Horrible news - 22 countries signed ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement) on Thursday, January 24.
What this could mean is ceasing the internet as we know it today - a free platform to exchange data and retrieve information - free in the sense of expression and freedom of speech and (also) data.
US government blocked Megaupload last week - on the 29th anniversary of the Apple Lisa (Jan. 19), ACTA comes next to kill digital freedom. The Polish people are protesting on the streets against the law which could block Wikipedia and other useful sites.
And remember: in the 60s, when the internet was set up first (as ARPAnet) - nobody cared about digital copyright. And today there is a movement, going out from young people which use the net daily. This movement is noticeable when you download a song - we want everything for free and we don't see any use in copyright - nobody will ever control the internet completely. And no law will be ever able to in force it. Where are we living? In a totalitarian dictatorship like in "1984"?
NO! We are living in a (mostly) peaceful and democratic world - If we will give in to a dirty sheet of paper, the internet - the last outpost of total freedom - will slowly deteriorate to a grade it will just vanish from existence. The freedom in the internet will end more or less surprisingly - like died Steven Paul Jobs: Foreseeable, but still surprisingly.
Today is also the day of Holocaust: Take a minute of silence and think about the things that happened in the concentration camps during the Nazi regime in the 1930s and 1940s.
That's my thoughts on today.
Stay hungry, foolish and tuned!
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