they are legitimately scared for themselves and they actually care about this, and aren't just trying to fuck with people.

This.
I dont know why, but ive always liked Anon. And I kind of admire them in a way that theyre the only people doing something against ACTA.
I was actually pretty happy when I first watched their vid response.

 

[MelasZepheos_v1legacy]

While I have a respect (perhaps fear) for the sort of real life consequences Anon can force upon people who feel it's effects, I still think that the only real way to stop something like this would be to rally people against it in real life.

Seriously, the American Constitutional 4th Amendment, the British Data Protection Act, other assorted laws from several European countries, one of the decrees (I forget which one) of the European Union itself, and the people signing ACTA all seem to conveniently forget that one of the defining tenets of the last 400 years of democracy has been the right to privacy?

If this was ever made public, instead of the whole thing being conducted behind closed doors in an attempt to pass the law without anyone being any the wiser, then three quarters of the First World would have been up in arms against it from day one. The only reason they have managed to get this close to passing it is by keeping people in the dark, thus the only way to stop them is to spread the truth. This is what anonymous should be helping with, not spamming politicians' inboxes and sending threatening YouTube messages, but gathering up everyone they can to tell them about the real world implications of this law.

For once Anonymous has the power to do real good in the fight of the ordinary citizen vs the state, and I hope to God that they don't bollocks it up by trying to be hard men on the internet.

 

[JWW]

I don't think ACTA will pass, but the fact that it was kept in the dark is bad.

 

[Therumancer]

It is unconstitutional, but ACTA is an international agreement, meaning its above any national law.

I'm wondering if the Supreme Court would like to know that they are being bypassed in domestic affairs. Perhaps someone should mention this to them.

That's a touchy subject as I believe the Supreme Court doesn't have a say in treaties and how the effect the US, similar to how it can't for example make rulings against people with Diplomatic Immunity or whatever.

Yes, they would be using this to bypass one big part of the goverment, and make a joke out of our system of "Checks and Balances", but short of armed insurrection what can be done about that? I am hoping there is a solution, but really I'm not sure what could possibly influance this short of civil war as alarmist as that sounds.

 

[Irridium]

I don't think ACTA will pass, but the fact that it was kept in the dark is bad.

Its being finalized next month.

 

[BlumiereBleck]

"I have a bad feeling about this." I have searched and searched but It seems this bill is very under the radar of The United States. And non of the major parties seem to have anything to say about it. If this bill passes anarchy will break out. What the bill creators don't realize is that this is will be a major change of the world. FULL ANARCHY! We may have to blow up the Parliament.

 

[Paragon Fury]

It is unconstitutional, but ACTA is an international agreement, meaning its above any national law.

I'm wondering if the Supreme Court would like to know that they are being bypassed in domestic affairs. Perhaps someone should mention this to them.

That's a touchy subject as I believe the Supreme Court doesn't have a say in treaties and how the effect the US, similar to how it can't for example make rulings against people with Diplomatic Immunity or whatever.

Yes, they would be using this to bypass one big part of the goverment, and make a joke out of our system of "Checks and Balances", but short of armed insurrection what can be done about that? I am hoping there is a solution, but really I'm not sure what could possibly influance this short of civil war as alarmist as that sounds.

Though the President can sign an international treaty, both Congress and the Supreme Court can contest its validity and the US's partcipation in said treaty if they wish. And since it quite clearly violates the US's Freedom of Speech, Right to Privacy and Unwarranted/Unreasonable Search & Seizure, expect it to be highly contested if it does pass.

 

[Irridium]

I'm not the smartest guy in the world, but from where I'm sitting this law seems to be so big in a corperate and monetary sense, that like similar things throughout history the only way to stop it would be armed insurrection... and by this I don't mean terrorism, I mean a literal "people storm the capitol, remove the officials, and hold a new election" type insurrection.

Fun fact, there's a section in the US Constitution which basically states that if the Government fails to act in the interests of the people, the people are allowed to instill a new government.

Its not word for word but you get the basic idea.

Inform the public and get them pissed off, and add in the second amendment, and you have yourself the perfect set up for a revolution.

 

[Irridium]

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/03/europe-trashes-acta-as-obama-praises-it.ars

the european parliment is seriously against acta until it is made much more resonable (the removal of the 3 strike law and the internet disconnect law)

That was 5 months ago. Wonder what its like now.