Month: January 2012

Tonight was the big “debate” on Sean Sherlock’s special instrument (a way in which a government minister an change law without a parliamentary vote).  Sherlock put forward his usual lines which gloss over the fact that the European Courts of Justice say this type of block are illegal, that users & pirates can bypass a block in 5 minutes, and that the text is so open ended is relies on judges (not the elected parliament) to define the details of the law.

Every opposition party objects to this new law.  Two representatives, Willie O’Dea (Limerick – Fianna Fail) and Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow – Independent) offered excellent arguments against this rush to a new law without due diligence and consideration.  I didn’t know Donnelly, and O’Dea has a certain “reputation” at the national level, so this was quite a pleasant surprise.

However, as expected, Sherlock (North Cork) announced he was ploughing ahead with his plans to shirk his duty and not allow our democratically elected parliament define this law that is critical to our ailing economy.

Note: the proposal is that judges can pass injunctions against ISPs or content hosters to block websites that a plaintif claims contains copyright infringements.  Anyone with 30 seconds of Internet experience can tell you that this can be bypassed, or that BitTorrent was designed to defeat this by using infinite seeds.

To make things worse, a Fine Gael TD, Jerry Buttimer (@jerrybuttimer, Cork South Central) claimed that he was inundated by emails by anarchists and keyboard warriors.  Oh the misery!  Well frak him!  We’re letting this bog hopper (I am a culchie but this moron’s performance was a shame on our nation) know what we think.  If you’re from Ireland, then tweet out

My name is <insert name here> and #IAmAKeyboardWarrior

We want these people who think they know better than us to know that we are watching, we are legion, and we are not anonymous.  And we vote.

Here in Ireland, we get a “show” debate on Fine Gael/Labour/Sean Sherlock SOPA next Tuesday at 6pm in the Dáil (parliament).  It’s mere window dressing as one TD (Dáil member) said to me by email today.  They’re going to blindly push through with this crap unless we make it clear that we’re very angry, and we’ll make them go the way of the Dodo bird … kinda like we did to the PDs in the last elections

The media are refusing to cover this story.  Those 1 or 2 mainstream outlets that do, are burying it way down.  So if you’re in Ireland, tell your friends, tell your colleagues, tell your family, and get them to visit http://stopsopaireland.com/ and to sign the online petition.  We need to keep the pressure on the government on this one.

And for everyone everywhere, you need to be aware of ACTA.  It’s SOPA on steroids, and every major country seems to have signed up to the treaty.  You need to fight this one, and that includes you folks in the USA.  Learn about it and contact your local representatives to voice your protest if you disagree with this treaty.  Here in the EU, you can voice your objections with this petition.

BTW, I am actually the victim of having my hard work pirated and I’m against these acts.

Sorry if you came here for Hyper-V or System Center.  I hope you understand the importance of this subject.

Two nights ago I blogged about Sean Sherlock, Labour and Fine Gael introducing an undemocratic change to our laws in favour of the likes of EMI.  Via a “special instrument”, where a minister can introduce new laws without debate or vote in parliament (how dictatorial!) Sean Sherlock means to allow any company to censor what Irish people can see on the Internet.  In other words: SOPA.

As of this morning, over 56,000 people had signed a petition in the last few days to protest this move by Sean Sherlock, a TD from Cork.  Sherlock (a Labour party minister), spent 2 days flicking each of those voting citizens the bird.  IT experts have voiced their concern saying that (a) this would be ineffective at stopping piracy (they’re right), (b) would be abused for online censorship (do you know that we have blasphemy laws now, and they’re trying to introduce prohibition too!?!?!), and (c) would scare away major online employers (and tax revenue) from Ireland such as Google, Facebook, Twitter, and so on.

Meanwhile, Irish media has by and large decided not to cover this story.  Yes, I’m looking at you RTE, Irish Independent, and Newstalk 106-108.  It’s clear that these so-called journalists are in favour of censorship.

After 3 days of pressure we have the following happening.

