It’s now firmly established that US agencies have awarded themselves the power to shut down websites they don’t like, and which threaten the financial well-being of the world entertainment cartels, for whom they’re unofficial copyright enforcers.
Are they also unpaid? I doubt if we’ll ever find out whether or not some cleverly surreptitious means has been found to recompense them for their valiant efforts for and on behalf of the corporate entertainment industry complex, with its many alphabetized ‘trade associations and organizations, preeminent among which are the RIAA and MPAA, representing respectively, the major record labels and Hollywood.
They’re like evil octopuses (octopi?) with tentacles reaching into every nook and cranny, up to and including our schools with the tacit approval of our local and national government administrations. judicial systems, and law enforcement agencies.
In the name of the Great God Copyright they, in the US, and elsewhere they, and not your elected representatives, rule with rods of iron, so it didn’t come as much of a surprise when the news came that the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) wanted a US federal court to order the return of two domain names seized in the US government’s “fundamentally flawed” anti-copyright infringement campaign.
Central to the seizures was the entertainment cartel-inspired Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeiting Act in the US Congress to “combat online infringement” and for “other purposes“.
Then came a statement from Mitch Bainwol, at the time the principal US Big mouth-person for Vivendi Universal (France), Sony (Japan), EMI (Britain), and Warner Music’s (ostensibly US, but controlled by a Canadian billionaire) misnamed Recording Industry Association of America ( RIAA).
“We congratulate Chairman Leahy and Senator Hatch for their leadership on this bill and to the Senate Judiciary Committee for its action today,” he stated unctuously.
With the shut down of domain names of nine alleged ‘movie pirate’ sites, taxpayer funded copyright cops, acting for, and on behalf of, Hollywood and the Big 4 record labels, massively escalated their corporate-controlled attacks on P2P communities.
Now for a brief digression …
Bainwol and the Big 4 were overjoyed by the appearance of COICA sponsored by the entertainment cartels’ Leahy and Terminator Hatch;” and so they should have been. It’d cost them and association owners molto hard cash and many promises of ‘help’ in the future.
But let’s get back to those others.
“K2 Incense™ is a, “unique and proprietary blend of natural botanicals, certain herbs and synthetic ingrediants (sic).
“Together they form the ultimate mixture for enhanced meditation and other rituals. We recommend burning K2 Incense in a well ventilated area. You may be asking yourself what botanicals are in K2 Incense™?
“To a certain degree we keep it secret however some of the key ingrediants we will disclose including but not limited to Canavalia rosea, Ledum palustre, Leonurus sibiricus, Nelumbo nucifera and Clematis vitalba.”
That’s what it used to say on the K2 webpage. At least it did until the US DHS arrived on the scene . Now it states “this domain has been seized by the Department of Homeland Security,” neglecting to mention under what authority, what act, or for what offense (s), precisely.
I couldn’t find anything which says Ledum palustre, Leonurus sibiricus, Nelumbo nucifera and Clematis vitalba are controlled substances. and if the aim of the DHS/and its ICE teams was/is to close down sites dealing with Mary Jane look-alikes, they failed dismally.
It doesn’t take rocket science to find other webpages extolling the virtues, of and selling online, K2 and other ‘herbal smoke’ mixtures.
Obviously if you think about it, in combination these arcane mixtures are meant to mimic, if not duplicate at least, the effects of that sultry temptress, Mary Jane. But if you want the real thing, that too is relatively easy to come by, especially in BC.
Whether or not THC –– tetrahydrocannabinol –– the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana is good for you or bad for you, is an open argument. But there’s no question it’s good for some people with specific medical conditions, particularly those undergoing chemical treatment for cancer.
For them, a toke a day keeps the nausea away and acts as an appetite enhancer, and although governments everywhere are loosening up legislations restricting or banning marijuana, as far as I’m aware, it’s never been proven that America has the right, or authority, to unilaterally close down any website in a foreign country that it deems inappropriate on whatever grounds.
However, the Obama administration seems to be under the impression it can do whatever it likes whenever it likes, wherever it likes, and it isn’t until the likes of a Snowden or Manley turn up what it’s caught red-handed doing all along what it’d been accused of, but strenuously denying, for decades.
Stay tuned
Jon Newton — myblogdammit
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Jon Newton — myblogdammit
Follow me on identi.ca
RSS FEED – http://www.myblogdammit.net/?feed=rss2
It’s My Blog, Dammit! content is licensed under Creative Commons, unless otherwise stated.
Comments are the responsibility of whoever posts them. Dammit is not liable for them in any way, or at any time
Contact me @ myblogdammit (at) shaw.dot ca