If you don't now what ACTA is, search the Internet for ACTA, that should let you find your own sources. If you do know what it's about then you are likely to be against it (unless you are part of the 1%).
On February 11 2012 you can protest against ACTA with us. Get information about your local protest here and join in.
In the meantime, you can also do a couple of things while keep your rear end glued to your chair:
I'll see you there.
O2, a UK phone operator, seems to be sending along in the HTTP headers of their clients http requests the user's mobile phone number! Lewis Peckover has discovered this and set up a test page for people to see what information their mobile ISP is actually sending to websites.
To test, disable your mobile phone's Wifi and visit this page. There you should see the usual stuff, user-agent, IP, languages, etc.. If you see other things like your mobile phone number you might want to ask your ISP for explanations.
Another thing that Lewis notes is that O2 modifies content, he claims they downgrade images and insert JavaScript links. If true, this is really really bad, this is basically tampering and altering private communications. It's just like if the post office opened your letters, made reduced photocopies so your letters are lighter and then passed that on to you.
I am guessing this shouldn't work using HTTPS, however I would like to ask Lewis what is the deal on this as I do not have a mobile phone and hence cannot test this at all. I also don't have a Twitter account so... . If you do, ask him. Khtxbye : ]
Update: I found this old thread about the same sort of thing affecting other customers on other mobile networks. This is really not new and this is not an 02 issue but rather a mobile phone ISP issue.
How can the USA authorities take down a Hong-Kong based company and arrest people in New-Zealand ? Ars Technica explains, it turns out that the actions are based on the fact that Megaupload's clients were often in the USA, they ran adverts there and interacted with the USA market actively. In a way they are considered to have been running at least part of their business on USA grounds.
Fair or not, it seems that that is how the cookie crumbles, and crumbling it is. Personally I don't care for such websites and Kim Dotcom, aka Kimble Special Agent, seems far from being an angel. However it's still hard to accept that they can be taken down in an instant drug lord style. It doesn't seem like the accusations are half as bad as some towards companies that have either leaked petrol all over the world or have bankrupted families.. ...(insert long list of companies that messed up way more seriously and have in some cases even been bailed out).
In reaction to such news, an other "upload" service provider called Uploaded.to has decided to close it's service to the USA, this should help avoid breaking USA law on USA territory.
This whole abusive world policing attitude could earn the USA some Interweb censorship, but not from SOPA/PIPA this time, but simply from websites that do not want to have to deal with USA law. It's true that this Megaupload takedown happened right after the anti-SOPA strike, the what when why questions have been talked about all over the Internet, but now I am wondering if this isn't exactly what the USA wants, a censored Internet, like China and Iran, but censored voluntarily by website owners in fear of a possible breach of USA law and it's possible effects on one's postal address.
Update: In the past couple of days, many companies that provide the same services as Megaupload have either limited their services, closed their services to the U.S.A. or even just plain closed. Torrentfreak's report on the disturbance in the ecosystem.
A new book to be released in a few hours (I think this is on USA time): No Safe Harbor. This book is released by the United States Pirate Party, it features many interesting people and ideas.... .. and yes, it's licensed under the Creative Commons license. You can buy it or download it. Etc. You can even read it.
I just heard about Global Censorship Checkpoints, it's aim is to document various projects around the world that want to police the Internet. On this site you can see, which polices are implemented or under study in each country, there are also links to local organisations that warn about the dangers and such.
MegaUpload.com was just shut down and executives arrested, data centres violated, etc etc. The FBI it seems has the right to arrest people all over the world (New Zealand, Germany, Canada, etc etc).
At the same time the MPAA, RIAA and Department Of "Justice" websites are also down, I am guessing their websites were hosted on one of MegaUpload's servers. Ha, ha.
More details on TorrentFreak and/or TechLand if you are afraid of links that contain the word "torrent".
Senator Chris Dodd, Chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) speaks about the anti SOPA/PIPA blackout, noticeably about Wikipedia.
It is an irresponsible response and a disservice to people who rely on them for information use their services. It is also an abuse of power given the freedoms these companies enjoy in the marketplace today. It’s a dangerous and troubling development when the platforms that serve as gateways to information intentionally skew the facts to incite their users in order to further their corporate interests.
Indeed, nobody should be allowed to take down their own website, only MPAA and friends should have that kind of power.
Parts of the Internet will be on strike tomorrow as you may have noticed on this site. Join us while it is still legal.
A few good links:
There are many many many more out there, click them while they are still legal.
The short version is: "Take the time to read the blog post from Mocality about how Google does evil.
In even shorter, a company based in Kenya called Mocality has created a Kenya based business directory, the entries are provided by locals who would call in and then be financially rewarded by Mocality for their efforts.
A few months ago Mocality noticed some strange web traffic which after investigation turns out to be coming from Google. The juicy part is that Google employees was scraping the website to get business numbers and then cold call these companies to sell them services. Even worse, they claimed to be working with Mocality !
You should read the Mocality's blog post as it explains in detail what, how, etc, and it's quite interesting.
One more thing about those who relentlessly defend Google with arguments such as "it was a separate team" and such (and we are not talking about a rogue employee here, this was coordinated work), please note that if Google is not responsible and it is only the fault of the groups of teams involved, should it also be the other way around when it comes to innovations ?
A friend pointed out this article on how Richard Stallman was right all along and of course, I agree and actually was not part of those who think/thought that RMS is too paranoid/crazy. I don't have a mobile phone and don't have a googlebookspace account, etc etc.. Like you too right ?
Anyway, lately pieces are being put together, SOPA (crap), ProtectIP (also crap), HADOPI (merde), Spain blocking websites, Belarus bans anything foreign, etc etc. . . Oh, and Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act which in short allows the U.S. (of North America) to detain anyone they suspect/want indefinitely..
It's all crap, and then you realise that half of the "cool Internet" has been using Godaddy as their registrar !!
The other day I read about how Go Daddy supports SOPA (and loves Microsoft and kills elephants !). Since there has been a massive move of domains out of GoDaddy, including Wikipedia (still at GoDaddy as I write, c'mon Jimmy, it's been 5 days now!).
Since GoDaddy has changed their mind about SOPA but then it appears they haven't exactly changed their minds.
If you actually use GoDaddy you can pledge to boycott GoDaddy.. . and/or you could just up and leave them, I mean who registers a domain with a company whose name is "Go Daddy" ?
Important note, if you leave, be careful where you go as there are many GoDaddy re-sellers out there.. Just go to Gandi.net or EasyDNS, they both openly oppose SOPA and aren't just doing it for marketing's sake.
When visiting youhavedownloaded.com it will show you what you may have downloaded via torrent recently.
You may also enter an IP address to see what others may be downloading. The goal of this site seems to make it clear to users what information about them is actually publicly available.
People at torrentfreak have found that Sony, Universal and Fox like torrents.
Guess who else likes torrents ? Check out Nicolas Sarkozy's home IP and another Elysee IP (The French presidential home has 62.160.71.0/24, so you can check for others).
This work is licensed by Emmanuel Revah under a Creative Commons 
