The real cost of free

“Meanwhile, the entertainment industries continues their push
around the world for a series of China-style national firewalls (in
the UK, former BPI executive Richard Mollet boasted of getting this
legislation inserted into the Digital Economy Act).

“This is an approach that millionaire pop stars like U2’s Bono
wholeheartedly endorse – last Christmas, he penned a New York
Times op-ed calling for Chinese-style censorship everywhere. And
just this month, MPAA representatives told the world’s governments
that adopting national internet censorship regimes for copyright
would also allow them to block information embarrassing to their
regimes, such as WikiLeaks.

“The MPAA was addressing a meeting for the Anti-Counterfeiting
Trade Agreement, a secret treaty that is being negotiated away from
the UN, behind closed doors, and which includes proposals to search
iPods, phones and laptop hard-drives at the world’s borders to look
for infringement.”

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