ACTA: eles estão com medo

Eles, os que detêm o Poder, receiam a potencialidade subversiva da Internet. Não porque nela conspirem para os derrubar, mas porque a sua mera existência nos moldes actuais promove uma revolução ideológica que os tornará obsoletos num futuro que sabem não muito distante. No centro dessa revolução estão as noções de partilha, comunidade e horizontalidade. Conceitos que as novas gerações interiorizam desde muito cedo no seu precurso de crescimento, e que erodem os pilares da propriedade e hierarquia em que assentam o capitalismo. Estão inquietos, os poderosos. Agem, na sombra, tentando controlar e desfigurar a Internet, através da encomenda de legislação junto dos lacaios que compraram em diferentes posições de governo. Há pouco tempo conseguiu-se, pelo menos temporariamente, impedir nos EUA a adopção dos pacotes legislativos SOPA e PIPA. No entanto, existe uma ameaça ainda maior no horizonte, de nome ACTA. Neste caso, podemos fazer descarrilar o processo no Parlamento Europeu. Ajuda a fazê-lo assinando esta petição.

"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. ACTA -- a global treaty -- could allow corporations to censor the Internet. 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. 

Europe is deciding right now whether to sign ACTA -- and without them, this global attack on Internet freedom will collapse. We know they have opposed ACTA before, but some members of Parliament are wavering -- let's give them the push they need to reject the treaty. Sign the petition(...) 

(...) 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, ACTA could also ban lifesaving generic drugs and threaten local farmers' access to the seeds they need. And, amazingly, the ACTA committee will have carte blanche to change its own rules and sanctions with no democratic scrutiny. 

Big corporate interests are pushing hard for this, but the EU Parliament stands in the way. Let's send a loud call to Parliamentarians to face down the lobbies and stand firm for Internet freedom. (...) 

(...) 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."

E já agora leiam este post no Spectrum.