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Hello, All: <br>
<br>
<br>
If you have a few minutes to spare, I encourage you to sign
two online petitions to try to stop yet another power grab by the
1%: The "Anti-Counterfitting Trade Agreement (ACTA)" is reportedly
worse than the Stop On-line Piracy Act (SOPA) in may ways. The
following two online petitions are trying to stop this in the
European Parliament, which may be its last stop before becoming law
having already been signed by the US (with the standard news
blackout we can expect on anything that might affect the power of
the major commercial media): <br>
<br>
<br>
* <a
href="https://www.accessnow.org/page/s/just-say-no-to-acta"><font
color="#810081">https://www.accessnow.org/page/s/just-say-no-to-acta</font></a>
(John Thielking asked us to sign this one on Jan. 25.) <br>
<br>
* <font color="black" face="arial" size="2"><a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.avaaz.org/en/stop_acta/?cl=1547510096&v=12300"
target="_blank">http://www.avaaz.org/en/stop_acta/?vl</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
For those who would like more information, I recommend the
Wikipedia article on it (<a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Counterfeiting_Trade_Agreement">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Counterfeiting_Trade_Agreement</a>)
and the articles mentioned below. The following summarizes the
biggest problems I've heard reported: <br>
<br>
<br>
1. It includes a special ACTA Committee empowered to
amend the agreement without public or judicial review. Thus, any
safeguards that might be part of the current agreement could be
easily removed. <br>
<br>
<br>
2. It empowers governments to take down Internet
Service Providers (ISPs), not just web sites, it doesn't like. I
don't know what recourse a targeted web site or ISP might have to
the courts, but any they might have now could be removed by the ACTA
Committee. <br>
<br>
<br>
3. Security forces at airports and border crossings are
authorized to search your cell phone, MP3 player or computer for
pirate copies of anything and confiscate or destroy it if they find
something they don't like. (No search warrant required.) <br>
<br>
<br>
4. ACTA was negotiated in secret and signed by the US
and several other countries. The Bush and Obama administrations
successfully quashed Freedom of Information Act requests on the
grounds that disclosure would cause "damage to the national
security." <br>
<br>
<br>
The two petitions above are mercifully short. I read and
signed both in less than a minute. <br>
<br>
<br>
Thanks, <br>
Spencer <br>
<br>
<br>
On 1/31/2012 2:19 AM, <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated"
href="mailto:mkmusic03@aol.com">mkmusic03@aol.com</a> wrote:
<blockquote
cite="mid:8CEAE18FD7B261E-8D4-29FB1@webmail-d148.sysops.aol.com"
type="cite"><font color="black" face="arial" size="2">
<div>Hi Spencer.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Do you know about ACTA? The horrible twin to SOPA.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Merriam <br>
<br>
</div>
<div style="FONT-FAMILY: arial,helvetica; COLOR: black;
FONT-SIZE: 10pt">-----Original Message-----<br>
From: Dalia Hashad - Avaaz.org <a
class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:avaaz@avaaz.org"><avaaz@avaaz.org></a><br>
To: mkmusic03 <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E"
href="mailto:mkmusic03@aol.com"><mkmusic03@aol.com></a><br>
Sent: Mon, Jan 30, 2012 5:59 pm<br>
Subject: ACTA: The new threat to the net<br>
<br>
<div id="AOLMsgPart_1_f4c4cd72-a440-4104-aa9b-736eafa0dea5">Dear
friends, <br>
<br>
<table style="MARGIN-LEFT: 15px" align="right"
bgcolor="#ffffff" width="220">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="BORDER-BOTTOM: #000 1px solid; BORDER-LEFT:
#000 1px solid; PADDING-BOTTOM: 10px; PADDING-LEFT:
10px; PADDING-RIGHT: 10px; BORDER-TOP: #000 1px
solid; BORDER-RIGHT: #000 1px solid; PADDING-TOP:
10px"><font color="black" face="Arial" size="2"><a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.avaaz.org/en/stop_acta/?cl=1547510096&v=12300"
target="_blank"><img moz-do-not-send="true"
src="http://avaaz_images.s3.amazonaws.com/2050_STOP-ACTA1_3_200x100.png"
border="0"></a> <br>
<br>
<b>A new global treaty could allow corporations to
police everything that we do on the Internet.</b>
Last week 3 million of us successfully pushed back
the US censorship bills -- <b>if we act now, we
can get the EU Parliament to bury this new
threat</b> to all of us: <br>
<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.avaaz.org/en/stop_acta/?cl=1547510096&v=12300"
target="_blank"><img moz-do-not-send="true"
alt="Click here to sign the petition"
src="http://avaazdesign.s3.amazonaws.com/btn_signthepetition.png"
border="0" width="200"></a></div>
</font></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
