In the wake of the SOPA/PIPA furore, up bubbles ACTA, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement which, as Forbes reports, contains provisions “just as pernicious as anything we saw in SOPA” and has already been signed or ratified by most of the developed world.

What are the consequences? Well, aside from enforcing food and drug patents that are crippling to the developing world, which is bad enough, the agreement also “bypasses the sovereign laws of participating nations, forcing ISPs across the globe to adopt [its] draconian measures.” Oy vey.

If you thought SOPA would break the internet, ACTA is much worse. And it could become law across the global economy without so much as a murmur of opposition.

That’s just super.

Meanwhile, and closer to home, people are kicking up a fuss about a sneaky little piece of legislation that’s been dubbed ‘Ireland’s SOPA’.

TJ McIntyre’s IT Law in Ireland blog has a concise overview of the Government’s plans to legislate for Irish courts to block access to websites accused of copyright infringement (and possibly other things) at their own discretion.

Yesterday, this site went dark as part of a worldwide protest at the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and PROTECT IP Act which, if passed by the United States Congress, would give the US government and the entertainment industry extraordinary powers to control what is supposed to be a neutral space, effectively censoring the internet for everyone in the world. That’s right: everyone in the world.

To put it simply, this is bad legislation being pushed hard by corporate interests for their own benefit alone, and written so broadly that it sets us all down a path we don’t want to be travelling by.

First, Family Guy writer Patrick Meighan’s account of his arrest at Occupy LA on 30 November, outlining the tactics employed by police to break up the peaceful protest. Though he backtracks a little at the end, refusing to fully condemn those responsible (a cop-out, and a shame), his story is powerful stuff:

As we sat there, encircled, a separate team of LAPD officers used knives to slice open every personal tent in the park. They forcibly removed anyone sleeping inside, and then yanked out and destroyed any personal property inside those tents, scattering the contents across the park. They then did the same with the communal property of the Occupy LA movement… Note that these were the objects described in subsequent mainstream press reports as “30 tons of garbage” that was “abandoned” by Occupy LA: personal property forcibly stolen from us, destroyed in front of our eyes and then left for maintenance workers to dispose of while we were sent to prison.

The highlights: Michael D winning the presidency, even though I voted for Norris / Seeing The Silence of the Lambs for the first time (and loving it) / The Dark Crystal at this year’s Horrorthon / Wearing sunglasses on the first day of November / James Gleick talking about The Information at the Science Gallery / CHIKARA’s High Noon iPPV rekindling my love of wrestling / Digging Bill Orcutt’s mindbending acoustic blues / Reginald D Hunter at Vicar Street (very different from the panel shows) / Finally dinging three stone (and dropping a trouser size).

The highlights: David O’Doherty at Vicar Street / Ruins Alone at The Twisted Pepper / Dava Sobel at the Science Gallery / Dinner at the new Nando’s in town / Packing for Mars / Losing another few pounds to hit the 2 1/2 stone mark / Hearing ‘There’s a Ghost in My House’ on the radio / Getting deep into the new Murakami / Receiving an @reply from the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion.

The lowlights: Being sick for a week and missing Mike Watt + The Missingmen. Sure, I saw them over the summer, but still. Sad face.

About that second referendum… I’m broadly in favour of the Oireachtas being allowed to conduct its own inquiries into matters of public interest, but this bit about ‘findings which affect a person’s good name’ has me concerned.

Anyway, here’s what I saved to my ‘Blogfodder’ folder in the latter half of 2007:

How to Visit New York, by Anil Dash / Another NYC link I missed before we went. In a way I’m glad I did, because I completely disagree about Katz’s: best turkey sandwich I’ve ever had, hands down.

33 Names of Things You Never Knew Had Names

Summer Japanese Sweets to Cool You Down / How do they make them so pretty?

Cheat-Sheets.org / A coder’s best friend: “All cheat sheets, round-ups, quick reference cards, quick reference guides and quick reference sheets in one page.”

Movie Primers Directory

Crappy Sound Forever! / David Byrne on how recording technology changed the way music was/is written and performed.

Freedom is slavery / Links and commentary on free will and determinism. I wrote an essay about free will in one of my end-of-year philosophy exams years ago; I think I concluded it by contradicting everything I’d asserted before the last paragraph.

English Sentences Without Overt Grammatical Subjects / Or, the grammar of swearing (via Kottke).

The stuff of dreams / Ferrofluids, dilatants and other freaky sciency things.

Powers of 10 / “Two leading structural engineers pick their favorite feats of man-made wonder.” They wouldn’t all be my pick, but nice all the same.

4/7 — I find a hole torn in the back of favorite plaid shirt. Annoyed. Proper, durable (non-fashiony) plaid shirts are hard to come by round these parts.

Later in the day, the beginnings of a bad week of hayfever-induced sinusitis. Ugh.

13/7 — Markham sent me an invite to Google+ a couple of days ago. First impressions? It’s like Facebook, but more Twittery in its de-emphasising of symmetrical relationships. But at the same time, it’s kind of boring without my friends there. I don’t feel the same way about Twitter, funnily enough.

16/7 — Made up a batch of my tomato, carrot and onion soup. The secret ingredient is habanero sauce. Yum.

17/7 — Watching Sunday morning wrestling. Zack Ryder has a QR code on the front of his shorts. Genius! Although I’m not sure that’s what they really meant by the Internet of Things.