ACTA Protests. Europe Wide - Feb 11th

anniespinkhouse:

On February 11, the world will be out in an unprecedented showing of solidarity against ACTA. Protests are being organized all over the globe to show the European Parliament that they must reject ACTA. Though many countries have signed the treaty already, if the EP rejects ACTA, it will be sent into the dustbin on history!

It’s time we wielded the internet to defend the internet! Look below to see a list and map of where the protests are being held. Here’s what you can do:

• If you want to attend one of the events below, click the link and RSVP (There are demonstrations listed for other days as well, so please double-check the date)
• If you know of another protest that is not listed, please let us know at info@accessnow.org
• If you want to start your own protest, even if you live outside of Europe, create an Event on Facebook and then send us the link to the event at info@accessnow.org. 

And be sure to sign the petition calling on the EP to vote NO on ACTA:https://www.accessnow.org/acta 

For more information on ACTA, read our booklet on why its so controversial (in 7 languages) and read our blog to see how it connects to PIPA and SOPA.

AUSTRIA
Graz : http://www.facebook.com/events/118354621620542/Innsbruck : http://www.facebook.com/events/295640580493380/Vienna : https://www.facebook.com/events/145907925526943/Zwetti : http://www.facebook.com/events/209411655821825/

BELGIUM
National: https://www.facebook.com/events/220201778069181/Bruxelles : https://www.facebook.com/events/282306501836322/

BRITAIN
London: https://www.facebook.com/events/170835693019760/Nottingham (Feb. 4): https://www.facebook.com/events/235327719883390/

BULGARIA
Burgas: https://www.facebook.com/events/375580262468062/
Haskovo: https://www.facebook.com/events/261858850554176/
Kardzhali: https://www.facebook.com/events/268390609897567/
Plovdiv: http://www.facebook.com/events/292309164160296/
Sofia: https://www.facebook.com/events/246513398758312/
Varnа: https://www.facebook.com/events/374427159240206/

CZECH REPUBLIC
Brno (Feb. 4): https://www.facebook.com/events/128013237319600/Brzeg (Feb. 5): https://www.facebook.com/events/157719067674817/České Budějovice: https://www.facebook.com/events/200844340013226/Ostrava (Feb. 4): https://www.facebook.com/events/202159523215793/?context=create

DENMARK
Aarhus (Feb.25): https://www.facebook.com/events/348984005126264/ 
Copenhagen(Feb.25): https://www.facebook.com/events/235321939883596/

FRANCE
Aix en Provence: https://www.facebook.com/events/244421288966558/
Albi: https://www.facebook.com/events/168765856565763/
Amiens: https://www.facebook.com/events/100287056765109/
Angers: https://www.facebook.com/events/199634866800799/
Annecy: http://www.facebook.com/events/257782500958741/
Avignon: http://www.facebook.com/events/205603019536597/
Bayonne: https://www.facebook.com/events/170881226348001/
Besançon: http://www.facebook.com/events/350055058338859/
Bordeaux: http://www.facebook.com/events/362717853754753/
Brest: https://www.facebook.com/events/115942121861376/
Caen : https://www.facebook.com/events/228618757227112/
Chambery: https://www.facebook.com/events/288493647877788/
Clermont-Ferrand: http://www.facebook.com/events/326849087360202/
Douai: https://www.facebook.com/events/102456923212099/
Grenoble: https://www.facebook.com/events/291033160951733/
Limoges: http://www.facebook.com/events/321440564560770/
Lille: http://www.facebook.com/events/199934440105717/
Lorient: http://www.facebook.com/events/231912796892759/
Lyon: https://www.facebook.com/events/227033324049150/
Marseille: https://www.facebook.com/events/371810592833698/
Metz: https://www.facebook.com/events/223962574358248/
Montpellier: https://www.facebook.com/events/308322049214315/
Nancy: https://www.facebook.com/events/297319746990736/
Nantes: https://www.facebook.com/events/336368539718367/
Nevers: http://www.facebook.com/events/257478177653829/
Nice: http://www.facebook.com/events/226142050807952/
Nîmes: https://www.facebook.com/events/284365168292336/
Orléans: https://www.facebook.com/events/144336802350023/
Paris: https://www.facebook.com/events/261953107207192/
Poitiers: https://www.facebook.com/events/335663953135037/
Porto-Vecchio: https://www.facebook.com/events/270343909700151/
Quimper: http://www.facebook.com/events/175748819198384/
Reims: https://www.facebook.com/events/261712197231360/
Rennes: https://www.facebook.com/events/284421551613274/
Saint Denis (Ile de la Réunion): http://www.facebook.com/events/355272381151834/
Strasbourg: https://www.facebook.com/events/317988148239037/
Tarbes: https://www.facebook.com/events/336009553098334/
Toulouse: https://www.facebook.com/events/312007895501972/
Tours: http://www.facebook.com/events/282746828454027/