Last week, 3 million of us beat back America's attack on our
Internet! -- but there is an even bigger threat out there,
and our global movement for freedom online is perfectly
poised to kill it for good.<br>
<br>
<b>ACTA -- a global treaty -- could allow corporations to
censor the Internet.</b> Negotiated in secret by a small
number of rich countries and corporate powers, it would set
up a shadowy new anti-counterfeiting body to allow private
interests to police everything that we do online and impose
massive penalties -- even prison sentences -- against people
they say have harmed their business.<br>
<br>
<b>Europe is deciding right now whether to sign ACTA -- and
without them, this global attack on Internet freedom will
collapse.</b> We know they have opposed ACTA before, but
some members of Parliament are wavering -- <b>let's give
them the push they need to reject the treaty.</b> Sign the
petition -- we'll do a spectacular delivery in Brussels when
we reach 500,000 signatures:<br>
<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.avaaz.org/en/stop_acta/?cl=1547510096&v=12300"
target="_blank">http://www.avaaz.org/en/stop_acta/?vl</a><br>
<br>
It's outrageous -- governments of four-fifths of the world’s
people were excluded from the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade
Agreement (ACTA) negotiations and <b>unelected bureaucrats
have worked closely with corporate lobbyists to craft new
rules and a dangerously powerful enforcement regime.</b> ACTA
would initially cover the US, EU and 9 other countries, then
be rolled out across the world. But if we can get the EU to
say no now, the treaty will lose momentum and could stall
for good.<br>
<br>
The oppressively strict regulations could mean people
everywhere are punished for simple acts such as sharing a
newspaper article or uploading a video of a party where
copyrighted music is played. Sold as a trade agreement to
protect copyrights, <b>ACTA could also ban lifesaving
generic drugs and threaten local farmers' access to the
seeds they need.</b> And, amazingly, the ACTA committee
will have carte blanche to change its own rules and
sanctions with no democratic scrutiny.<br>
<br>
<b>Big corporate interests are pushing hard for this, but
the EU Parliament stands in the way.</b> Let's send a loud
call to Parliamentarians to face down the lobbies and stand
firm for Internet freedom. Sign now and send to everyone you
know:<br>
<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.avaaz.org/en/stop_acta/?cl=1547510096&v=12300"
target="_blank">http://www.avaaz.org/en/stop_acta/?vl</a><br>
<br>
Last week, we saw the strength of our collective power when
millions of us joined forces to stop the US from passing an
Internet censorship law that would have struck at the heart
of the Internet. We also showed the world how powerful our
voices can be. Let's raise them again to tackle this new
threat.<br>
<br>
With hope and determination, <br>
<br>
Dalia, Alice, Pascal, Emma, Ricken, Maria Paz and the rest
of the Avaaz team <br>
<br>
More information: <br>
<br>
If You Thought SOPA Was Bad, Just Wait Until You Meet ACTA<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2012/01/23/if-you-thought-sopa-was-bad-just-wait-until-you-meet-acta/"
target="_blank">http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2012/01/23/if-you-thought-sopa-was-bad-just-wait-until-you-meet-acta/</a>
<br>
<br>
ACTA vs. SOPA: Five Reasons ACTA is Scarier Threat to
Internet Freedom<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/286925/20120124/acta-sopa-reasons-scarier-threat-internet-freedom.htm?cid=2"
target="_blank">http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/286925/20120124/acta-sopa-reasons-scarier-threat-internet-freedom.htm?cid=2</a>
<br>
<br>
What's Wrong With ACTA<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number10.1/whats-wrong-with-ACTA"
target="_blank">http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number10.1/whats-wrong-with-ACTA</a>
<br>
<br>
The secret treaty: Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement
(ACTA) and Its Impact on Access to Medicines<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.msfaccess.org/content/secret-treaty-anti-counterfeiting-trade-agreement-acta-and-its-impact-access-medicines"
target="_blank">http://www.msfaccess.org/content/secret-treaty-anti-counterfeiting-trade-agreement-acta-and-its-impact-access-medicines</a>
<br>
<br>
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<font color="#404040" size="-2"> </font></font> </blockquote>
<br>
<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Spencer Graves, PE, PhD
President and Chief Technology Officer
Structure Inspection and Monitoring, Inc.
751 Emerson Ct.
San José, CA 95126
ph: 408-655-4567
web: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.structuremonitoring.com">www.structuremonitoring.com</a>
</pre>
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