This page collects pages on the situation in the USA. Often this is also about fighting neoliberalism which the rest of the world seems to be adopting from the US. (RSS, Search)
Recently reports have started resurfacing… (I’ve been following Jürgen Hubert on Google+.)
At one point I left the following comment:
I’m still torn: was my decision do abandon my ranting online and turn into a gamer (HomoLudens) the right thing to do? After all, if we all retreat into our little shells, if we all tend to our little gardens, then nothing ever changes, right?
Tags: USA 
Yesterday, I wrote about my thoughts on SOPA and how the USA’s legal arm had grown long indeed.
Today, I want to comment on something I’m seeing in a lot of the statements in protest to SOPA, eg. on Google’s End Piracy, Not Liberty page: “Fighting online piracy is important.” Wil Wheaton says on Today the US Senate is considering legislation that would destroy the free and open Internet: “I’ve probably lost a few hundred dollars in my life to what the MPAA and RIAA define as piracy, and that sucks, but that doesn’t come close to how much money I’ve lost from a certain studio’s creative accounting.”
I agree that SOPA and PIPA are terrible. They will reduce our freedoms, increase legal uncertainty, make it harder to do business, make it harder to host user contributed content (forums, wikis, archives, social networking and more). The goal, of course: Big Hollywood’s Big SOPA Defeat.
But while the citizens of the USA fight stupid legislation (which the USA will then most probably try to impose on other countries as well), let us not forget that the current copyright regime is stupid, too. We need less protection. We need shorter protection. We need less punishment.
I want to be a privateer!

Update: Supreme Court Chooses SOPA/PIPA Protest Day To Give A Giant Middle Finger To The Public Domain – they keep extending copyright, what a shame! I prefer the Public Domain.
Update: I love this rant: Why I'm a pirate!
Update: A step in the right direction: Another Interesting White House Petition: Reduce The Term Of Copyright – even though 56 years is still way too long and even though the president appears to be the wrong addressee.
I just saw Twitter CEO says SOPA blackout protest "silly" on BoingBoing. I wonder: Should I shut down Emacs Wiki for US residents? I’d have to do a quick geo location of the IP numbers before serving anything. That sucks.
I always felt that I was as safe as I can be running Emacs Wiki: I live in Switzerland, the server is hosted in Germany, the domain name registrar is French, the top-level .org domain is the only thing connecting it to the USA. But then I read US Can Extradite UK Student For Copyright Infringement, Despite Site Being Legal In The UK – and now I wonder about the worst case. Perhaps I should get myself a different domain name.
Actually, I think the main problem is that with all the scare mongering around copyright infringement and the astronomical punishments dealt out in the US, I have lost my confidence in their judicial system when it comes to copyright and patents. The most positive explanation for that is that I’m just misinterpreting all the bad news I’m reading online. My impression is formed by following @internetlaw, @privacylaw, @techdirt and @boingboing, following the occasional link. I end up reading Actual damages for single unauthorized download of software program held to be cost of single license fee (from $1,370,590 down to $4,200) and I wonder how much it cost the accused in time, energy and money to get this result. I would not want to fight this battle in court, even if I win.
Case in point: How USPTO's recklessness destroys business, innovation, and competition – a company produces something and years later a competitor is awarded a patent. The cost of going to court is prohibitive, and so they just give up.
Overprotective copyright and a judicial system that encourages statutory damages, patent offices unable to cope with new technology, a highly networked world making it easy to publish internationally with incompatible legal systems. It makes my head hurt!
Update: I decided to post a more personal message on EmacsWiki:2012-01-18.
The EmacsWiki:EmacsWiki page says “If you like the site and want to contribute something, contribute either time or money: Write content, fix typos, clean up pages by removing old discussions, merging and splitting pages, and linking up and down the page hierarchy. If you do not have time, you can always donate money. Show your support by saying on your homepage on this wiki how much you donated to charity because of the Emacs Wiki.”
But which charities would I prefer, personally? Certainly not the National Rifle Association!
I want to be more positive.

Tags: USA 
Comments on 2012-01-05 American Charities I Like
Adrian I agree about Wikipedia, I finally contributed to them because of the amount of benefit I have derived from their existence.
