The Philippine Online Chronicles

Even while getting an internet service provider (ISP) with a reliable download speed is still a challenge in the Philippines, another attack is under way. A couple of days ago, major websites showed condemnation against Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), a US intellectual property (IP) law under works in US congress. The protests managed to stop SOPA, but the internet is still under threat with Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA).

SOPA

SOPA is a proposed intellectual property law designed to prevent online piracy. Some of the most challenged provisions in SOPA are those pertaining to ISP monitoring and DNS blocking. With these in place, ISPs are forced to monitor and prevent people from accessing sites that are considered rogue – essentially sites that contain copyrighted materials . ISPs will then be forced to look into all data submitted into their systems for copyrighted materials, at the expense of individual privacy. Whether you are simply storing photos and files on cloud networks, ISPs will be mandated to inspect everything that you upload into the system.

According to Blottr.com: “Existing laws regarding copyright infringement have safe harbor provisions for Internet Service Providers (ISPs) so that they cannot be held responsible for the actions of their customers. ACTA will do away with that, leaving ISPs obliged to ensure that no copyrighted material is transmitted through, or stored on, their networks. In order to do this, ISPs will have no choice but to snoop on every packet of data we send and receive; this is known as Deep Packet Inspection. In effect, ISPs would be press-ganged into becoming the copyright police of the Internet.”

ACTA: Even worse

SOPA in itself is dangerous, but ACTA is even worse. ACTA is an international agreement which is binding upon all signatories, and which is beyond a single country's congress to change. Once signed, a country is legally bound to follow ACTA in whole, without any chance for revision and amendment. While ACTA will inevitably play a large role in censoring the internet, its provisions are not limited to cyberspace. ACTA can also be used to prosecute a host of other “copyright infringements,” ranging from knock-off clothes to patented drugs and even genetically modified organisms. Where there is a patent – and today, even genes and biological life processes can be patented – ACTA can apply.

Age of intellectual property

The age of intellectual property has come, and almost everything today can be patented. The concept of property usually arises whenever there is scarcity. The age of IP is paradoxical, in that it presumes a scarcity that does not exist. Ideas have never been as accessible as before, because of various historical forces ranging from the birth of the printed text years ago, to the rise of the internet today. ACTA and similar laws are in keeping with the paradox of the age of intellectual property. It purports to protect intellectual rights, but is in reality choking the proliferation of ideas that naturally comes when works of art and science are distributed freely.

IP and corporatism

The resolution behind the paradox of the age of IP and idea-choking IP laws is simple. Now that technology has sufficiently advanced manufacturing and production to allow goods to be manufactured at a surplus, the next logical step to advancing the corporatist goal of even greater profits is by making the techniques and processes behind production and manufacturing the capital itself. In other words, ACTA and intellectual property itself is a way to transform ideas into capital to reap even greater profits. One of the common replies with regards to IP and anti-piracy laws is that it helps ensure that artists, thinkers, and scientists profit from their minds. ACTA and IP, however, are geared not towards the welfare of the artist, thinker, and scientist, who themselves are at the bottom of the corporate ladder. ACTA and IP laws protect the interests of corporations, companies , and conglomerates, and profits from works of art and science go mainly to these corporations instead of the actual artist or scientist. Torrenting movies and music does not impoverish Beyonce or Johnny Depp, but simply reduces profits for Time Warner, MGM, or EMI.

Ideas and exchange

IP laws are the corporation's attempts to play god in the realm of ideas, not by producing ideas which CEOs and investors themselves cannot generate, but by owning the patents and rights to these ideas. Ideas, however, are never the clear-cut objects that corporations want them to be. Corporations used to dealing with discrete and well-defined things such as figures, sums, and totals refuse to understand that ideas cannot be limited and sealed off in patents and copyrights. Ideas proliferate precisely through interaction with other ideas. From art to science, evolution and innovation occurs not from some divine spark or flash of genius, but from research rooted in previously established ideas, and from techniques borrowed from other artists or scientists. If anything, copyrights and patents prevent ideas from taking root and bearing more fruit for future generations.

Piracy as counter-culture

Piracy has traditionally been associated with violence and crime. The piracy that happens on the internet through torrents and file sharing websites, however, is not only different but arguably justified once you begin to look at digital piracy not as theft against the poor musician or actor, but as a reaction to the censorship of ideas that corporations have brought about once it began to capitalize on ideas. As such, ACTA and IP laws become the legal weaponry (of which corporations have many) for suppressing the legitimate, if not legal, counter-culture that piracy presents.

While the Philippines is not yet a signatory to the ACTA, it is important for Filipinos who value their digital freedom to be wary against ACTA and IP laws as early as now. After all, Obama has already signed the agreement. There is no reason why Aquino would not pander and follow suit.

Photo: “sopa-blackout-killer-lead-gen” by Search Influence, c/o Flickr. Some Rights Reserved