GERMANY
Berlin: https://www.facebook.com/events/338799346153966/
Bremerhaven: https://www.facebook.com/events/212489055513027/Cologne (Feb. 4): https://www.facebook.com/events/336673136364659/
Dresden: http://www.facebook.com/events/155805177868102/
Dusseldorf: http://www.facebook.com/events/228942327190942/
Frankfurt/Main: https://www.facebook.com/events/129547730499332/
Freiburg: https://www.facebook.com/events/313894588647456/
Hamburg: http://www.facebook.com/events/159557767491881/
Hanover: https://www.facebook.com/events/360437973983925/
Leipzig: https://www.facebook.com/events/316277768408479/
Mainz: http://www.facebook.com/events/169154469860540/
Mannheim: http://www.facebook.com/events/267555573314186/
Minden: https://www.facebook.com/events/310027772381359/
Munich: https://www.facebook.com/events/117215651734097/
Nordenham: http://www.facebook.com/events/182942588474388/
Nürnberg: https://www.facebook.com/events/244916202249229/
Potsdam: https://www.facebook.com/events/350079258349898/
Regensburg: http://www.akv-r.de/2012/01/30/demoaufruf-acta-ad-acta/
Saarbruecken: https://www.facebook.com/events/337811569584831/
Stuttgart: https://www.facebook.com/events/144489442335635/Trier (Feb. 4): https://www.facebook.com/events/368640866495001/

HUNGARY
Budapest: https://www.facebook.com/events/239140316165296/Szeged: http://www.facebook.com/events/345332565488424/

IRELAND
Dublin (Feb. 4): https://www.facebook.com/events/284626631593223/

LATVIA
Riga (Feb. 13): https://www.facebook.com/events/114172405371886/

LUXEMBOURG
Luxembourg: https://www.facebook.com/events/321922584518265/

MALTA
Valetta: https://www.facebook.com/events/372841852732565/

NETHERLANDS
Amsterdam: http://www.facebook.com/events/366916189988648/

POLAND
Bialystok (Feb. 3): https://www.facebook.com/events/256392994434523/Legnica: https://www.facebook.com/events/229151093837340/Katowice (Feb. 3): https://www.facebook.com/events/174724099301513/Szczecin: http://www.facebook.com/events/324226357616024/Wroclaw (Feb. 3): https://www.facebook.com/events/125579864229927/

PORTUGAL
Lisboa: http://www.facebook.com/events/263755510363956/
Porto: https://www.facebook.com/events/278149665584864/

ROMANIA
Bucharest: https://www.facebook.com/events/305136589533613 andhttps://www.facebook.com/events/178989628875856/
Cluj: https://www.facebook.com/events/318417421533389/
Timisoara: https://www.facebook.com/events/339815396050868/

SCOTLAND
Glasgow: http://www.facebook.com/events/375858179095979/

SLOVAKIA
Bratislava (Feb.4): https://www.facebook.com/events/244451218962708/

SLOVENIA
Ljubljana (Feb.4): https://www.facebook.com/events/242732285801564/ 
Maribor(Feb.4):https://www.facebook.com/events/369837519698057/

SWEDEN
Goteborg (Feb. 25): https://www.facebook.com/events/243895365687129/Helsingborg: https://www.facebook.com/events/239284842817072/Malmö (Feb.4): https://www.facebook.com/events/363889936958608/
Stockholm (Feb. 4): https://www.facebook.com/events/332489143440319/

