Saturday, January 28, 2012

Remember, remember...


These are parliamentarians, legislators expressing their opinion of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), a proposed plurilateral agreement... as Wiki tells us... for the purpose of establishing international standards on intellectual property rights enforcement. The Free Software Foundation argues that ACTA will create a culture of surveillance and suspicion. An open letter with respected signatories states that "the current draft of ACTA would profoundly restrict the fundamental rights and freedoms of European citizens, most notably the freedom of expression and communication privacy."

Until now there have only been Guy Fawkes masks on display in the Polish debating chamber. 

I doubt somehow that any protests in the Bundestag or the Houses of Parliament will take this form. Although how ironic it would be if Guido... who was executed on the 31st of January 1606... would make a return to the Palace of Westminster, to remind us of the freedoms we are on the verge of losing.

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