Thursday, 6 October 2011
U.S. Signs International Anti-Piracy Accord
The United States applauded the deal.
“As with many of the challenges we face in today’s global economy, no government can single-handedly eliminate the problem of global counterfeiting and piracy. Signing this agreement is therefore an act of shared leadership and determination in the international fight against intellectual property theft,” said Mariam Sapiro, deputy United States trade representative.
The deal, more than three years in the making and open for signing until May 2013, exports on participating nations an intellectual-property enforcement regime resembling the one in the United States.
Rashmi Rangnath, a staff attorney with Public Knowledge in Washington, D.C., said the deal “clearly, is an attempt to foist U.S. law on other countries.”
Among other things, the accord demands governments make it unlawful to market devices that circumvent copyright, such as devices that copy encrypted DVDs without authorization. That is akin to a feature in the the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in the United States, where the law has been used by Hollywood studios to block RealNetworks from marketing DVD-copying technology.
The accord, which the United States says does not require Congressional approval, also calls on participating nations to maintain extensive seizure and forfeiture laws when it comes to counterfeited goods that are trademarked or copyrighted. Most important, countries must carry out a legal system where victims of intellectual property theft may be awarded an undefined amount of monetary damages.
In the United States, for example, the Copyright Act allows for damages of up to $150,000 per infringement. A Boston jury has dinged a college student $675,000 for pilfering 30 tracks on Kazaa, while a Minnesota jury has awarded the Recording Industry Association of America $1.5 million for the purloining of 24 songs online.
A U.S.-backed footnote removed from the document more than a year ago provided for “the termination” of internet accounts for repeat online infringers. U.S. internet service providers and content providers, however, have brokered such a deal toward that goal.
Until European Union authorities began leaking the document’s text, the Obama administration was claiming the accord was a “national security” secret.
David Kravets @'Wired'
Power to the bosses is the Tories' goal
Never let a serious crisis go to waste, was the advice of Rahm Emanuel, Barack Obama's former chief of staff, at the height of the 2008 financial crisis. His old boss may have struggled to embrace the wisdom, but it appears to have become a mantra for Conservatives gathered in Manchester this week.
So much for detoxification: the party that replaced its logo with a tree is now talking about watering down carbon emissions targets. Those traditional Tory bêtes noires – the unemployed and immigrants – are getting a renewed kicking in speeches. But it is in the proposed two-pronged assault on workers' rights that the Cameron Project becomes clear: to use a crisis unleashed by the banks to re-order society in the interests of the people at the top.
To begin with, George Osborne declared his intention to make it easier for bosses to sack workers – perversely, as a means of combating rising unemployment. The qualifying period for unfair dismissals will be increased from one year of employment to two; and workers who take their former employers to industrial tribunals will have to pay an initial deposit of £250, and another £1,000 if a hearing is granted. Osborne claims this will encourage companies to take workers on, but John Philpott, chief economic adviser at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, believes it will simply "make employment less stable over the economic cycle".
Here is an attempt to scapegoat workers' rights for rising unemployment, rather than a lethal combination of government cuts and a lack of demand in the economy. Indeed, the only OECD country with a worse record on employment protection is the United States.
The second front being opened – perhaps predictably – is against the Tories' old trade union foes. Union reps in public services are given paid leave to represent workers: across the whole Civil Service, it accounts for just 0.2 per cent of staff time. But according to Francis Maude, it "has got way out of hand", so a crackdown beckons. In actual fact, union reps play a key role. A TUC report last year found that they saved billions in productivity gains and reducing working days lost to injury and illness. Their numbers have certainly increased, but largely because the last Conservative government abandoned national bargaining in the mid-1990s, leaving industrial relations issues in a tangled mess of departments and agencies.
Using the economic crisis as cover, the Tories are carrying on where Thatcherism left off: redistributing power from working people to their bosses. The last Conservative governments achieved it largely through anti-union laws, a clampdown on workers' rights, shifting the burden of tax from direct to indirect taxation, and mass unemployment. It was remarkably successful. Back in 1973, nearly two-thirds of national wealth went to workers' pay; today, it's just 53 per cent.
It is Labour's job to oppose these attacks, but its leadership remains paralysed by fear of getting slammed for being in the unions' pockets. Few politicians make the case that unions have any legitimate place in public life. They are "vested interests", not our biggest democratic movement, representing 7m nurses, supermarket checkout assistants, factory workers and others who keep the country ticking. The Tories – bankrolled by City firms and multimillionaires – can implement policies benefiting their backers without facing accusations of being their puppets.
I asked Neil Kinnock last year if the Conservatives were the class warriors of British politics. "No, because they've never had to engage in a class war," he answered. "Largely because we signed the peace treaty without realising that they hadn't." After this week, it's time to put those illusions to rest.
Owen Jones @'The Independent'
So much for detoxification: the party that replaced its logo with a tree is now talking about watering down carbon emissions targets. Those traditional Tory bêtes noires – the unemployed and immigrants – are getting a renewed kicking in speeches. But it is in the proposed two-pronged assault on workers' rights that the Cameron Project becomes clear: to use a crisis unleashed by the banks to re-order society in the interests of the people at the top.