SWITZERLAND
Geneva: https://www.facebook.com/events/145734798877975/

If you can’t make a protest, you can still participate. Go to our Tumblr page and show your solidarity with the Feb. 11 protestors by submitting a picture, words of support, or protest signs! Your pictures and words will be posted on our page, and the best signs will be printed out by us and given to protestors on Feb. 11.

http://accessnow.tumblr.com/

Next Steps on ACTA: Take Action on Feb. 11!

psychophilia:

With an incredible showing of power and belief, over 300,000 people in 72 hours called on the European Parliament to reject the rights-threatening international copyright treaty, ACTA. We’ve shone a bright light on the countries that signed this secretly negotiated agreement – but the fight to save the internet is far from over.

ACTA still needs to be approved by the European Parliament, and if it goes down there, the agreement will effectively be dead in the water. Now we invite you to join us by taking to the streets at a protest near you on Feb 11.

You signed the petition against ACTA, now check out the amazing map below showing the global day of action, and grab a friend to join a protest and make your voice heard: 

https://www.accessnow.org/acta-protest

If you can’t make a protest, you can still participate. Go to our Tumblr page and show your solidarity with the Feb. 11 protestors by submitting a picture, words of support, or protest signs! Your pictures and words will be posted on our page, and the best signs will be printed out by us and given to protestors on Feb. 11.

http://accessnow.tumblr.com/

As you know, the internet is facing many threats and in 2012 Access will ask for your help on those issues. This is the year to protect the internet, and it starts with all of us! We’re right in the center of the fight for digital freedom in 2012 and we’re happy to have you with us.

The internet has been used for activism. Now it’s time to use activism to save the internet.

Thanks for all your support,
Brett Solomon
Access Executive Director

PS: For ACTA updates, make sure to follow Access on Twitter at @accessnow.

Major Record Labels Forced to Pay $45M USD for Pirating Music

After infringing on thousands of artists’ works, the big four labels agree to collectively pay them $45M USD

Since the 1980s, record companies have taken tracks from musicians who had not signed with them and put them on a “pending list”. This left thousands of musicians receiving no royalties as the major labels used, distributed, and even profited off their tracks.

In Canada alone, this situation reached the point where 300,000 tracks, some dated back to the 1980s were listed as “pending”.  Some musicians were actively working — to no avail — to stop the record companies from pirating their tracks.

Now they have a bit of vindication.  After a long class action lawsuit dating back to 2008, filed on behalf of angry independent musicians, Warner Music, Sony BMG Music, EMI Music, and Universal Music have in effect acknowledged that they were engaging in copyright infringement.  They have agreed to settle to the tune of $45M USD. 

The Canadian Recording Industry Association CRIA, the Canadian sister organization of the RIAA, and the organization that represents the major labels claim that the payout is not an admission of guilt.  They write, “The settlement is a compromise of disputed claims and is not an admission of liability or wrongdoing by the record labels.”

Apparently they believe that they did not pirate tracks or commit copyright infringement because they hoped to pay artists at some point — although they never did.  In essence, their argument also boils down that it was too hard to find and legally purchase the tracks.

Unfortunately, the victory for the small artists is mostly symbolic.  In Canada, the U.S., and abroad, major record labels plan to continue to sell music they’ve essentially pirated from “unknown artists”.  The lawsuit does nothing to change this situation.

Equally unfortunate is the hypocrisy of these record labels, which have perpetually worked to block the public from experiencing the same joys of piracy that’s made record company executives rich and corpulent.

They’ve been hard at work funneling money to politicians to try to pass new international laws and treaties like ACTA, which could send peer-to-peer engine developers and those who share pirated music and movies to prison for the first time. 

This irony is duly noted by the artists in the lawsuit, who write, “The conduct of the defendant record companies is aggravated by their strict and unremitting approach to the enforcement of their copyright interests against consumers.”

