08.20.13

Actions of US Government Shut Down Groklaw Pre-emptively; Observing the US’ Sanctions Economy and the Danger of Expansion to Europe

Posted in Europe, Patents at 11:30 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Intimidation, assassination, blackmail, torture, and sanctions

“We’re under the control of the empire of the corporations. The governments that rule our countries are governments of occupation. They don’t work for us, they don’t represent us. They pretend to, but they’re really working for the empire. And so they seek to criminalise protest whenever they can.” –Richard Stallman

Summary: The military/corporate coup in the United States (what Stallman calls a “government of occupation”) continues to damage the population and especially those speak out for public interests; The unitary patent (think US patent regime) threatens to spread in Europe even faster now that Austria bends over

THE harassment of David Miranda, who preferred to remain out of the public eye on the face of it (Wikipedia still links/strings him to the article on Glenn Greenwald), showed us that nowhere in the world can one be safe from the wrath of the CIA/NSA. Not in Brazil and certainly not in Europe, especially not in US allies like the UK. In places like Italy, which are filled with US army bases, one can even be abducted and tortured by a CIA agent, despite being innocent (famous legal case right now). Germany, which is the other European nation absolutely filled with US army bases (see a publicly-disclosed list of bases or a map, bear in mind some are unlisted), there is a similar case. This is scary. You no longer have to be Muslim to be treated like this; you can be captured under laws originally passed to combat “terrorism” and then be sent overseas to be silently killed (yes, this happened), sodomised, be forced through torture to say you’re part of Al-Qaeda (even if you’re not), and sometimes have loved ones threatened or used for blackmail (the Nazis did this). Having been stopped a lot at airports recently, I can’t help being bothered by this. Surveillance is not a selective thing anymore; everyone is under surveillance. We’re living in a mass surveillance society. In the UK, for example, there are at least two US bases (covertly run by the NSA), one in Gloucestershire, another in Yorkshire. They’re both vast. They’re a surveillance hub that assists drone strikes, among other things like global surveillance and satellite signals interception. Phone calls are being recorded indiscriminately and fibre optic cables have all of their data (very high throughput) saved indefinitely, analysed, and habitually used to profile people who are law-abiding citizens.

“In the UK, for example, there are at least two US bases (covertly run by the NSA), one in Gloucestershire, another in Yorkshire.”This is the symptom of a system that’s totally out of control. It’s debt-saddled, it has no stability because of class disparity that inevitably breeds unrest, and it faces high inflation rates. It’s reminiscent of Germany in the mid 1930s when many political dissenters and later ethic groups were prosecuted, some later executed. The drums of wars were widely beaten and IBM was helping the Nazis profile the population. Months ago IBM was fighting Amazon over a massive contract with the CIA, which says it wants to amass heaps of data and keep it “forever” (think of the NSA facility in Utah). The current system is frightening to those of us who speak out against people in power. It resorts to intimidation and the CIA/NSA covertly serve the interests of corporations and plutocrats, totally disregarding 99.99% of the population. This week documents are being declassified (after 60 years) to confirm what many already knew — that the CIA forcible removed (in a coup) Iran’s democratically-elected government (there have been many more actions like that since then, continuing to this date in Syria), kick-starting a cycle of oppression which serves the interests of large corporations (oil companies).

Techrights does not write political posts. When politicians are named it is not because of their political orientation or the party they’re affiliated with. Both major parties in the US are bought and paid for; everyone knows that. We don’t need another site to point this out. Some matters, however, are bipartisan and we deal with them separately. To us, for instance, the USPTO is relevant. The US ITC has come under increased pressure from Groklaw, which has just shut down due to surveillance (see news links at the bottom) for its role in protectionism rather than law enforcement. Lawyers offering services of protectionism say that even outside the realm of patents there is protectionism that’s facilitated by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Those who do not think this whole legal framework is fundamentally corrupt and dysfunctional might need to do some further reading. If they don’t change their minds, then perhaps they need to read outside the echo chamber of the lawyer-writer microcosm. Patent trolls are thriving and blogs keep emerging to confront those trolls. It’s not just trolls though:

Again, we get it. And in fact, that’s one reason that the term NPE is not the same as the term Patent Troll. All patent trolls are NPE’s, but not all NPE’s are patent trolls.

