Loss of Privacy

Last week, Poland and Slovenia expressed regret over the signing of ACTA. Now the Czech Republic and Romania have expressed the same doubts. Czech Prime Minister, Petr Necas, has stated that the Czech Republic will suspend the ratification process of ACTA.

“By no means would the government admit a situation where civic freedoms and free access to information would be threatened,” Necas said.

That is why the government will analyse the issue and have it assessed by experts. “We really must look into the impact it would have in real life,” Necas said.

After learning that their country had signed ACTA, many citizens of the Czech republic took to the streets in protest . Also agreeing with the protesters are several Czech Euro ministers.

Romanian Prime Minister, Emil Boc, has publically stated that he doesn’t understand why Romania even signed ACTA. Emil Boc offered his resignation shortly after, however, the president is still asking questions.

PM Emil Boc said, on Saturday, that, for the moment, he did not hold any information on the circumstances in which Romania had adopted the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), Realitatea.net informs. PSD President Victor Ponta is asking the government to publicly explain why it had signed ACTA on behalf of Romania without a prior public debate and notes that, when it goes to power, USL will suspend the enforcement of the Agreement until a dialogue with the civil society is fulfilled, he notes on his Facebook account.

This is what happens when treaties are proposed and signed in secret. Even those at the top levels of government have no idea what is happening in their countries or how such treaties will affect their citizens.

ACTA is still a very real problem and the countries involved need to take a serious look at what it is and whether they really want to be involved by informing themselves about what ACTA really is.

Want to blow away your competition at work? If you send a text message about it, you’re now a terrorist. That’s what happened to Saad Allami, turning his life upside down.

A casual text message to work colleagues encouraging them to ”blow away” the competition at a trade show allegedly plunged a Muslim man into a terrorism probe.

The Quebec man says he was arrested by provincial police while picking up his seven-year-old son at school. A team of police officers stormed into his home, telling his wife she was married to a terrorist. And his work colleagues were detained for hours at the U.S. border because of their connection to him.

On Jan. 21, 2011, Allami sent a text message to colleagues urging them to “blow away” the competition at a trade show in New York City.

Allami was arrested and detained for four hours while police searched his house and repeatedly told his wife that he was a terrorist.

The Moroccan native is seeking $100,000 from the Quebec provincial police force, one of its sergeants, and the provincial government. The six-figure sum is being sought for unlawful detention, unlawful arrest, loss of income and damage to his reputation.

Allami has been unable to obtain the necessary paperwork in order for him to continue working in his profession, leaving him with no choice but to take the Quebec provincial police force to court in order to restore his reputation and be able to find work again.

“Allami says he sent the text message in French and used the word ”exploser,” a term he claims is commonly used in finance to mean grow or succeed.”

His exact words were:

“Salem, je serai à New York le 25 janvier, on va exploser ACN, si vous avez des contacts référez-les moi”

This literally translates to:

Salem, I will be in New York on January 25h, we will explode ACN, if you have contacts refer them to me.

In all likelihood, Allami’s message was automatically screened by American intelligence agencies who have the ability to monitor cell phone usage within its borders. Allami sent the message to colleagues in New York City, where it was intercepted. It is unlikely that those who intercepted the message understand colloquial Quebecois French and over-reacted. The problem arises when none of his colleagues were arrested in the United States. They were only detained upon their arrival at the border going back to Canada.

In reality, anyone reading this literal translation would know that there is something not quite right with the translation and get someone qualified to help them ascertain what is going on. Instead, everyone decided it must be terrorism because some machine translation can’t be wrong.

There are several questions that remain unanswered. If there was really such a threat, why were his colleagues never arrested when they were in New York City and Allami, a Muslim, was the only one under immediate scrutiny? Why did they not dig deeper or get someone who understands colloquial Quebecois French? Why was Allami’s message intercepted and why was he under suspicion to begin with?

The greater problem to remember here is that Saad Allami was arrested not for the actions he took, but for a message he sent. His speech is what was considered dangerous.

From KFOR:

More discussion at Slashdot and reddit.

The nine berobed big brains of the Supreme Court make sense of what appear to be arbitrary, archaic distinctions of profanity and nudity.

That’s right folks, America is still the land of blood and violence on television, but show a side boob and everyone goes apeshit and starts fining people. If you’re going to let the government dictate your moral standards, there should be some sort of standard and not random fines depending on who is in office at the time.

A little video explaining SOPA and PIPA FROM Clay Shirky.

SOPA and PIPA may be temporarily stopped, but we know from history that they will be back. It is important to know and understand what they can do and remain vigilant in preventing Congress from passing any future versions of SOPA and PIPA.