I have looked into the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the one thing that has held me back is that they spend a bit more on administrative costs than most foundations I normally contribute to (I like as much of my money going to the cause as possible). This segues to my plug for Charity Navigator, which I always try to use when evaluating a charity.
– Adrian 2012-01-06 22:09 UTC
I’m happy not to be living in the USA. The sad thing is that the USA doesn’t just export “intellectual property” in the form of music, it also exports the legal framework to install this market abroad. Sooner or later a lot of people around the world have to fight their local battles to prevent the same kind of idiocy from happening in their own countries.
The Stop Online Piracy Act is terrible. I’ve been following BoingBoing on SOPA for a while. Check TechDirt on the SOPA amendments for some dispairingly inane Congress. Way to go! Where’s Lawrence Lessig and his Rootstrikers movement?
What I find particularly disappointing is that these days, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act is being held up as a model even though its “anti-circumvention” provisions are also terrible (EFF on DMCA). Soon after it was introduced, Switzerland revised its copyright law. We are still allowed to download stuff for personal use (“Eigengebrauch”). The government recently confirmed this. That means that if I have something that is “protected” by DRM, I am still allowed to make a copy for myself. To exercise my right, I need to circumvent the restrictions placed on the thing I want to copy. It turns out that thanks to the USA’s export of legal frameworks, the Swiss copyright law now also has an anti-circumvention article (Art. 39a Schutz technischer Massnahmen). Thus, while I am allowed to circumvent DRM in order to exercise my legal rights, others are prohibited from “creating, importing, offering, selling, distributing, renting, letting, advertizing or owning with the intent to profit” the very tools that I need to exercise my legal rights.
SOPA will lead to the same levels of inanity, I’m sure. Just google for DNS alternatives.
As for the rest… For obvious reasons I don’t care whether the National Defense Authorization Act affects US citizens or not. At least they get to taste some of what they are serving the rest of the world. It’s just like the Transportation Security Administration and how they make life miserable for everybody without actually helping much (BoingBoing on TSA). People like me just start avoiding the USA.
Oh, and while I’m thinking of the USA – let us remember Iraq and the nearly 4500 Americans killed, the 32000 Americans injured [1] and the more than 150000 Iraqis killed.
Comments on 2011-12-16 SOPA and NDAA
Clinton (8 years):
Bush Junior (8 years):
Obama (4 years):
The USA is usually worse under a Democratic Party executive. I believe this is because there is fewer opposition by citizens.
– AaronHawley 2011-12-19 02:14 UTC
AlexSchroeder Ouch!
– AlexSchroeder 2011-12-20 07:46 UTC
The OWS news and the police action that goes along with it has been on my mind for quite a while now. Mostly because I follow @xeni on Twitter and she retweets so much of what is going on. Occasionally I read reports from witnesses—such as the one where I got the above quote from—and usually I just cringe inside.
I liked Hawaii. I’d love to go there again. I wanted to see Yellowstone park, visit some of the big cities in the US. But not this. I’ve stopped blogging about Iran, Iraq, Israel, Palestine and the US involvement with all of them, but my anger is still there, festering deep below the surface. I wrote some angry things back then. I resolved not to visit the USA until things get better. I’m currently assuming this won’t happen in the next decade.
At work, people are sometimes astonished. How bullheaded do you have to be? I needed to draw a line somewhere. This is my line. Last year I got invited to Eclipse Con 2010 in San Francisco and declined. When asked, I sent them a link with the latest TSA scandal or similar stories such as Dr Peter Watts, Canadian science fiction writer, beaten and arrested at US border.
Back to the Occupy movement. A few days ago I read another blog post from a person that had gotten arrested, and I decided to write an email. Yes, I know it’s futile. I think I need to do these things in order to keep my sanity.
Here’s what I wrote:
Dear Sir
I just read the account of one of the recent arrests and I am disgusted by the way the police is acting—apparently on your behalf.
The account I read:
http://oxthepunx.wordpress.com/2011/11/11/arrested/As a citizen of Austria and France living in Switzerland, my greatest fear is that recent developments regarding police, privatization, copyright excesses and many more things—all the things the occupiers are protesting against—will end up being imported into our countries. The USA has long ceased to be a place to look up to.
