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Just a reminder: <br>
<br>
<br>
Protest today noon - 2 PM, City Hall. <br>
<br>
<br>
A more descriptive name for the "Anti-Counterfeiting Trade
Agreement" is the "Advancing Corruption and Tyranny Agreement", in
my judgment, because the primary effect of this agreement is to
provide the government with legal arguments for attacking almost any
web site they don't like, shutting it down and persecuting the
owners. Current law was used on 31 January 2012 to block a video of
an American Sign Language interpretation of Gnarls Barkley song
Crazy (<a href="http://questioncopyright.org/">http://questioncopyright.org</a>).
I estimate that abuse of power by the mainstream commercial media in
the US, ABC-Disney, CBS, NBC-GE, Fox, CNN, is costing the average
American family $48,000 per year in lost income; that's the
increase in the difference between average and median family income
since 1970. One tiny portion of this is the $1.6 billion of US
taxpayers' money used to support the Egyptian state terror system in
2010. <br>
<br>
<br>
Best Wishes, <br>
Spencer <br>
<br>
<br>
On 2/4/2012 11:17 PM, John Thielking wrote:
<blockquote
cite="mid:1328426268.12597.YahooMailNeo@web111107.mail.gq1.yahoo.com"
type="cite">
<div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:times
new roman, new york, times, serif;font-size:14pt">
<div style="RIGHT: auto"> </div>
<div style="RIGHT: auto" align="center"><font size="7"><b>Protest
Against ACTA</b></font></div>
<div style="RIGHT: auto" align="center"><font size="7"><b>and</b></font></div>
<div style="RIGHT: auto" align="center"><font size="7"><b>Decolonize
The Internet</b></font></div>
<div style="RIGHT: auto" align="center"><font size="3"><b>Protest
12PM-2PM, Saturday, February 11, 2012 at San Jose City
Hall Plaza at 4<sup>th</sup> and E. Santa Clara St, San
Jose, CA </b></font></div>
<div style="RIGHT: auto" align="center"><strong style="RIGHT:
auto"></strong> </div>
<div style="RIGHT: auto; FONT-WEIGHT: normal" align="left"><font
size="3">Ever since the Internet was first formed, the high
tech settlers have spread across the great plains of the
Internet, scooping up domain names and putting up their
signs saying “open for business”. Initially, this didn't
drive anyone off of their land or cost anyone their job.
However, the proprietary rights associated with publishing
material on a web site are fundamentally different from
publishing the same material in a book. The material in a
book may be reused for a commercial purpose if it is only
paraphrased and is not even covered by copyright when such
use is made. A step up from this use is the defense of “fair
use”, which allows news organizations to use brief
quotations or even entire works (such as news feeds) in
their broadcasts or in print for the benefit of their for
profit institutions without having to pay royalties to the
original copyright holders or enter into special contracts
for each use they make of copyrighted material. Indeed,
according to Wikipedia, 1/6 of the US economic output is
based on such types of “fair use”. Note that “fair use”
often does not extend to just any old commercial use.</font></div>
<div style="RIGHT: auto; FONT-WEIGHT: normal" align="left"> </div>
<div style="RIGHT: auto; FONT-WEIGHT: normal" align="left"><font
size="3">On the Internet, many web sites throw this
community contract of copyright law out the window and
substitute in its place draconian Terms Of Use contracts.
The TOUs often state that no information contained on the
web sites may be used to make derivative works or for
commercial purposes. A prime example is a section from the
TOU on Google.com:</font></div>
<ol style="RIGHT: auto" start="8">
<ol style="RIGHT: auto" start="2">
<li style="RIGHT: auto">
<div style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in; RIGHT: auto">You should be
aware that Content presented to you as part of the
Services, including but not limited to advertisements in
the Services and sponsored Content within the Services
may be protected by intellectual property rights which
are owned by the sponsors or advertisers who provide
that Content to Google (or by other persons or companies
on their behalf). You may not modify, rent, lease, loan,
sell, distribute or create derivative works based on
this Content (either in whole or in part) unless you
have been specifically told that you may do so by Google
or by the owners of that Content, in a separate
agreement.</div>
</li>
</ol>
</ol>
<div style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in; RIGHT: auto" align="left"><br
style="RIGHT: auto">
</div>
<div style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in; RIGHT: auto; FONT-WEIGHT:
normal" align="left"><font size="3">It would seem that even
the act of reproducing this quote from the Google terms on
this flier violates those same terms. According to these
terms, apparently Youtube videos and Google Books can not be
used to make derivative works. Even just paraphrasing and
thereby reusing the information contained in such works is
“using the Content” which is prohibited. Indeed, the Supreme
Court just recently ruled that works that are in the public
domain (such as the works on Google Books) can be
copyrighted over again and taken out of free, public
circulation. (Workers' World Feb 2, 2012 vol. 54 no 4.)</font></div>
<div style="RIGHT: auto"> </div>
<div style="RIGHT: auto">This state of affairs marks the
beginning of the problem that we now face with ACTA (the Anti
Counterfeiting Trade Agreement) and similar initiatives such
as SOPA and PIPA.</div>
<div style="RIGHT: auto"><var id="yui-ie-cursor"></var> </div>
<div style="RIGHT: auto">See the reverse side of this flier for
a discussion of ACTA and similar initiatives such as <br>
Lamar Smith's Internet snooping bill, HR 1981.</div>
<div style="RIGHT: auto"> </div>
<div style="RIGHT: auto"><font size="4"><b>ACTA includes the
following, according to Spencer Graves of the Santa Clara
County Green Party:</b></font></div>
<ol style="RIGHT: auto">
<li style="RIGHT: auto">
<div style="RIGHT: auto">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.</div>
</li>
<li style="RIGHT: auto">
<div style="RIGHT: auto">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.)</div>
</li>
<li style="RIGHT: auto">
<div style="RIGHT: auto">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>
A separate initiative is Lamar Smith's Internet snooping
bill, HR 1981.</div>
</li>
</ol>
<div style="RIGHT: auto" dir="ltr" id="Section7">
<div style="RIGHT: auto" dir="ltr" id="Section8">
<div style="RIGHT: auto" dir="ltr" id="Section9">
<div style="RIGHT: auto" dir="ltr">
<div style="RIGHT: auto" dir="ltr">
<div style="RIGHT: auto" dir="ltr">
<div style="RIGHT: auto" dir="ltr" id="yiv560773951">
<div style="RIGHT: auto" dir="ltr">
<div style="RIGHT: auto">According to an e-mail
from Demandprogress.org:</div>
<div style="RIGHT: auto"><a
moz-do-not-send="true" style="RIGHT: auto"
name="yui_3_2_0_1_13284221985462827"></a>The
ACLU, EFF, Demand Progress, and 25 other civil
liberties and privacy groups have expressed
our opposition to this legislation. Will you
join us, by emailing your lawmakers today?...