Sherlock, overnight, announced that he would allow a debate in parliament on this issue.  Uh-huh … and where is the free vote for each sitting member?  And even if there was a vote, government party whips would force members to vote with their minister.  It seems to me that corporate interests of EMI have been given more importance than our rights as citizens.  Rights, by the way, that the European Court of Justice said we had recently in a case where it was ruled that it was against human rights to block internet content at a national or ISP level.

The No SOPA Ireland campaign tweeted this overnight:

@NoSOPAIreland: Looks like some TD’s are just closing the doors to people’s emails. Rather sad considering they do this BEFORE the debate this wk #Bullshit

Are they filtering our emails protesting against Sherlock’s special interest?  Who the frak do these people think they are?  Don’t they realise that they work for us, the voters and tax payers of this country? 

Oh, by the way, if you are thinking either “SOPA is nothing to do with our country” or “SOPA was stopped in the USA” then think again.  Your political leaders are doing their masters’ bidding.  A similar international treaty was signed by the USA, Canada, Australia, Japan, and the EU yesterday.  The interesting thing is that the guy the EU employed to research it resigned in protest over how ACTA is being forced on us.

I for one, welcome any damage that Anonymous decides to inflict on the organs of the state at this point.  As for their promised to hear us out … words are wind.  We know what a politician’s promise is worth.  If your enemy brings a knife then you bring a gun.  Talking is getting us nowhere and its damned time that the political class of this country learn their place.

SOPA was an American bi-partisan bill that presented itself as an anti-piracy law.  In fact, it was a hell of a lot more.  It was promoted by Hollywood, who has refused to change their ways to reflect how Internet business can work (see the possibility of Netflix), and by companies such as GoDaddy who allegedly had something to gain from it (hosting for redirected URLs).  The law was really about uncontrolled censorship that was in the control of the rich and powerful.  They could shut down your web site with absolutely no possibility of defence on your part.  There was a popular revolt in the USA, and SOPA (and the equally bad PIPA) were crushed before they came to vote.

Enter the Irish Government made up of Fine Gael, Labour, and a bunch of unknown government mandarins, all supported by the likes of IRMA, the recording industry which has also fought fair e-business at every turn.

Blacknight’s (the hoster of this site) Michele Neylon issued a press release overnight and posted on his blog.  Thank you Michele, because it seems like our “free” press took a snooze on this one … or they decided to silently support it.

Sean Sherlock, who’s details I’ve shared below, is a Labour party government minister and is trying to introduce this law by ministerial order.  That means that there would be NO VOTE BY OUR DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED PARLIAMENT.

If you are in favour of a free democratic Republic of Ireland, then check out the StopSOPAIreland site, sign the petition, and let Fine Gael, Labour, and Sean Sherlock know what you think of their treason.  In my opinion, this puts them in the same place as Fine Fáil and their “independent” supporters of the last government that sold our country’s future down the toilet for their banker & construction friends, and the irresponsible bond holders of Anglo Irish.

BTW, here’s how to contact Sean Sherlock, TD (Cork East TD, Labour Party, Minister of State for Research and Innovation):

• Twitter: @SeanSherlockTD
• Website
• Oireachtas Email
• Clinic schedule and phone numbers
• Phone: 022-53523
• Fax: 022-57761
• Mobile: 087-7402057

Why don’t you take some time to contact Seanie-boy and let him no what you think of treason.  Am I fired up?  Yup, definitely.  This chiselling away of our hard fought for democratic rights must be stopped.  Do and say nothing, and you’re no better than Sherlock is, and it shows how little you really care.

EDIT #1:

Breaking news.  The “hacktivist” group Anonymous tweeted about this a little while ago:

@YourAnonNews: NEW: Ireland gets its own #SOPA law | http://t.co/hgtk0Rom | http://t.co/tD7iLOqw | #OpIreland #Anonymous

@YourAnonNews: Ireland has angered the hive, we will be reporting all attacks through this account | #OpIreland #OpMegaUpload

*Evil laugh*