Sincerely,
Alexander Schröder
Zürich, Switzerland
I think the world’s main problem is that there is no administration anywhere that is doing the right thing. There is no place to look up to, anywhere. We need to somehow mobilize that secret fire within ourselves, within each other, in order to oppose the change we do not want and in order to exact the change we do want—to steer this boat in a direction that benefits more people, not less people (It's the Inequality, Stupid, Mother Jones).
Harald I was in New York three weeks ago and of course I passed by Zucotti Park. For me the main thing I learned is that it seemed whimsical; a couple hundred people squatting in a “park” that is mostly concrete. The drums were barely able to keep up with the noise from construction and traffic around it. IMHO, the kind of police action seen tonight gives the Occupy movement more credence than their two months of protesting.
– Harald 2011-11-15 12:46 UTC
AlexSchroeder Very similar to what you (don’t) see at Occupy Paradeplatz.
– AlexSchroeder 2011-11-15 13:00 UTC
Ich finde was du tust richtig: ich war damals gern in den USA (du warst ca. 3 jahre alt und die amis meinten: “ah from australia, i know!
) Aber unter den heutigen umständen bringen mich keine 3 pferde in die usa, selbst wenn ich alles bezahlt bekäme. Was die amis / amerikanischen politiker machen, ist beschämend… Aber wir sind nicht besser: http://www.zeit.de/digital/internet/2011-12/wikileaks-spy-files Und die bevölkerung lässt sich blind zur schlachtbank führen… Wobei ich mir nun auch den elektronischen ausweis hab machen lassen um dann in die schule rein kommen zu können
Sonst hätte ich wohl vor gericht gehen müssen und dazu hab ich das geld nicht… Die katze, die sich in den schwanz beisst… Aber wo es geht, sollten wir agieren! 
– MOM 2011-12-03 09:31 UTC
Sorry für die Nekromantie, aber ich bin erst gerade über diesen Post gestolpert. Alex, ich kann deine Probleme völlig nachvollziehen, aber ich finde, du ziehst die falschen Schlüsse. Amerika hat sich vor allem in den letzten 10 Jahren extrem zum schlechten hin entwickelt, und viele der momentan dominierenden gesellschaftlichen und politischen Strömungen halte ich für katastrophal. Das ist natürlich enttäuschend für ein Land, das lange das grosse Vorbild in Sachen Demokratie und Menschenrechte war. Aber genau das beruhte ja nicht nur auf den gerade herrschenden Zuständen, sondern auch auf der Fähigkeit des Landes, sich zu hinterfragen und sich weiter zu entwickeln. Sklaverei und Rassentrennung wurden ja schliesslich auch irgendwann abgeschafft, und der Vietnamkrieg musste irgendwann eingestellt werden. Alle diese Dinge wurden einmal von der Mehrheit der Bevölkerung befürwortet und sind heute trotzdem völlig undenkbar (bis auf sinnlose Kriege vielleicht
). Schliesslich waren ja nicht nur die Befürworter Amerikaner, sondern auch die Gegner, und die haben sich schlussendlich durchgesetzt. Heute ist es genauso: Die Wall Street-Leute sind Amerikaner, genauso wie ihre Widersacher. Nicht nur der Darwin-Kapitalismus kommt aus den USA, sondern auch die Kritik daran. In diesem Kontext sehe ich es nicht als zielführend an, sich sozusagen Amerika zu verweigern. Wäre es nicht sogar das Beste, hinzugehen und mit den Leuten zu sprechen? Auch am grössten Betonkopf geht eine offene Diskussion nicht spurlos vorüber.
