I wonder if you are aware of this - colloquially known as the 'Toilet Paper Protocol'?
I found it interesting. Brian Begin forwarded message: > From: "Free Software Foundation" <i...@fsf.org> > Date: 30 January 2014 00:01:05 GMT > To: Brian Smith <br...@briansmithonline.com> > Subject: As free software users, we need to speak out against the TPP > Reply-To: "Free Software Foundation" <i...@fsf.org> > > > Dear Brian, > > You may already be involved in the international grassroots movement against > the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Lobbyists and officials from twelve countries, > including the US, are currently bickering over the details of this massive > international "free trade" treaty. They are creating the TPP to strongly > promote Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) and enforce draconian copyright > law, which will hinder free software development. > > Similar to 2012's SOPA and PIPA, TPP would likely entrench the Digital > Millennium Copyright Act's (DMCA) measures that make it a crime to circumvent > DRM, even when circumvention is done for non-commercial purposes. It would > also export this criminalization to other countries with less onerous DRM > policies. But that's not all: it would restrict fair use, lengthen copyright > terms, and regulate the temporary copies of media that computers make, in a > way that our friends at the Electronic Frontier Foundation have called "out > of touch with the realities of the modern computer." All of these > restrictions would make it much harder for free software applications to > interface with media and the Internet, chilling free software development and > use. > > Facing opposition, President Obama is attempting to bypass the US's standard > approval process for treaties and unilaterally ram through the TPP, in a > process known as a "fast track." Today (Wednesday, January 29th), the FSF is > joining the diverse StopFastTrack coalition in urging our US supporters to > simultaneously take action against this. > > If you can vote in the United States, please take five minutes to call your > representatives and tell them you oppose the fast track because TPP would > promote Digital Restrictions Management and hinder free software development. > The StopFastTrack Web site will connect you automatically. We recommend you > visit the site with JavaScript turned off, as it includes some nonessential > proprietary scripts. If we all raises our voices at once today, we can make > TPP and the fast track too unpopular to pass. > > Not reading this until after January 29th? We encourage you to call in > anyway, sustained pressure is just as important as raising a big uproar all > at once. > > If you can't vote in the United States, we encourage you to stand up against > TPP wherever you are. If you live in one of the other participating > countries, you can do this by contacting your elected officials. Please email > us at campai...@fsf.org if you know of any actions in your country, so that > we can help promote them. > > Because it's widely known as the TPP, (and because of its generally low moral > worth) some have referred the agreement as the "Toilet Paper Protocol." We > think this is apt. But with toilet paper, the labels at least allow you some > degree of information about what you're getting. TPP, however, is being > negotiated almost entirely behind closed doors, in chambers populated by > lobbyists and government officials, but empty of journalists. Most of the > information we have about this utterly undemocratic deal comes from leaked > documents. > > TPP focuses on more than just copyright and DRM -- it is a giant mess of > things that lobbyists couldn't get passed through more democratic channels. > That's part of the reason that people from so many different groups and walks > of life are coming together to oppose it. > > Of the groups speaking out against TPP, we are proud to be one of the few > that is putting free software first in our argument against the partnership. > If you can vote in the US, please call in and say that you oppose TPP because > it would promote DRM and harm the development of free software. Let's make > sure that congress knows our movement has something to say in this fight. > > This isn't the first time the FSF has stood up against proposed laws and > trade agreements that would hurt free software -- we played a role in the > fight against the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) as well as > SOPA/PIPA, and we sent a licensing expert to Australia to advocate for free > software at an earlier TPP negotiation session. But we'd like to be doing > even more to bring your voice to the debate. To give us the tools we need, > we've set an ambitious fundraising goal of $450,000 by this Friday, and we're > almost there. Can you chip in $25 to help us expand our work in 2014? Thanks > for your support. > > Zak Rogoff > Campaigns Manager > > Image CC-BY Electronic Frontier Foundation. > You can view this post online at > https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/as-free-software-users-we-need-to-speak-out-against-the-tpp. > > > -- > Follow us at https://status.fsf.org/fsf | Subscribe to our blogs via RSS at > https://fsf.org/blogs/RSS > Join us as an associate member at https://fsf.org/jf > Sent from the Free Software Foundation, > > 51 Franklin Street > Fifth Floor > Boston, MA 02110-1335 > United States > You can unsubscribe to this mailing-list by visiting the link > https://crm.fsf.org/civicrm/mailing/unsubscribe?reset=1&jid=129262&qid=6562124&h=3299762bca15747b. > > To stop all email from the Free Software Foundation, including Defective by > Design, > and the Free Software Supporter newsletter, click this link: > > https://crm.fsf.org/civicrm/mailing/optout?reset=1&jid=129262&qid=6562124&h=3299762bca15747b.
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