St. Patrick’s Day is the Roman Catholic feast day of St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland. It is believed that he died on March 17 in the year 461 AD. It is also a worldwide celebration of Irish culture and history.
Today, all around the world people will be celebrating St. Patrick's Day. Celebrations range from week-long festivals in Ireland to grand parades in the United States, to partying up with a Guinness or six at Irish bars in New Zealand. This saint's day reminds us of how small the world really is.
In Ireland, as in New Zealand, Internet users are at risk of having their connections cut off, without due process or recourse to the courts. The Irish recording industry is pressuring government and ISP's to adopt a policy where users can be disconnected based on suspicion and accusation, not evidence.
Like Australians, the Irish Internet users are facing Internet filtering, where sites deemed (without a standard of proof that courts would require) to be infringing copyright, or providing a means with which to potentially infringe copyright, may be blocked.
"Guilt upon accusation" is being promoted as a way to protect society against things laws already handle. What it is doing is removing rights that we have all taken for granted - the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty, the right to a fair trial, and the freedom to use legal tools. Peer-to-peer (P2P) networks are not tools of evil, just as the knife in your kitchen is not a tool for murder. They can be used for illegal purposes but both are also used for much good.
I am a citizen of both Ireland and New Zealand. What I see happening in both countries really concerns me. As an open source software developer I am completely reliant on having Internet access. I also use P2P networks at times for sharing copyright material - my own, and GPL'd files. These are legitimate uses of P2P. And they are under threat.
Last year, when New Zealand's Copyright (New Technologies) Amendment Bill was before parliament I commented on a blog that everyone needed to be concerned. I stated that what happens in one country tends to end up in other countries. What I see now is that these "3-strikes" laws and Internet disconnection agreements are part of a worldwide campaign by the recording industry. We can keep putting out grass fires, country by country, or we can get organised.
It's time the Internet users of the world got off their collective butt and joined forces.
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