Battleangel

So much for issuing laws that supposedly protect us. Even if one buys into that whole terrorism fad, this is a bit much.

The Register - The entertainment industry is trying to commandeer the proposed European directive on data retention to help it prosecute filesharers in the European Union, it has emerged.

The newly-formed Creative and Media Business Alliance (CMBA), an informal grouping (it says) of companies including Sony BMG, Disney, EMI, IFPI, MPA and Universal Music International, says it wants the data protection directive to be modified specifically so that it can be used to go after pirates.

In a letter to all MEPs, the CMBA said:

“We would appreciate your support in ensuring that this becomes an effective instrument in the fight against piracy”.

Apparently the document was reworded to encompass some of the industry’s demands. So if this eventually passes we are all in serious trouble. Information about online activity, and not just relating to file sharing, could be passed freely and tie people to whatever “crime” authorities and the embedded industry dream up. This is especially damaging since corporations could pass information on to a 3rd party like US intelligence. After all, it is their fault we are even in this situation to begin with. Their blowback, their business models and mostly their media corporations.

And that is why you should never instate laws that infringe on individual liberty in such an undiscriminating manner. Anyone could have seen that it would be abused and hijacked by proponents of police state militarization and psychotic corporations. And that the benefit for the people is nonexistent. You don’t have to be a weatherman to see which way the wind is blowing.