The wife of Edwyn Collins, a major 90s British alternative star with the band Orange Juice, summed it up nicely, while describing how British record labels had stolen her husband’s work and blocked him from posting it himself on online.  She stated, “[We are] aware of who the biggest bootleggers are. It’s not the filesharers. [A Girl Like You is sold] not by Edwyn, [but] by all sorts of respectable major labels whose licence to sell it ran out years ago and who do not account to him.”

Hrmph.

therealzombiequeen:

yveinthesky:

It seems to me that you are the one who has become a sheep and have clearly not read the texts of the ACTA agreement.

Believe me the thing is not that people panic at every little thing but exactly the opposite that people don’t care about every little thing.That is the real problem with this world, people like you who shrug stuff like this off as if it’s nothing.

The people are not worried about their fanmixes dude, they are worried that we’ll have a situation similar to China everywhere soon and if you think that is panicking than you clearly have lived in a political dreamland the last 50 years.

Yes, I have read them. And whereas they are vague and full of bullshit, that doesn’t mean that the feared reality that every single person I have seen post about this stuff on tumblr will come true. And you’re right, the big corporations don’t care about the little stuff, the little guys. As long as you’re not making huge profits off of their things, they aren’t going to bat an eye. That is what these Acts are about.

Fanmixes were an example, “dude”, since that is what the majority of my followers have been worried about. And no, I’ve not lived in a political dreamland. I’ve spent the past three years fighting to survive in an economy that’s gone to shit, in a college town where it’s hard to get student loans, let alone a steady job, and managed to move out on my own on top of everything. Don’t tell me I’m a sheep, or living in a dream, because I have formulated my own thoughts after time, research and chatting with those higher up the entertainment chain. 

My opinion might be unpopular, and the vast majority may disagree, but help me if I’m going to be the only one with hope in this situation, when I’m a cynic about every other thing in political and personal standings.

Cry more.

Life is tough for all of us.

If you put your opinion out there especially a stupid one like that and say people are sheep for panicking about ACTA it’s going to come back to you.

I hope you will be happy with your formulated thoughts and trust in those “higher up in the entertainment chain” (entertainment? Strangely fitting here).

If “hope” would be enough to fight against all the wrong things that happen in this  world it would be a fucking paradise.

Have a good day.

Hrmph.

therealzombiequeen:

I’m beginning to get royally pissed off every time I see people freaking out about ACTA. 

The governments did not create this as a way to go after the little guys. Most corporations and entertainment businesses realize that the fandom that survives and thrives online is one of the things that propels their profits forward. I have a lot of family in the Hollywood Entertainment Industry. Most of you might not know, but writers, producers and even directors of television and movie productions immerse themselves into fandom (tumblr, livejournal, deviantart, twitter and I even have a writer/producer uncle who was on Y!Gallery for quite some time, because his show had a fanbase there and he was amused) as well to watch, learn and admire the fact that what they do is appreciated by their fans. They see that fandom helps them, and things like ACTA, SOPA and PIPA are NOT meant for the little guys.

Why did Megaupload get taken down? Because the man that ran the site was filthy rich due to all the money he’d made on pirate software and the like, and was gearing up to launch a program that would rival iTunes in terms of music. These acts are meant for the big guys, and as fucked up as Hollywood can be, they wouldn’t go after their fans, not like this. Not when it would have a direct impact on their wallets. This is all about money.

And when it all comes down to things, there’s a reason that APA and MLA citation was invented. If you all are truly worried, then begin using a form of citation for your graphics, fanmixes and fanvids. Sure, it’s a pain in the ass, but giving credit where credit is due is never a bad thing, and I’m certain quite a few of you understand that.

Just, calm down and think, everyone. Don’t just become sheep that panic at every little thing. Use your heads, pull together some logic. Of course, that means you don’t have to listen to my rambling either. Just giving everyone some food for thought.

It seems to me that you are the one who has become a sheep and have clearly not read the texts of the ACTA agreement.

Believe me the thing is not that people panic at every little thing but exactly the opposite that people don’t care about every little thing.That is the real problem with this world, people like you who shrug stuff like this off as if it’s nothing.

The people are not worried about their fanmixes dude, they are worried that we’ll have a situation similar to China everywhere soon and if you think that is panicking than you clearly have lived in a political dreamland the last 50 years.