To begin with, George Osborne declared his intention to make it easier for bosses to sack workers – perversely, as a means of combating rising unemployment. The qualifying period for unfair dismissals will be increased from one year of employment to two; and workers who take their former employers to industrial tribunals will have to pay an initial deposit of £250, and another £1,000 if a hearing is granted. Osborne claims this will encourage companies to take workers on, but John Philpott, chief economic adviser at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, believes it will simply "make employment less stable over the economic cycle".
Here is an attempt to scapegoat workers' rights for rising unemployment, rather than a lethal combination of government cuts and a lack of demand in the economy. Indeed, the only OECD country with a worse record on employment protection is the United States.
The second front being opened – perhaps predictably – is against the Tories' old trade union foes. Union reps in public services are given paid leave to represent workers: across the whole Civil Service, it accounts for just 0.2 per cent of staff time. But according to Francis Maude, it "has got way out of hand", so a crackdown beckons. In actual fact, union reps play a key role. A TUC report last year found that they saved billions in productivity gains and reducing working days lost to injury and illness. Their numbers have certainly increased, but largely because the last Conservative government abandoned national bargaining in the mid-1990s, leaving industrial relations issues in a tangled mess of departments and agencies.
Using the economic crisis as cover, the Tories are carrying on where Thatcherism left off: redistributing power from working people to their bosses. The last Conservative governments achieved it largely through anti-union laws, a clampdown on workers' rights, shifting the burden of tax from direct to indirect taxation, and mass unemployment. It was remarkably successful. Back in 1973, nearly two-thirds of national wealth went to workers' pay; today, it's just 53 per cent.
It is Labour's job to oppose these attacks, but its leadership remains paralysed by fear of getting slammed for being in the unions' pockets. Few politicians make the case that unions have any legitimate place in public life. They are "vested interests", not our biggest democratic movement, representing 7m nurses, supermarket checkout assistants, factory workers and others who keep the country ticking. The Tories – bankrolled by City firms and multimillionaires – can implement policies benefiting their backers without facing accusations of being their puppets.
I asked Neil Kinnock last year if the Conservatives were the class warriors of British politics. "No, because they've never had to engage in a class war," he answered. "Largely because we signed the peace treaty without realising that they hadn't." After this week, it's time to put those illusions to rest.
Owen Jones @'The Independent'
Rocking Kabul: Afghanistan stages secretive rock event
The event finished in the Central Sound Festival at Bagh-e Babor Gardens
It was arranged in secret, dates and venues closely guarded until the day.
But this basement gig, held underneath a veterinary clinic, isn't in London or New York but in the Afghan capital, Kabul.The event was part of the city's first rock festival since the fall of the Taliban and it went ahead despite threats to some of the bands.
"Four or five years ago all this could only have been a dream," says lead vocalist of District Unknown, Kassim.
"You wouldn't even be able to dream it up actually. Having a rock festival, people gathering, girls and boys together and listening to this music and headbanging. But this week it's happening."
District Unknown are an Afghan heavy metal band and like their idols Slipknot, they usually wear masks. But they wear them to protect their identity, having been threatened by the Taliban not to play music.
"Some so-called very religious people like to spread the fear of the Taliban. I've been threatened two times," says the band's 23-year-old drummer, Pedrum.
"They come to you and say stop it or we'll force you to stop. I told them that I had stopped, so we all started using masks. I hate hiding myself, I'm sick of it."
The secret gig is packed and sweaty and there's a very enthusiastic mosh pit. It could almost pass as a rock night at a student union bar in the UK.
The boys wear low-slung jeans with Pink Floyd and Red Hot Chili Peppers T-shirts, the few girls in attendance wear long-sleeved tops, but don't cover their hair like most Afghan women.
'Not for girls' Eighteen-year-old Nargis and 25-year-old Farida are students in Kabul. They are two of just four girls at the gig.
"I like to come to such places because you don't find this sort of thing in Afghanistan," says Farida.
Like everyone at the gig, they are taking a big risk and like everyone there they ask for their surnames not to be used.
Much of Afghan society thinks girls don't come out at night, and certainly not without their parents.
"There are not many girls who are brave enough to come to these parties," admits Nagris. "There are many Afghan men at this party who think it's wrong for a girl to come.
"But now we come and they can see it's not something very bad. It's only music, we're just chilling."
Farida says she's determined to try her best to lead a normal life: "We know anything can happen. Everyday when you walk out of your house, you know you might not come home in the evening.
"But we can't lock ourselves away and not enjoy our lives. We need to take the risks to live our lives like human beings."
Secret texts Music was banned under the Taliban and Afghan society remains a deeply conservative one.
Bands came from all over Central Asia, including Iran and Tajikistan Whilst traditional Afghan music and even Bollywood songs can be heard on the streets of the capital, rock music is generally seen as an unwanted western influence.
That disapproval meant fans had to register on a secret database to let them receive text messages of where and when the performances were taking place.
Almost 1,000 people attended the four-day event, with bands taking part from all over central Asia, including Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Iran.
It's 10 years this week since British and American forces began bombing Kabul to get rid of the Taliban after the 9/11 attacks.
International troops have been based in the country ever since, but both Britain and America want all combat troops out of Afghanistan by 2015.
Pedrum from District Unknown has mixed emotions about the deadline: "I think if the international forces leave this country just as it's moved forward everything will be smashed up again.
"We're lucky they are here but we need to find our own path. It's not right to try to make Afghanistan a western country. It's never going to happen.
"But no-one forced us to play rock music tonight, no-one forced us to growl and shout. No-one forced those guys to headbang to us, but they did."
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