ACTA

Originally posted by cantarina1 at post

Originally posted by electricdruid at The fiasco continues

ACTA in a Nutshell –

What is ACTA?  ACTA is the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. A new intellectual property enforcement treaty being negotiated by the United States, the European Community, Switzerland, and Japan, with Australia, the Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Mexico, Jordan, Morocco, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, and Canada recently announcing that they will join in as well.

Why should you care about ACTA? Initial reports indicate that the treaty will have a very broad scope and will involve new tools targeting “Internet distribution and information technology.”

What is the goal of ACTA? Reportedly the goal is to create new legal standards of intellectual property enforcement, as well as increased international cooperation, an example of which would be an increase in information sharing between signatory countries’ law enforcement agencies.

Essential ACTA Resources - 

• Read more about ACTA here: ACTA Fact Sheet
• Read the authentic version of the ACTA text as of 15 April 2011, as finalized by participating countries here: ACTA Finalized Text
• Follow the history of the treaty’s formation here: ACTA history
• Read letters from U.S. Senator Ron Wyden wherein he challenges the constitutionality of ACTA: Letter 1 | Letter 2 | Read the Administration’s Response to Wyden’s First Letter here: Response
• Watch a short informative video on ACTA: ACTA Video
• Watch a lulzy video on ACTA: Lulzy Video

Say NO to ACTA. It is essential to spread awareness and get the word out on ACTA.

Via Tumblr

This entry was also posted at http://cantarina.dreamwidth.org/131889.html. (comments: )

Мои твиты

• Пн, 19:25: I had a complete class that had fallen ill today. It was a one-pupil-class.

SmartSchool won't get you smarter.

Some time ago the Powers That Be at school decided we'd all use the SmartSchool web-application to streamline communication. I'm all for easy communication and having an inbox that's nearing zero because all the school spam has disappeared. What I don't like are people making a total mess of intradesk, so I can't find the notes The Head has put on there, because frankly I can't find where he put them.
Nor do I like that the settings of this molloch are buried somewhere deep down, so I can't be bothered to look how to tweak the settings. The settings aren't tweakable anyway. What I get is an overstuffed opening page that is unable to give me instant information. I want sleek, easy, accessible design that's not crowded with widgets and stuff. No wonder the computer-fearing gentleman who teaches fifth grade wishes to have nothing to do with SmartSchool.
On top of that it dislikes my OS. Many times I can't read documents online, but will have to download them. Yesterday I spent a good hour trying to link my three different SmartSchool-accounts from three different schools. It's a nice little feature that ensures you can switch between accounts so you only have to log into one. If only it wanted to stay logged in. Whenever I entered one account, it ended up in another.
Most of all it feels forced upon us. It was Big Boss's decision and headteachers didn't have a say in it. Instead of showing the positive, we got whining and pointing up. I can't help to think there must be better software out there than this poorly wrought platform, but no-one bothered to look or test this one thoroughly before deciding. This is software for which teachers don't have time to learn to use it. Then why does it cost so much time to understand?