Contact.ie - Contact Irish TDs, Irish MEPs, Irish Senators

Stop SOPA and ACTA in Ireland #SOPAireland

Wed, 25/01/2012 - 09:00 | Contact.ie

You may have heard of the recent announcement by Labour's Sean Sherlock TD to amend the Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000 without Dail debate, by means of statutory instrument. It will give away a lot of the freedoms we currently enjoy on the internet by giving a small number of unaccountable people the power to censor your internet, restrict vast amounts of content and decide who is infringing a copyright without due process.

Subject (you can edit this): *

Your Message (you can edit this): *

Dear Sean,

I feel compelled to contact you regarding your Department's proposed amendment to the Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000 in which you feel it is necessary to give private individuals and corporations the ability to censor public users of internet services by allowing these private individuals/corporations to decide what is copyright infringement and what is not, without due process.

This is wrong for many reason. The benefits of your "SOPA type" legislation are few and only for the big recording and movie production companies who already enjoy monopolistic type protection from copyright. These same corporations have consolidated and merged over the last 20 years giving them double digit growth for many of those years by utilising existing copyright laws. They don't need more protection. The industry shills would have us believe enacting these laws will afford them protection against piracy, but in reality it does nothing to combat the real world piracy of physical movie DVD's, music CD's, software and other patent and IP infringements. Their assertions are demonstrably untrue if you care to look.

The drawbacks of giving private companies and individuals the powers to silence are too numerous to mention but the main issues at stake are freedom of expression, net neutrality, privacy, safe harbour, commerce and wider cultural and artistic endeavours. The internet IS copying. To be on the internet is to copy. Culture doesn't respond well to being walled in.

You can't have failed to notice the recent mass protests  from major worldwide tech players and content providers during the last week against the SOPA bill in the United States. This reaction will be universal in any territory that attempts to overtly or otherwise control the internet by prohibition. Censorship is an affront to our already challenged democracy.

Furthermore, and probably more importantly, there are technical issues here which will no doubt negate your attempts at censorship. The public will learn how to use IP proxies and other technology to bypass weak and unworkable law. There is a conceit in law that says any piece of legislation that is unenforceable is abhorrent to the nature and function of law. And internet censorship IS unenforceable.

There is an argument that online "piracy" is more akin to shoplifting, in the sense that it is part of the price of being in business. Not only that, but the aggregation of protected works actually benefits content creators given the right conditions, e.g. Creative Commons assignment. The current situation in the creative arts means that the tiny minority of content creators and artists benefit from the monopoly of big movie production and recording corporations - but it is self evident who benefits the most. HINT: It's NOT the little guy, the independent artist, "cottage industry" record companies, independent film makers, or the wider public who DO NOT WANT TO BE EXCLUDED FROM THE CREATIVITY PROCESS!

Please reassess your stance, consult with the wider industry and find consensus by listening to some of the brilliant minds out there who have many answers to the copyright conundrum. The major protagonists will find their own commercial solution to the changing paradigm, or die as is wont in this supposedly laissez faire economy. Can't say fairer than that I think.

Yours in hope,

You can edit the above content. DON'T FORGET TO PUT YOUR NAME (AND IF YOU WISH ADDRESS) AT THE BOTTOM.

Your Name: *

Your Email Address: *

Add new comment

Enda Kenny = Eamon Gilmore = Fine Gael = Labour = Animal Farm

Tue, 24/01/2012 - 13:22 | Contact.ie

No question, now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.

- George Orwell, Animal Farm

Enda Kenny Eamon Gilmore Labour Fine Gael

Add new comment

#NotOurDebt Promotional Video

Sun, 22/01/2012 - 16:39 | Contact.ie

Add new comment

#NotOurDebt Interview with myeurop.info

Wed, 18/01/2012 - 22:50 | Contact.ie

I was emailed some questions today by a journalist with myeurop.info about the #NotOurDebt campaign against paying unsecured and unguaranteed Anglo bondholders. Here are some of my responses.

1 comment

Don't pay the UNSECURED Anglo Bondholders - Not Our Debt #NotOurDebt

Sun, 15/01/2012 - 20:18 | Contact.ie

Dear TD/Senator,

I write to demand that the so-called "debt" of 1.25bn Euro (one billion, two hundred and fifty million) due to be paid to UNSECURED Anglo bondholders be not paid.

Since the Irish people had no hand in this debt; we do not consent to paying it. Since the Irish people will not benefit from its payment; we do not consent to paying it. Since Ireland has no moral or legal duty to pay this debt; we do not consent to paying it.

It would be a very simple exertion for you not to pay this debt; all you need to do is take the pen that is about to sign the cheque, and put it back in the drawer.

Again, and finally, WE DO NOT CONSENT TO PAYING THIS DEBT.

Regards,
YOUR NAME.

Add new comment

Vegan Ireland asks Matt Cooper and Joe Duffy to go vegan.

Fri, 06/01/2012 - 11:44 | Hoodunder

PRESS RELEASE.

No Embargo.

www.veganireland.org

vegansireland@gmail.com

Vegan Ireland press number: 086 100 6763

"Do You Eat Carrots?"

Vegan Ireland asks Matt Cooper and Joe Duffy to go vegan.

Recently both popular presenters made surprising statements about veganism on their radio shows.

Add new comment

Protest at Dept of Agriculture...January 30th...to coincide with 3 Day National Hare Coursing "Festival"

Wed, 04/01/2012 - 21:42 | BadHareDays

Cruelty posing as

Protest against 3-day "National Hare Coursing" event.

Location: The Department of Agriculture, Kildare Street, Dublin.

Date: January 30^th 2012.

Time: 1 pm to 2 pm.

Add new comment

Enda Kenny "morally" against Property Tax

Fri, 23/12/2011 - 20:02 | Contact.ie

"It is morally wrong, unjust and unfair to tax a person's home" - Enda Kenny, 1994 @endakennytd #propertytax

— Irish Government (@eiregov) December 23, 2011

1 comment

Press Release: Fur Farming Ban – U-Turn by Stealth?_19/12/2011

Thu, 22/12/2011 - 12:50 | Hoodunder

Press Release: Fur Farming Ban - U-Turn by Stealth? _19/12/2011
From: ALiberation
Contact: Jim Walsh
Ph: 086 3203643
Email: aliberationnow@gmail.com
Website: www.aliberation.org

Add new comment

Radical TDs aim to move Private Members Bill to abolish hare coursing in 2012

Tue, 20/12/2011 - 23:35 | BadHareDays

The so-called "sport" of live hare coursing continues over the Christmas season and in fact escalates at this time of year. In the new year radical members of Dail Eireann will move a Private Members Bill in an effort to abolish this cruel practise.

They will aim to achieve protection for the Irish Hare, one of the gentlest and most inoffensive creatures in our countryside and an intregal part of our wonderful wildlife heritage.

1 comment

Show you Care: Buy us a Coffee!

User login