– Lukas 2011-12-23 17:06 UTC
AlexSchroeder Du hast für den allgemeinen Fall vielleicht recht. So genau kann man das aber wohl nicht entscheiden. Im Falle der Apartheid wurde Südafrika ja auch boykottiert. Wikipedia meint hierzu: “Aufgrund dieser in ihrer Summe bedeutsamen Faktoren, also des Widerstandes der Schwarzen, des internationalen Druckes, der ökonomischen Krise, des Wechsels der Regierungsführung von Botha zu de Klerk sowie der Standhaftigkeit Mandelas bei den Verhandlungen mit de Klerk, brach die weiße Autorität in den frühen 1990er Jahren Schritt für Schritt zusammen.” Irgendwo her muss der internationale Druck aber kommen. Ich glaube wirklich, dass Druck nötig ist. Vor der Wahl Obamas hofften ja viele auf eine Verbesserung der Zustände. Aber Hoffnung ist kein Plan! Und wie man auf Aaron Hawleys Liste sieht, hat sich die Hoffnung auch nicht bewahrheitet.
Klar, alle Probleme der Amerikaner wurden schlussendlich auch wieder durch Amerikaner gelöst. Insofern ist das ein Zeichen dafür, dass der “Druck” der sich zurückziehenden Einzelpersonen nicht wirklich nützt. Vielleicht muss ich das einfach machen, damit ich als Mensch besser damit fertig werde. So kann ich mir selber sagen, dass ich “etwas” dagegen gemacht habe. Ich habe ein kleines, ein sehr kleines und unbedeutendes Zeichen gesetzt.
Wie ich anderweitig geschrieben habe, exportiert Amerika ja auch einen Teil seiner beschissenen gesetzlichen Bestimmungen über internationale Verträge wie die WIPO (2011-12-16 SOPA and NDAA). Ich habe mich damals zum Beispiel an einer Aktion gegen Softwarepatente in der Schweiz oder bei der Reform des Urheberrechtes oder beim Weltgipfel zur Informationsgesellschaft engagiert. Da insgesamt nicht wirklich viel tolles herausgekommen ist, bin ich Zyniker geworden. Vielleicht müssen das einfach jüngere Leute übernehmen, solange sie die Kraft dazu noch haben. Ich verabschiede mich schon mal aus der Diskussion mit den Betonköpfen.
– AlexSchroeder 2011-12-28 10:49 UTC
The only printed newspaper I pay for and read regularly is the WOZ, a weekly left newspaper. In its issue #43, Oct. 27, 2011, it listed some American alternative media and talked about the need to finance them as a form of intellectual self-defense. Here are the organizations mentioned with links to their pages on Wikipedia.
Regarding financing and donations: The WOZ uses a model whereby you can donate by voluntarily paying twice as much. That’s what I do.
Currently Wikileaks is doing the United States diplomatic cables leak. At the same time, Julian Assange was arrested on rape charges, and companies like Paypal, Mastercard, VISA, and Swiss Postfinance kicked out Wikileaks. Shame on them!
All of this seems to be the world adjusting to a coming Transparent Society. This is also a book by David Brin where he argues that currently those with lots of resources have the means to invade your privacy, that in the old days there was very little privacy, that therefore privacy was maybe a doomed concept, and what sort of alternative would we want. The transparent society is a society where privacy is lost in both directions. Not only can you spy on other people using public cameras – other people will also be able to see that you spied on them. Hopefully that would level the field somewhat.
As companies are spying on us as we surf the web using cookies such as the Evercookie, javascript, and prepared Flash animations; as governments force providers to keep logs of our online activities; as biometric data in our passports keep invading our privacy, we adapt. We don’t mind. But we presume to look back at the big corporations, to leak their secrets, to expose their corruption, their double speak, their lies.
I’m with Wikileaks.
Comments on 2010-12-10 Wikileaks and the Transparent Society
Ich auch … dann könntest du ja auch den Link vom Kopp-Verlag so weit und so oft es geht veröffentlichen. Ich habe nicht die rede dafür. Es muss herausgefunden werden, ob die 2 Mädels für ihre aussagen bezahlt werden, oder ob Assange sich wirklich falsch benommen hat. Denn diese Sache bringt ihn hinter Gitter, nicht unbedingt Wikilieaks
.
– mama 2010-12-12 13:33 UTC
Naomi Wolf on rape, justice and Julian Assange – sad in its own right. 
