p2pnet news view Freedom | P2P:- “Why are the governments of the world allowing an industry to dictate international trade policy?”

That was p2pnet contributor Tom Koltai on ACTA, short for Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement.

“Since the United States, European Union, Japan, Canada, and a handful of other countries announced their participation in the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement negotiations in October 2007, the ACTA has been dogged by controversy over the near-total lack of transparency.

“Early negotiations were held in secret locations with each participating country offering nearly-identical cryptic press releases that did little more than fuel public concern.

“The participating countries conducted four major negotiation sessions in 2008 and though the first session of 2009 was postponed at the request of the US (which was busy transitioning to a new president), the negotiations are set to resume in May in Morocco.”

That was Michael Geist.

“If Hollywood could order intellectual property laws for Christmas, what would they look like? This is pretty close,” said University of Ottawa Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic acting director David Fewer on ACTA.

Now the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) and Public Knowledge are accusing the Obama administration of maintaining the veil of secrecy.

The April 30 release of 36 pages of material by the United States Trade Representative (USTR) was the second time the government had a chance to to provide public insight into ACTA, but declined to do so, says the EFF, going on:

“More than a thousand pages of material about ACTA are still being withheld, despite the Obama administration’s promises to run a more open government.”

EFF and Public Knowledge filed suit in September of 2008, “demanding that background documents on ACTA be disclosed under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA),” says the post, continuing »»»

Initially, USTR released 159 pages of information about ACTA and withheld more than 1300 additional pages, claiming they implicate national security or reveal the USTR’s “deliberative process.” After reconsidering the release under the Obama administration’s new transparency policies, the USTR disclosed the additional pages last week, most of which contain no substantive information.

However, one of the documents implies that treaty negotiators are zeroing in on Internet regulation. A discussion of the challenges for the pact includes “the speed and ease of digital reproductions” and “the growing importance of the Internet as a means of distribution.”

Other publicly available information shows that the treaty could establish far-reaching customs regulations over Internet traffic in the guise of anti-counterfeiting measures. Additionally, multi-national IP industry companies have publicly requested that ISPs be required to engage in filtering of their customers’ Internet communications for potentially copyright-infringing material, force mandatory disclosure of personal information about alleged copyright infringers, and adopt “Three Strikes” policies requiring ISPs to automatically terminate customers’ Internet access upon a repeat allegation of copyright infringement.

Litigation in the case will now continue, “with USTR asking US District Judge Rosemary M. Collyer to uphold its decision to conceal virtually all of the information that EFF and PK seek concerning the ACTA negotiations,” add the two organisations.

Tyranny of Power

It’s worth re-running what Koltai had to say in April »»»

If you believe all conspiracy theories are garbage and you`re not open to What, Why, How and When, please put in a request to come back in the next life as an ostrich.

The content industries have learned push begets pushback, which begets more push on their part which creates even larger pushback, and so on, to the point where the National Security of the free world may be challenged permanently because of the actions of one run-away train The Music Industry.

We`ve all heard the term Tyranny of Power. But what does it really mean?

When each of us voted for (Australia) Rudd (Canada) Harper, (Japan) Aso, (NZ) Clark, (Sth Korea) Moo-hyun, (USA) Obama, none of us realized  these men would be implementing policy that removed our basic right of privacy by legislation.

There`s an old saying in business: if something is too risky, or too unpopular, get the government to do it. After all politicians have a different mandate to the rest of us and Big Industry quite often has the same problem as you and I — it can`t get to The Man.

So lobbyists are hired, advertising programs are launched, campaign contributions are remembered and everyone `suddenly realizes` that `X` was what they needed all their lives.

And the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement is born.

114 active identified P2P clients in use globally

Why are the governments of the world allowing an industry to dictate international trade policy?

Why is your government so intent on stamping out P2P?

Why is anti-file sharing legislation being implemented around the world.

Because it matches what our elected leaders` advisors are telling them and if no-one tells them any differently, that`s what they`ll continue to believe.

The Justification

• P2P is used by terrorists. (True)
• P2P is used by Pedophiliac sickos (True)
• P2P denies intellectual property rights to inventors, and artists. (Bullshit.)

