Over the course of the past several years the entertainment industries have been lobbying for laws that would seek to strip internet connections from users who infringe on copyrights. This lobbied policy is better known as the “3 strikes law” or as industry prefers it “Graduated Response” and “Hadopi”. Many tech experts including myself have come out strong against such a policy publically online. While Canadian creators are discrediting and laughing at citizens who are publically against such policies, some international intelligence agencies see the “3 strikes law” as anything but laughable, and in fact extremely dangerous towards the fight against terrorism, and national sovereignty.
Earlier this month France started implementing the “3 strikes law” on its citizens, which prompted a very strong response from the American National Security Agency (NSA). Any response from the NSA on this policy should raise alarm bells, considering most journalists who have covered the NSA in the past have dubbed their own term on the NSA acronym to an agency that “Never Says Anything”. The worry in the international intelligence community globally is that users will simple flick a switch to include encryption to make it harder for the copyright industry to track them, and in turn make it harder for international intelligence gathering on the part of the spy community.
According to zeropaid.com, the NSA yelled at France on their implication of the “3 strikes law” earlier this month:
Earlier this month France started implementing the “3 strikes law” on its citizens, which prompted a very strong response from the American National Security Agency (NSA). Any response from the NSA on this policy should raise alarm bells, considering most journalists who have covered the NSA in the past have dubbed their own term on the NSA acronym to an agency that “Never Says Anything”. The worry in the international intelligence community globally is that users will simple flick a switch to include encryption to make it harder for the copyright industry to track them, and in turn make it harder for international intelligence gathering on the part of the spy community.
According to zeropaid.com, the NSA yelled at France on their implication of the “3 strikes law” earlier this month:
“Hadopi – will only encourage Internet users to arm themselves with same encryption tools used by criminal networks.”
This same call came from the British MI5 in 2009 on this policy as well. As timesonline reports during the drafting of the Digital Economy Bill that included the “3 strikes law” in Britain stated:
“A source involved in drafting the Bill said that the intelligence agencies, MI5 and MI6, had also voiced concerns about disconnection. “The spooks hate it,” the source said. “They think it is only going to make monitoring more difficult.”
I personally think those that support the “3 strikes law” in Canada are putting Canadians at a greater risk. Not only do I find this law unconstitutional, it’s not a laughing matter as some have dismissed it as. CSIS came out strongly this summer warning Canadians of how foreign influence over public policy and politicians is creating an environment where Canadian national security, and sovereignty are being put at risk. Howard Knopf has pointed out just how much copyright has become an issue of foreign influence in Canada.
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2 comments:
Yes, but you and I both know that they won't pay attention to you. Or me. It's like a child praying to God, 'Please God, make it didn't happen'
And like a child, they won't get what they want. They will cause a lot of havoc in the interim though.
I know for a fact that Canadians will not support the graduated response, but it is equally important to question those that put such policies on the table regardless of the lack of support they have, especially when such an approach is dangerous to society and constitutional rights.
I'm not writing to "them", I'm writing to my readers, and to the values I support as an individual Canadian and independent journalist.
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