...<strong style="RIGHT: auto">ISPs would
collect and retain your data whether or not
you're accused of a crime. </strong>Supporters
shamelessly dubbed it the "Protecting Children
From Internet Pornographers Act," but our
staunchest allies in Congress are calling it
what it is: an all-encompassing Internet
snooping bill. Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California
-- a SOPA hero who also led Democratic
opposition to this bill -- said, "It
represents a data bank of every digital act by
every American [that would] let us find out
where every single American visited Web
sites."</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div style="RIGHT: auto"><strong style="RIGHT: auto"></strong> </div>
<div style="RIGHT: auto"><strong style="RIGHT: auto">The current
status of ACTA, according to Wikipedia, is that the EU has
signed it, but not completely ratified it as only 22 of 27
countries have ratified it. The treaty goes into full effect
when 6 of the 9 countries (or groups in the case of the EU)
that have signed it ratify it. The US has likely not
ratified it. Forbes.com presents a slightly different
account, saying that the treaty is an executive agreement
that doesn't require ratification by the US Senate for
example after it is signed. Many protests are planned across
Europe for February 11, 2012 to protest the signing of ACTA.</strong></div>
<div style="RIGHT: auto"><strong style="RIGHT: auto"></strong> </div>
<div style="RIGHT: auto"><strong style="RIGHT: auto">There are
three petitions to sign to try to stop these two initiatives
from going into effect. They are located here:</strong></div>
<div style="RIGHT: auto"><strong style="RIGHT: auto"><a
moz-do-not-send="true" style="RIGHT: auto"
href="https://www.accessnow.org/page/s/just-say-no-to-acta"><font
style="RIGHT: auto" color="#810081">https://www.accessnow.org/page/s/just-say-no-to-acta</font></a></strong></div>
<div style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in; RIGHT: auto"><strong
style="RIGHT: auto"><a moz-do-not-send="true" style="RIGHT:
auto"
href="http://www.avaaz.org/en/stop_acta/?cl=1547510096&v=12300"><font
style="RIGHT: auto" color="#000000"><font style="RIGHT:
auto" face="arial"><font size="2">http://www.avaaz.org/en/stop_acta/</font></font></font></a> </strong></div>
<div style="RIGHT: auto"><a moz-do-not-send="true" style="RIGHT:
auto" href="http://www.blahblah.com/">http://act.demandprogress.org/letter/snooping/</a></div>
<div style="RIGHT: auto">Please take a moment and type in these
URLs into your web browser and sign the petitions. Thank you.</div>
<div style="RIGHT: auto"> </div>
<div style="RIGHT: auto">This protest action is sponsored by <a
moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://www.peacemovies.com/"><font
color="#810081">www.peacemovies.com</font></a>, a web site
that hopes to make its author a living through the “fair use”
or the not copyright protected use of copyrighted material
available on the Internet. One of the sites that is used by
Peacemovies.com is <a moz-do-not-send="true" style="RIGHT:
auto" href="http://www.mercurynews.com/">www.mercurynews.com</a>,
which has a very clear statement in its terms of use policy
that the material on the site may be reused by viewers under
the exception to copyright law defense known as “fair use”,
which ultimately means that the paraphrasing of information
taken from the site and used for commercial purposes does not
violate any copyright law or agreement. Please take a moment
and subscribe to the Mercury News. Thank you.</div>
<div style="RIGHT: auto"> </div>
<div style="RIGHT: auto"><b style="RIGHT: auto"><font
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt" size="2">Peacemovies.com advocates
overturning the laws that permit TOU contracts to be
formed that deprive Internet users of their rights to
“fair use” of content that is provided for free on the
Internet.</font></b></div>
</div>
<br>
<fieldset class="mimeAttachmentHeader"></fieldset>
<br>
<pre wrap="">_______________________________________________
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</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>
<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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