The Actual Situation

• P2P is used by kids (yep about 87% of the connected next gen kids are using it)

The Real Problem

• P2P has reached such high levels of encryption and such ubiquity that NSA computers can no longer track all content.

Say what ?

You read it right.

There are now 114 active identified P2P clients in use globally, 42 have encryption capabilities, and of those 42, 16 have encryption capabilities at 128 bits or better.

40 bit encryption was pretty useless

In 1995, Netscape announced the US government had `allowed` 40 bit encryption to be exported.

Here`s why »»»»»»

40 bit encryption was pretty useless.

On June 18th 1997, thousands of Internet users made history by cracking a 56=bit DES encryption key.

So the NSA did a deal with Microsoft.

The ACTA Free Trade Agreement (Boy that description should warn us something is afoot) is an attempt by governments to achieve what the US has failed to achieve since the Internet went commercial.

In 1986, it was the chip that was to be installed in all computers.

In 1994 it was the Echelon device on the edge routers in the USA so all packets could be investigated.

Both of these implementations failed in their ubiquity through consumer pushback.

In 1998 it became the ADVAPI.dll file inside every Microsoft shipped operating system.

The story (or lack of a story) of its failure to sweep the world (it was only downloaded 574,964 times) can be found on http://www.cryptonym.com/ which used to be the site of the famed ReplaceNsaKey.zip ( 83.57K ) file that could be used to subvert the capability inside the Microsoft ADVAPI.DLL file. (And attached as an attachment at the end of this article warning not for the technically challenged )

How could a file in Windows help the NSA to decrypt my most confidential PGP emails?

The Lesson

If the underlying system has a separate Key under yours, that key overrides your key.

Imagine living in an apartment building where the super has a master key to every apartment.

You buy a valuable piece of jewellery and place in the freezer in a plastic container full of custard with a label clearly saying `Left over Custard`. You leave the apartment reasonably sure the valuable is safe.

Unfortunately, however, the NSA trained cat-burglar, who`s bribed the super for a copy of the master key, enters, removes the valuable, replaces it with fakes.

And it may be months or years before you realize that the valuables escaped.

So your data are encrypted and safe from prying eyes with the exception of the NSA or Government permitted commercial entities?

Yes. You too can become a government favoured commercial entity just so long as you pony up enough in the way of campaign contributions.

And if you do, the government will allow you to draft legislation like the International ACTA Treaty —-

—- especially if it then allows the government to inspect the hard-disks of anyone it wants via the customs agencies in any country.

Do I now expect a knock on my door? Yes.

Will I blog again?

That depends on who`s knocking on the door.

I`m fifty-one, I smoke far too much and the Milleniumites are terrorizing me. So there`s a race between the Knock on the Door and natural attrition.

And although I like Unix, do I as a citizen of the free world want to be forced to run a Linux operating system I compiled from source to ensure no-one is encroaching on my privacy?

Not really.

There`s an argument that when something becomes ubiquitously accepted, it becomes the new line in the sand for future measurements.

The world has accepted every PC running Microsoft Windows (post windows 95 and Win NT 4.1) is actually bugged.

What will we accept next?

Quote of the Day: The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter. – Sir Winston Churchill.

So FILE YOUR OBJECTION TO ACTA !!!

In Australia, go here IP@dfat.gov.au but please read this first ->> Public information and consultations on the ACTA

Read the materials relevant to your country.

Contact your congressman, representative, member of parliament, minister and STOP ACTA NOW.

Stay tuned.

Follow p2pnet on Twitter.

Tom Koltai on ACTA – Stop ACTA NOW !, April 15, 2009
Michael Geist – ACTA – Anti-Consumer Terror Act, April 22, 2009
This is pretty close – Hollywood steps up for ACTA, September 22, 2008
David Fewer on ACTA – PI organisations demand action on ACTA, September 18, 2008
EFF – Government Still Blocking Information on Secret IP Enforcement Treaty, May 6, 2009

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This entry was posted on Thursday, May 7th, 2009 at 9:03 am and is filed under Freedom, P2P. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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