Danish Discussion On 3 Strikes Plan Done In Secret, Leaving Consumers Out Of The Mix Again

from the nobody-cares-about-the-consumer dept

Now that most of the ACTA negotiations are complete, you would think that governments would recognize the problems of trying to negotiate big deals that impact internet users in secret without involving the users themselves. No such luck. Apparently, over in Denmark, the government, the entertainment industry and ISPs have been secretly negotiating a 3-strikes plan for Danes, with an agreed upon press blackout, where none of the participants will speak to the press. They’re pretty upfront as to why not:

After experiencing difficulty, Comon was told by Committee members that they had “promised to keep working secretly in order not to create too much fuss” and “could never agree on some recommendations if there was too much public debate about its work.”

Yes, you see, we couldn’t actually come to agreement if the people this will actually impact the most are allowed to chime in and point out why they don’t like their rights being taken away. It’s probably worth reminding folks at this point that Denmark was one of the players in the ACTA negotiations who was vehemently against transparency. Apparently, that’s carried over into domestic discussions as well.

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Comments on “Danish Discussion On 3 Strikes Plan Done In Secret, Leaving Consumers Out Of The Mix Again”

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22 Comments
Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Democrawhat?!

This feels like some documentary on ancient Rome. You know, that part where the senate was forced to yield to Cesar. Certainly, there has been an egregious advancement of the globalist agenda, but it’s drifted away from the panoramic vision of a global society run by it’s people. This secret auction phenomena is going to become a trend, I fear, and will not end well for us sheeple.

James Carmichael (profile) says:

Re: Re: Accountability in politics

The truth is that most people are comfortable enough the way they are, so they don’t care if some deals are made in secret. I’m talking about the majority here, not the people who read and care about that sort of deal.

There’s also little accountability in the governments, unlike in the private sector, so the elected people don’t have that much of an incentive to listen to people… until it’s time to be reelected. The worst that can happen is that they don’t get elected next terms; they still keep their job for a while. A political system where you can get fired or severely reprimanded for doing these types of secret deals would go a long way to reduce unfair lobbying and corruption.

Hey, I’m allowed to dream!

Anonymous Coward says:

I think what this demonstrates, is that in all countries, there actually needs to be a cohesive movement pushing for changes to copyright, trademark and patent law from the consumer interest point of view, with the additional input from those businesses and established creatives who most recognise the benefits of addressing rather than attempting to suppress the different nature of the digital age.

It is quite clear that there needs to be a side arguing the reality because we now know that even if it’s not being making much noise in the media, the antiquated sections of the publishing industries will be working behind closed doors to get governments and international bodies to legislate to protect their own outdated and failing business models at the expense of all future developments.
And even though some parts of such legislation are doomed to failure, the damage that will be done to creators and innovators in the interim, will put the countries that pass such legislation at a global disadvantage to whichever countries have the sense to go the opposite direction.

Christopher (profile) says:

Some lawmakers need to go to prison over this

This is the exact reason why our Founding Fathers said that absent a VERY good reason (and the populace speaking out against something if it is public is not a good enough reason) everything has to be PUBLIC and nothing is allowed to be ‘secret’.

Some people all over the world in democratic nations need to be looking at prison time unless they make these negotiations public and allow the PEOPLE OF THE WORLD to chime in on why these things are a good idea or a bad idea.

Christoffer G. Thomsen says:

Re: Re:

I’m danish, and this secrecy is terrible. However, most danes trust the government. But that’s probably because more than half of the danish population is living on welfare or working for the government. This country is full of socialists, even the liberal/conservative government (liberalism as in classical non-socialist liberalism) are socialists and our taxes are sky high.

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