Apr 09
10
Chess Politics Heritage & History
Chess Politics Heritage & History
Europe is invariably the western
worlds Tourist Mecca. The combination of multiple civilizations, cuisines,
objects d’art and other intellectual and historical candy, acts as a powerful
magnet to the worlds middle class and of course the college student backpackers,
seeking the meaning of life.
But the multiple borders in the worlds second smallest
continent presents its own unique legal challenges to any commercial entity
attempting the “take over the world at any cost scenario”.
.
The content Industry is attempting to take out small chunks
of Europe, Sweden,
Ireland,
France with
side incursions to New Zealand,
Korea and Australia as individual, separate targets.
The countries populations are surprisingly fighting back.
The Lesson
In 1997, I was walking through the outdoor markets in Szentgotthard (a
small town pop. 3000 in Hungary
bordering Austria
) and I came upon two likely lads running a one chair tea chest stall.
They had one product displayed – an ST-Micro 256 GSM Chip.
“Mister – want free phone calls?”
I asked how it worked – they said – when you want to make
free phone calls you put this chip in your phone and then dial. But if it rings
– don’t answer the phone. – But usually it only lasts one maybe two months –
then you have to throw the chip away.” I asked how much – they said 300 filer
(pronounced “fillair” and worth about $2.80) – in other words for the price of four
cheeseburgers I could obtain free phone calls both national and international
for 4-8 weeks.
Yes – cloning had reached the outlying villages.
And not only had it reached the outer villages – it had done
so at a time when the Opel plant was laying off employees, (my cousin Peter was
a foreman) and the Bra manufacturing plant laid off their entire manufacturing
staff (another cousin Mari was a supervisor) and the town was finding it hard
to make ends meet.
So the question arises – did the Rendorseg (the Hungarian
Police force) know it was going on.
Of course.
Notice I didn’t use the word Criminals. Because in Hungary
– they didn’t commit a crime.
They just sold copied Sim cards.
Until a complaint was laid by the owner of the phone – it
wasn’t a crime.
Why didn’t they do anything about it ?
Because Sanyi and Barni only cloned Austrian phones so it
didn’t damage any Hungarians.
They were good little patriotic phone cloners.
Just like the American example. Rip off (copyright infringe) who you like as long as it's not an American Company.
AND Hungary
was and is a socialist regime. The operative word in the socialist world is
Co-operative. If everyone puts all of their effort into the community
co-operative – the co-operative will survive and do well.
Another Hungarian export, Nicolas Sarkozy, the President
of France no doubt knows and understands the power of the co-operative.
But he has apparently forgotten his past and that history tends
to repeat itself.
Paris, France 14th July, 1789, French citizens,
fed-up with the financial mismanagement of the country after the financial
excesses of Louis the XVI support of the American Revolution, stormed the
Bastille.
‘Vive La Revolution’ appears to be how the French are
reacting to the latest overtures by Corporate America into the halls of French
Politics.
The Hadopi
legislation clearly is in breach of several elements of the French Declaration of the Rights of Man
and of the Citizen drafted in August, 1789.
Specifically,
5. Law can only prohibit such actions as are hurtful to
society. Nothing may be prevented which is not forbidden by law, and no one may
be forced to do anything not provided for by law.
6. Law is the expression of the general will. Every
citizen has a right to participate personally, or through his representative,
in its foundation. It must be the same for all, whether it protects or
punishes. All citizens, being equal in the eyes of the law, are equally
eligible to all dignities and to all public positions and occupations,
according to their abilities, and without distinction except that of their
virtues and talents.
8. The law shall provide for such punishments only as
are strictly and obviously necessary, and no one shall suffer punishment except
it be legally inflicted in virtue of a law passed and promulgated before the
commission of the offense.
Last week the French National Assembly announced a slam-dunk
victory, According to Peter Sayer of IDG’s news service, “Just 33 of the
National Assembly's 577 deputies attended the evening debate; 29 of those
present voted in favor and four abstained. Although the bill was strongly
contested, inclusive of some members of the ruling party, the UMP, the
government's majority ensured it would pass, perhaps explaining the low
turnout.”
IFPI chairman and chief executive John Kennedy immediately
issued a press statement “The French government has taken a decisive step
to protect artists and creators, setting an example to the rest of the
world,”
“The great thing about this French initiative is that
it will result in very sensible and achievable actions by ISPs to reduce piracy
in a way that is overwhelmingly preventative and not punitive.”
And of course around the world, the Korean
and Swedish Governments with pending court cases and new legislation of their own,
watched and understood that they had made the ‘right decision’.
Until Thursday.
On Thursday – in the upper house, (the French Senate), suddenly the wave changed direction. The
Governments much heralded Three Strikes Legislation (or to be more precice – the legislation enabling the introduction of the Governing authority to introduce the three strikes policy) received the thumbs down with
21-15 vote including some of Sarkozy’s own ministers and back benchers who were
strongly opposed to this legislation being passed.
I have a theory. I don’t think the French lower house opposition
members stayed away from last weeks reading, by accident. I believe they “knew”
they didn’t have the numbers to defeat the bill so that they would feint by
showing apparent indifference to an obvious fait accompli.
The opposition then insured that they had the numbers
this week to trounce the Governments Three Strikes Initiative.
The power of the co-operative had spoken.
But just maybe – with the other
problems on Sarkozy’s mind – he might just let this one escape or be faced
with a possible double dissolution.
At this stage it is unclear if continuing pressure from the European
Parliament will cause the French to reconsider their ‘Three Strikes – Yer Out’
plans.
Should Sarkozy continue to ignore his peer members of the
EEC, it could cost France
dearly beyond the potential economic
assistance available from a technically bankrupt USA.
What we at Perceptric find incredibly amazing is that six
governments around the world have suddenly considered passing almost identical
legislation – independently – without a debate or session in the United
Nations.
Who is orchestrating this ? The leaked ACTA trade
agreement says – the US Government.
Who is paying for it ?
And what with ?
If Hollywood are writing favour cheques from President Obama,
most probably against guaranteed imports of individual countries exports, then
the only question is – how is the US taxpayer going to be able to pay for those
imports ? They havent paid any bills to China for a number of years – relying instead on real estate deals (selling of chunks of Nevada, Utah and colorado) to balance the books.
Will it be from the royalties from foreign sales that never
get back to US bank accounts anyway, from the 20% of people that don’t have
file sharing software installed on their computers?
We don’t think there’s that much money to be collected from
this arena. And we don’t think the ACTA trade agreement is worth much unless
countries insist that the US
settle in Gold or Euros.
What we do think though is that the public are fighting back
and the content industry needs to stop being aggressive and needs to find
solutions other than blitzkreig type legal attacks, taking no prisoners. They
need to negotiate solutions that don’t make the whole world angry and resentful
towards their respective Governments – or the Industry.
Wouldn’t it be sad if world war three erupted over a couple
of downloaded movie files worth a couple of bucks.
One day, the RIAA or a piece of legislation will result in
emotional pushback and that is a totally different kettle of fish.
In case anyone out there is reading – we have a solution,
but no-one wants to seem to listen.