Stop The Trap campaign - worth a look if you value your Internet

So we finally thought we were through all the hoopla regarding the Internet in Canada right? Usage Based Billing got shot down and the carriers were held back from jacking Internet prices up.

No sooner can you sigh a breath of relief than the Internet comes under attack yet again.

This time it's in conjunction with the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Huffington Post has a story on how the TPP has Internet regulations that all participating countries would have to abide by. Which would mean that Canadians would become subject to the Internet laws determined primarily by the United States (although technically by the TPP as a whole).

Open Media, the folks who helped stopped the Usage Based Billing efforts of Canadian carriers, has launched a campaign called Stop The Trap. Folks can sign the petition, just like what was done to oppose Usage Based Billing, and government leaders will get a message saying you oppose non-Canadian powers regulating Canadian Internet usage.

I don't know how other Canadians feel, but the last thing I'd want is the current US government regulating anything to do with Canadian society, much less the Internet.

I know folks in the US who if they download a single file off Bit Torrent get warnings from their service provider saying if they are caught doing so again they face criminal legal action being taken against them.

Is this really what it's coming to? Where Big Brother - ie. the government - watches our every move just waiting for a reason to slap some fine on us?

I hope Harper backs away from the TPP if this is the case. While he may need to pursue this for Canada's economic benefit in the short term, Canadians will go absolutely ape-shit (pardon the French) the moment they start getting 'warnings' or 'fines' or lose their Internet because some international tribunal decided they had done something they didn't agree with like downloading an mp3 or something.

Mark my words, this has the potential to be a HUGE PR disaster for the Conservatives (bigger than the Usage Based Billing issue was - and I did not vote for Harper, even though I kind of wanted to, because of UBB and because the CRTC was clearly either a corrupt or incompetent organization that Harper should have cleaned up and never did).

If Harper signs away Canadian authority over the Internet, it's 100 per cent guaranteed the Conservatives will not get my vote.

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