ACTA - Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement

ACTA - Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement

I don't like doing this folks, and let me say that posting these kind of topics as main announcements on our forum isn't the kind of stuff I regularly want to be posting -- but for the sake of explaining why, let me just say that while some things in life like the SOPA and PIPA protests feel like very big things (and they are), it is important to understand that they are not the only problems that we will be faced with in our lifetime.

ACTA is another serious attempt by powerful corporations to control things in this world for their own selfish benefits -- and they are getting these kind of things done by being sneaky -- sneaky as in avoiding the democratic process and trying to get laws passed that will help control YOU more, without you even AGREEING, or without you even knowing.

And why are these kind of things happening? From what I know, it's basically because of this: Communication has become very important between human beings today -- we have so many ways to network, connect, inform, and let's face it 'the ability to teamplay together stronger than ever before' -- that last bit is a little something just for you guys here in TH and whom play Savage: The Battle for Newerth. Look at how helpful the internet has become -- and look at websites like facebook, youtube, twitter, wordpress, and then remember there are millions of other websites out there on any subject you can imagine. People can access the internet from their iPhones, Blackberries, laptops, work PCs, and cellphones -- communication is so very huge and helpful in the present global-wide society we live in today. And of course, don't forget video-games, the place most of us in this community have a background from. All this allows us all to CONNECT, and to TEAMPLAY when we want to -- in very effective ways where possible for both the issues in the real world, and the online/internet world.

Corporations and rich/greedy/selfish in the world don't want that. If people can CONNECT and TEAMPLAY against them -- then they risk loosing money, and more important, they risk losing POWER to control the world. So, they want to continue doing anything possible to make it less possible that people can CONNECT, COMMUNICATE, and TEAMPLAY against them -- ACTA is another attempt at this, just like SOPA and PIPA was.

These kind of subjects I don't plan on posting all the time on the main announcements -- there will always be these kind of nasty events going on for the rest of human history -- and even if we stop ACTA, SOPA, and PIPA -- there will continue to be attempts similar to them. BUT, it is still important that we always do our best to learn of them and be aware of them. And when they happen -- we can be prepared to do what we can to stop, and/or prevent it.

However, as I said already, in the future I hope to not post these kind of things as forum-wide announcements -- because despite these bad things happening (and don't get me wrong, they are still hugely important to learn about and oppose) -- this website and place is a family/community that has a focus on playing video-games in a friendly, and long-term meaningful, social, and relaxed-fun way. We are not some kind of serious community that only focuses on negative and harmful events happening in the world -- we certainly will do what we can to raise awareness and to encourage people to act on important world-wide issues that we face today -- but we will not be making that the direction or goals of this family, community, and video-gaming site.

ACTA is the next serious problem that will affect how we communicate to each other as human beings across the internet, and in real life. SOPA and PIPA were bad, and ACTA will do just as serious damage if accepted. So please consider informing yourself and learning about what ACTA is, and how you can stop it by checking out some of the links/videos below, and performing your own research through google and the internet.

I will now close this post with links/videos about ACTA, and the sincere hope that these recent events around SOPA, PIPA, and ACTA in this community will be enough to raise awareness and motivation for all of you to make your own decisions on what you want to do about these issues -- and that public forum announcements like this won't be seen too often again in the future of this community.

Sincerely, and see you in-game sometime soon,
~ TNaismith



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ACTA Signed by the EU. Let's Defeat it Together!
https://www.laquadrature.net/en/acta-signed-by-the-eu-lets-defeat-it-together

Paris, January 26th 2011 – Today in Tokyo, the EU and 22 of its Member States officially signed ACTA1, the anti-counterfeiting trade agreement. The worldwide citizen movement initiated against SOPA and PIPA must now focus on defeating their global counterpart ACTA in the European Parliament.

Defeat ACTA! A few days after the online protests against the anti-sharing bills SOPA and PIPA in the United States, today's signing ceremony of ACTA is the symbol of the circumvention of democracy to impose policies that hurt freedom of communication and innovation worldwide. However, this highly symbolic signature is not the end of the road.

Every citizen willing to act to defeat ACTA now has ... [Click to read the rest]

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Say NO to ACTA (Although 3-months old, the video still contains helpful explanations on what ACTA is, and why you should be concerned with seeing it stopped)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=citzRjwk-sQ


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La Quadrature du Net | What is ACTA?
http://www.laquadrature.net/en/acta

ACTA is one more offensive against the sharing of culture on the Internet. ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement) is an agreement secretly negotiated by a small "club" of like-minded countries (39 countries, including the 27 of the European Union, the United States, Japan, etc). Negotiated instead of being democratically debated, ACTA bypasses parliaments and international organizations to dictate a repressive logic dictated by the entertainment industries.

ACTA would impose new criminal sanctions forcing Internet actors to monitor and censor online communications. It is thus a major threat to freedom of expression online and creates legal uncertainty for Internet companies. In the name of trademarks and patents, it would also hamper access to generic medicines in poor countries.

The European Parliament now has an ultimate opportunity to reject ACTA.

[Click to see the full page]

At least in Europe it's killed! Well done!