– Alex
I don’t often post about politics anymore, having turned HomoLudens a few years ago. But sometimes things still catch my eye. I’ve become a BoingBoing reader via @boingboing. Recently I found an interesting comment regarding the 2010 oil-spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
I had read similar comments before. Thank you Lobster, for saving me the time to formulate a response. And I don’t even drive a car.
Obama gets the Peace Nobel Prize? What’s wrong with these people?
Am I so misinformed?
I’ve heard people say that he’s giving hope to those who had none. Well, let me tell you: I still have none!
The United States of America is blessed with two conservatives parties. While they sure sound different, talk is cheap.
Talk is cheap. Talk is cheap. Talk is cheap. Talk is cheap. Talk is cheap. Talk is cheap. Talk is cheap. Talk is cheap. Talk is cheap. Talk is cheap. Talk is cheap. Talk is cheap. Talk is cheap. Talk is cheap. Talk is cheap.
See?
Hope is not a plan.
People claim that he was nominated for the prize after twelve days in office! “The deadline for submitting candidates had come just 12 days after he entered the White House.” [1] I find that disgusting.
Some people say that “The award is also an example of what Nobel scholars call the growing aspirational trend of Nobel committees over the past three decades, by which awards are given not for what has been achieved but in support of the cause being fought for.” [2]
Reminds me of certain three individuals in 1994:
You can hope for the best, but you should only reward people with 10 million Swedish crowns having a proven track record for peace. We all hoped that Oslo would lead to peace. But it went nowhere. [6]
These three people were honored for the hope they inspired in 1994.
But Hope is not a plan.
Comments on 2009-10-11 There Is No Hope
Agreed.
– greywulf 2009-10-11 12:50 UTC
Some ranting inspired by The Godless Paladin. 
– AlexSchroeder 2009-10-11 23:19 UTC
you forgot to mention, that there is still NO eqal rights for gay people as well..
– dein cousinchen 2009-10-12 11:28 UTC
Du meinst Proposition 8 und ähnlichen Hirnriss? Auch da sehe ich wenig Fortschritte.
– AlexSchroeder 2009-10-12 11:47 UTC
Why are you surprised? Most (if not all) of the glamorous awards in most fields are expedient and marketing gimmicks. This is just another facet of Brand Obama.
– NoufalIbrahim 2009-10-12 12:22 UTC
Maybe I’m not yet as cynic as that. 
I liked half the prize for Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2007. I don’t think Al Gore really deserved it. Muhammad Yunus in 2006 was ok for micro finance. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Mohammed el-Baradei in 2005 was ok for struggling against Bush in Iraq, even thought it ended up being to no avail. Wangari Maathai in 2004 seemed to be ok as well. I know very little about her. Shirin Ebadi in 2003 seemed to be well deserved. Médecins sans frontières in 1999 was deserved. My personal highlight of recent years remains the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) and Jody Williams in 1997.
– AlexSchroeder 2009-10-12 13:44 UTC
You’ve got a brighter heart than me then. I consider all the genuine winners of (atleast) the Nobel peace prize as exceptions.
– NoufalIbrahim 2009-10-12 17:25 UTC
Hm, I found a link to Rachel Maddow: The Nobel Prize & Obama Derangement Syndrome via Twitter via @seankreynolds. Hm, interesting.
– AlexSchroeder 2009-10-13 01:41 UTC
AlexSchroeder Obama, years later. Sing with me and Johnny Cash: “What have you become?”
– AlexSchroeder 2013-05-18 11:50 UTC
Sorry for being blunt, but the question is: will your ranting and agitation help much more than your shutting in your shell? For me it’s a simple question of what is the next thing I can do that will have the best impact (with additional bonus if only I can do that) – and that is usually doing something for the local community (well, “local” includes also online communities with similar interests), whether it’s gaming, organizing a meetup of some kind or open source coding. Sure, there are people who have it much worse, but I can much better improve the lives of the people around me.
– Radomir Dopieralski 2013-04-30 16:47 UTC
AlexSchroeder No need to apologize. Sometimes a little application of blunt is required.
– AlexSchroeder 2013-05-01 00:54 UTC
Yes. (I like to study about communication strategies).
– JuanmaMP 2013-05-01 12:45 UTC
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