TT

If my guess is correct and youre canadian.. this story says your ministers in parliament are selling you guys down the river next.. and it looks just as bad or even worse than it’s american counterpart.

If youre british or european i’m afraid it’s even worse..

Now however it’s a different story.

1- The courts have routinely upheld the rights of numerous governmental bodies to limit people’s right to peacibly assemble through laws establishing very small and very remote “free speech zones”. [LESSON: The constitution does not apparently protect dissenters.]

2 - In their ruling on eldredge v ashcroft the supreme court said they refused to uphold the constitutional mandate that copyright have a limited term. They said congress was RIGHT in perpetually extending copyright in both scope and breadth in direct opposition with the constitution(when combined with a later ruling).[LESSON: The constitution does not apply if it limits the power of large multinational copyright conglomerates]

3 -
A.The cartels are continuing to gain court subpoenas for their filesharing “does” in 500 person lots when the due process clause unequivocally requires that each individual be treated as a separate offender unless clear evidence is presented that they are in collusion (e.g. their cases must be related, or theyre tried separately). I’d love to see them try this with any other crime.. let’s subpoena and try all serial killer suspects as a lot in a single trial.
B. A high court dismissed a very valid class action suit in which mounds of evidence pointed to the fact that wal-mart was committing wage fraud by multiple means.
[LESSON: The constitution does not apply to those who seek fair treatment from multibillion dollar corporations]

4- This recent apple case gives credit and precedent to two dangerous ideas.
A. Only multimillion dollar “traditional” print, radio, and tv media are allowed protection under the first amendment.
B. Press should not be allowed to engage in investigative reporting if multinational corporations don’t agree with what is being said.
[LESSON: The constitution does not apply if corporate america says “speak no evil: or else.” especially on the internet.]

All you need is a few million or a copyright and you suddenly are no longer “created equal”..

“We hold these truths to be self evident that <s>all men are created equal</s>.”

“We hold these truths to be self evident that men who hold wealth or copyrights are created with distinct superiority to their underlings.”

Let’s face it.. when you punch through all the mythology we rebelled from britain in the first place because we were too greedy to pay a tax, and the odd thing is we’d have gotten more representation for our taxes if we had not rebelled.

We americans have been living in a neofascist regime for at least 10 years (if not 150 years starting with the first segregation and anti-strike laws) which has centered around greed (and a much lesser degree christianity) rather than a specific racial or national purity.

I’m not saying there is some secretive cabal or shadow government. One is not necessary for such a political system to inadvertantly arise from the separate actions taken by the wealthy to protect/advance their own personal agendas.

Our society has become set up to marginalize, ostracize, (or in extreme cases persecute), intellectuals and visionaries who see a better way to do things and vocalize it, and our school system is set up to systematically stifle creativity and fresh perspective because those are a threat to this old, inadvertantly created, but solid front of corruption.

That said, I really suspect this will be over turned by a higher court - I can’t see them allowing this for long…… I really hope they wont allow it anyway.

_-Jile-_

you’re getting the screw from your own legal system and governement now…

TT