Steve_Media

EFF is awesome :)

The TPP (which stands for Trans-Pacific Partnership) is a multi-nation trade deal that seeks, among other things, to rewrite the global rules on intellectual property enforcement. Those rules would likely supersede the rules of any participating nation.

One of the main problems with the TPP is that it's being negotiated behind closed doors. But from leaked documents, we know that the TPP would give Big Media new powers to lock users out of our own content and services, provide new liabilities that might force ISPs to police our online activity, and give giant media companies even greater powers to shut down websites and remove content at will. It also encourages ISPs to block accused infringers’ Internet access, and could force ISPs to hand over our private information to big media conglomerates without appropriate privacy safeguards.

*There's a bunch more info on the http://StopTheTrap.net campaign page site (including the footnotes).

The TPP is a secretive, extreme and huge trade agreement with 29 chapters - only 5 of which deal with actual trade issues. One chapter that we at OpenMedia like to call the "Internet Censorship" chapter focuses on criminalizing your online activity, invading your privacy, and costing you money (because of the extreme monitoring that Internet Service Providers would have to agree to under the agreement).

So what does this mean? It means that if you share a recipe online, you may be fined. If you download a song, you could be kicked off the Internet. You can learn more at http://OurFairDeal.org

Thanks for your question. That's a pretty tall order to determine, but last year, news outlets reported that the GCHQ's operations may, in fact, be more sprawling than the NSA. Learn more here: http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2013/jun/21/gchq-cables-secret-world-communications-nsa Also, check out these articles which may be of interest: http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/united-kingdom/130621/edward-snowden-gchq-tempora-worse-nsa-prism and http://www.policymic.com/articles/50333/gchq-the-british-are-spying-on-us-more-than-the-nsa-is. The key is to fight for transparency and accountability. The reality is we have much for information at this moment about the spy activities of the NSA and not comparably a lot about the GCHQ (or Canada's equivalent, CSEC). By creating widespread awareness about these violations, making them tangible to ordinary people, and ensuring that we collectively fight for accountability is the road forward to ensuring that there is more oversight over these processes that are done (secretly) in "our name."

Absolutely. We describe the process a bit here. In short though, when people come out in numbers (even online) and add their voices to a message by signing a petition (and sharing it on social media, talking about it in their community, etc), it can become really hard to ignore.

We at OpenMedia, at least, have seen a bunch of wins, and it's all because of our community coming together, contributing ideas, and rallying around the issues we all care about.