SOPA, ACTA and A-Claw

DIE HARD III

Herman Tiu Laurel

10/5/2012

The Philippines hit the international cyber news with a big bang, typified by the headline of RT (Russia Today) "Philippines gags Internet with 'draconian' cyber crime law."
I describe the Philippine anti-internet freedom law as "A-Claw," Anti-Cyber freedom Law, to depict the claws of a monstrous bird-of-prey that crept stealthily through the Philippine legislature and then pounced on the nation. The dark shadows of the monster birds wings cover the continents of America and Europe under the names of SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement) in Europe, and now in the Philippines as A-Claw. The US has another bill, the "PIPA" or Protect IP Act and they all purport to protect intellectual property (IP) but curtail Internet and cyber freedoms in their coverage.

The Philippine version passed like a thief in the night, and with the "draconian" feature of opening up the criminalization of anything linked, posted and referred by a cyber surfer that may be construed as "libelous." That is why A-Claw is aptly described by the wider world, looking at the Philippines and its ongoing struggle over the cyber freedom suppression law as "draconian." As usual, the Philippine legislature become more popish than the Pope and outdoes (as it did in GATT-WTO) the proponents of cyber security and IP protection in the major countries. Let's hope the Philippine netizens outdo the anti-cyber restrictions opposition in Europe and the US like "Anonymous," with its guy Fawkes mask, in raising hell against the draconian A-Claw, shut down more government websites in protest and raise more signatures than the 4.5-million registered in one campaign in the US.

I recall the other law that has become one of the banes of our society and economy, similarly smuggled through the legislature, passed posthaste without serious public hearings and scrutiny, and suddenly foisted on the public. This is the Epira or Electric Power Industry Reform Act. Unfortunately for all Filipinos then there was no social network community focused and intimately interested in the issue and an entire nation complacently allowed its implementation. A-Claw faced netizens that had already been alerted by the struggles of "Anonymous" and many global netizens in the US and Europe, and with the speed-of-light they achieved fission and exploded rage of millions of Filipino on-line activist on the most visible faces of the A-Claw menace — Angara, Sotto, BS Aquino III, Lacson, Honasan and Pangilinan.

The Epira and A-Claw share one thing that may have allowed them to pass the Senate so smoothly: both are lobbied for by foreign and globalist interests. The world Bank lobbied for Epira. The SOPA, PIPA, ACTA and now the A-Claw are a part of the US corporate-government campaign of monopoly of Intellectual Property rights (patenting, copyrighting and controlling everything from genetic materials to Internet content) working through multilateral (UN, GATT-WTO, etc.) and national governments. Our legislators swallow advice from US and international experts as gospel truth. We have not yet identified lobbyists for the A-Claw (in GATT-WTO's it was USAid that funded AGILE) but they are certainly there, most likely hovering over the cyber-crime law sponsor Angara. Hence, the Senate didn't' question the A-Claw or even study it first, and as in SOPA and ACTA secrecy kept the public in the dark.

A-Claw is part of a global campaign to curtail economic and information liberties, as Eric Kain in Forbes magazine wrote on efforts to fight this up to the level of the US sponsored trade agreement TPP, entitled "'If You Thought SOPA Was Bad, Just Wait Until You Meet ACTA'… According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, there are 'other plurilateral agreements, such as the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP), which contains a chapter on IP enforcement that would have state signatories adopt even more restrictive copyright measures than ACTA. Similarly, negotiations over TPP are also held in secret and with little oversight by the public or civil society. These initiatives, negotiated without participation from civil society or the public, are an affront to a democratic world order. EFF will remain vigilant against these international initiatives that threaten to choke off creativity, innovation, and free speech."

With the Philippine anti-Cyber crime law's threatening content against basic freedoms so obvious, and so many petitions against it and appeals for temporary restraining order or TRO to momentarily stop its implementation (nine petitions by the last count), we wonder why the Sereno Supreme Court has thumbed down four appeals for TRO.

This brings me back to our contention several months back when we predicted that Sereno would be appointed Chief Justice on the basis of her allegiance to the Foreign power and its corporate agents in the Philippines. The A-Claw is a core interest of these vested interests, and nothing will be allowed to stop it — except maybe the nation's outrage and Cyper insurrection.

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