RPX or OIN are NPEs and they don’t achieve much except create more cartels, dominated of course by multinational corporations, mostly US-based corporations.

Currently, this issue is limited to the United States and it mostly serves large corporations by blocking imports of competitors. We saw Microsoft doing that half a decade ago, essentially using patents aggressively, and not just for FUD.

The president of the FFII warns that US patent culture is approaching Europe, noting that:

Austria becomes the first country to ratify the Unitary Patent Court, software patents through the backcourt

Here is his source, which says:

The Agreement on establishing the Unified Patent Court (UPC) was signed in February 2013 and seeks to establish a unified patent court system across Europe to handle the enforcement of new EU Unitary Patents when they come into effect. A list of the countries who signed the agreement can be found here.

The Unified Patent Court will not have competence over national patent rights such as those granted by the UK Intellectual Property Office.

However, the Unified Patent Court will ultimately assume competence in relation to infringement and validity disputes in respect of regular (i.e. non-Unitary) European patents as currently granted by the European Patent Office.

In order for the Unified Patent Court system to become a reality it is necessary for 13 member states who signed the Agreement to take the subsequent step of ratifying the Agreement. It is also a requirement that the Agreement is ratified by the UK, France and Germany.

Austria became the first member state to ratify the Agreement by depositing its instrument of ratification in Brussels on 7 August 2013. A press release from the Austrian Foreign Ministry can be found here.

Given this disturbing trend of assimilation we might sooner or later see the grip of massive American corporations expanding to other continents. Remember which nation expanded to Austria before it decided to take over Europe and by extension the whole world? No, this isn’t Godwin’s Law creeping in, that’s just my personal opinion and I increasingly worry about — not resent — what the US is doing to the world as an irresponsible and arrogant empire/superpower. This system is not good for US citizens. It tears apart both domestic and foreign populations. It’s class warfare and extreme socoipathy.

Techrights has published well over a thousand items (mostly in daily links) about NSA surveillance, going a couple of years into the past. Binney and Drake, two brave NSA whistleblowers, opened my eyes to this massive problem, which led me to researching the CIA too. Prior to them I learned a lot from Chalmers Johnson (he died years later). Those don’t understand the severity of this problem should patiently read the articles below. Pamela Jones is not exaggerating and I admire her decision to compromise her online “baby” for the sake of principles. Techrights is going to fight the NSA; shutting down is letting the NSA get its way. █

• Forced Exposure ~pj

• Tech legal news site Groklaw shutting down, because email privacy ‘is impossible’

• Groklaw legal site shuts over fears of NSA email snooping

• Groklaw blog closes because of surveillance threat

• More NSA Spying Fallout: Groklaw Shutting Down

• Legal bible Groklaw pulls plug in wake of Lavabit shutdown, NSA firestorm

• Groklaw shuts down due to internet surveillance

• Tech legal news site Groklaw shutting down, citing email privacy concerns

• Groklaw Latest Casualty In Privacy Wars

• Groklaw shutting down; Lavabit sealed the deal

• Groklaw Site To Close Over Email Surveillance Concerns

• Groklaw Founder Shutters Respected Legal News Site Over Government Surveillance Concerns

• Groklaw blog closes citing surveillance threat

• The Canary in the Coal Mine: Groklaw Shuts Down

• Groklaw shuts down over fears of email snooping

• Another Site Shuts Down on Government Surveillance Fears

• Legal Site Groklaw Shuts Down Rather Than Face NSA in Heartrending Post

• Groklaw closing in light of NSA spying revelations

• Groklaw is the latest site to close in the wake of NSA surveillance reports

• Groklaw Shuts Down As True Cost of NSA Spying Mounts

• Groklaw To Shut Down As Editor Doesn’t Want Government Going Through Its Virtual Underwear

• Law Blog Groklaw to Shut Down Amidst Surveillance Fears

• The Surveillance State Is Corrosive: The Case of Pamela Jones

• Surveillance concerns bring an end to crusading site Groklaw

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