While we’ve been collectively staring ourselves blind at SOPA, something even more insidious - ACTA - has for all intents and purposes already been passed. Only the EU, Mexico and Switzerland have yet to sign, but that is only a matter of time.
Now with a name like that, it’s easy to think it’s a well meaning and innocuous bit of legislation. Don’t let that fool you:
And unlike the Americans, who still have something remotely resembling a direct democracy, and can do something concrete like write their congressman, we in the EU have no such options, as the European government is not democratically elected and thus cannot be held accountable.
We’re already living in 1984. Our only hope is that the politicians responsible for selling us out did so out of incompetence rather than malice.
So, it seems the black-out wednesday last seems to have had an effect upon the US congress, but this is but a temporary situation. The sad state of affairs is that SOPA, or legislation very much like it, will eventually get passed. The reason? The massive spending power of lobby groups like the MPAA.
Every few years, the MPAA’s lobbying power, rhetoric, and immense campaign contributions succeed in purchasing a bill in Congress to advance their agenda in a way that’s hostile to the technology industry and consumers.
Their bills have had mixed success and usually die before being brought to a vote, but SOPA and PIPA came frighteningly close to becoming law. The internet-wide protest this week seems to have stalled their progress and probably killed them for now.
But what will happen when the MPAA buys the next SOPA? We can’t protest every similar bill with the same force. Eventually, our audiences will tire of calling their senators for whatever we’re asking them to protest this time.
After a series of violent homophobic attacks, the Belgian LGBT movement decided it was time to act.
One of the biggest issues with homophobia is that very little statistic information exists. With this app a user can easily and quickly indicate where he was assaulted and describe what just happened.
Made by a friend and former colleague of mine. But it’s not just gays who risk aggression in Brussels: I myself was also spat in the face on the metro by a group of youths for accidentally making eye-contact. Large parts of Brussels are a fucking hellhole, if you ask me.
So, I’ve finally gotten round to updating this blog’s theme to closely match my main site’s look & feel. I hope you like it, and as always, should you run into any bugs or annoyances, let me know.
Now, I might be flattering myself by assuming you may have noticed this blog has become more active as of late. I’ve been trying to get into the habit of posting at least one update every day, and so far it’s working out, I think. Partly because I stopped worrying so much.
The power of the internet is that if someone has already made the point you wanted to make, there’s no reason to regurgitate the entire discourse again – just link to it, stupid. Which is what I’m doing, mostly.
Some of you might recognize this approach as being the same as John Gruber’s, and you’d be right. Daring Fireball happens to be one of my favourite blogs, and I’m not about to hide my influences. And looking around, there’s a lot of other blogs that seem to follow the same model of being part “original programming”, and part “linked list”, to borrow Gruber’s parlance. And it’s not hard to see the appeal of said model.
Think of it like commenting. I figured that instead of posting some anonymous comment on someone else’s blog, for it to be moderated, altered, ignored or deleted, why not take complete ownership of my opinion and post it on my own blog?
I’ll still try to write original articles. But if I should come across another blog during my research that makes the point just as good or even better than I ever could, I’ll just link to it instead. And in the mean time, I’ll be getting a lot of practice and hopefully become a much better writer than I am now.
