SOPA/PIPA/ACTA: No more sharing!

Read about "Black March" here

That's right. The entertainment industry want to treat us all as thieves just because a few commercializes piracy (which I agree is bad). YOU ARE A THIEF TOO!

Imagine your neighbor robbing a bank. Then you both get put behind bars. You are both being punished for a crime only one person did. Do you think this is fair? Then SOPA/PIPA/ACTA is for you.

I wont bother explaining them all in detail, but you can get a pretty good picture by simply viewing the brilliant video in the end of this post.


Newsflash: Sharing is FREE marketing
Note: The facts below are not 100% accurate, but should give you a good idea

What many people in this industry STILL don't understand is that most of their products wouldn't have had a chance without sharing. Person A downloads game X. He plays it and then tells his his three best friends, B, C and D about it.

Person B then also downloads the game (and tells three of his best friends). BUT(!!) person C and D goes to the store and BUYS the game, and then tells their three best friends about the game.

Result: Per 1 person that downloads game X, you in average get: 3 people acquiring the game where 50% are downloaders and 50% are buyers. around 75% would probably have never heard about game X unless person A had downloaded it and spread the word.

The important fact here is that the game developer probably have earned money on this action, but he probably doesn't know it. You simply can't count every download as a loss. Merely an investment where the ROI not necessarily is optimal, but definitely positive enough to be profitable.

Please do let me know if you want me to elaborate. I could probably spam an entire blog post about it :P


Bye Piratebay, bye Megaupload, bye Sharing
Yes, these sites might be partly censored or even completely shut down. No more sharing, thief!

You people are probably too darn lazy to do anything about this. I bet you are sitting in your computer chair right now thinking "nah, it will never happen, someone else will fix it for me". Well it is time to wake up. There is no someone else. There is only you.

Similar things already happened in Sweden (IPRED, FRA etc.) and no one really thought it would happen... that "someone else" would fix it.

I will now ask you to do only two things:

1. Watch the video below
2. Think for yourself: What can I do to contribute?


What I have done to contribute is to change my profile pictures everywhere to the picture in the top of this post, to spread the video below and to try to in general spread the word as best as I can. You can do either more or less than me. It is up to you, no one is forcing you.

I bet you wont do shit to contribute. Care to prove me wrong?

A lot of stuff is going on right now...

Winning, opportunities, fighting, finding happiness and many other things is what is important for many people. For me, this is a nice mixture of what is going on in my life right now. I'm now going to tell you about some of these things.

(we will see how much I will write on this suspiciously serious blog post, as my Google Chrome is lagging all the time and pretty much pissing me off)


If I feel valuable to somebody, I feel good...

When something I do, either for someone or for a group of people - Getting rewarded is very important. Sometimes this is simply to feel valued. To feel that you are important to that person or that group of people. Right now, I feel quite good. :)


Some people have no clue about this concept however, which is sad. In the long term, everyone learns that this is how things works. This is how companies keep their employees and this is how people keep their friends. Simple basic principle really.


Fighting and winning, that is what it's all about!

Never give up when you believe in something. Saying that, changing your mind doesn't necessarily mean giving up. Never be stubborn just because of the sake of it. Be reasonably stubborn. Right now I'm very into the subject of the Right to Privacy, which is why I vote Pirate this year. Also I tend to be very firm on many day-to-day subjects that I believe in. I have realized that a lot of people let others overrule your own opinion - to let people do this is to be stupid. Stand up for what you believe.

Winning is also fun in other concepts. Like Poker! Playing Poker is mostly about winning, but it is also about developing yourself and your sense of logic and calculation; prediction and psychology. Tomorrow I am going to the casino again - putting all logic aside and entering a personal battle against the meat loving nemesis of mine, Pekka. Wish me good luck!


Take an opportunity, change your life!

When I took the job here at PokerStrategy.com, I changed my life - drasticly. Don't be afraid of change. This was one of the best decisions of my life so far - just like deciding to study Game Design in Skövde. Don't sit home and be afraid of reality, go out, take opportunities, don't be afraid to let go when there is so much to gain!

Right now we are looking for a lot of positions at PokerStrategy.com. If you are interested, find a way to contact me and I will see if I might find something for you ;)

Extreme make-over - Blog Edition!

Hi everyone!

As you might have heard, I got the job at PokerStrategy.com. I had a long and deep thought about this and finally decided that I have more stuff to write about than just two subjects.

Meet THE JOAKIM BERGMAN BLOG!

I will continue to cover the same topics, but will blog about more topics and more often. Expect new posts on an every day basis (at best). I will cover the following subjects:

• My Life
• Family & Friends
• The Right to Privacy
• Game Development
• Gambling
• PokerStrategy.com & Gibraltar

If you're reading this not long after it was posted, please don't be alarmed by the blog looking weird at points or stuff disappearing and so on. I'm just experimenting with the new layout.

Cause -> Effect, give it a thought

DNA can now be placed at "fixed" crime scenes

I made a frightening discovery when I surfed DN.se. Apparently, anyone can now "make" DNA-proof to place at crimescenes.  

I wonder what happens in the future if we don't do as the government wants us to do. Will we be convicted for some mysterious "crimes" where they have found our DNA?

Well, lets hope it never gets that far, but in some countries these kinds of stuff actually happen. And those countries has advanced surveillance against its citizens. Think about that for a moment.

Here's a link to the article (warning: Swedish)

The Swedish Government is hiding something...

They refuse to review or investigate their surveillance at FRA. My conclusion is that the Swedish Government, lead by Fredrik Reinfeldt, want's to keep us in the dark. 

"Why not investigate FRA?", we ask them.

"It's impossible to do!", they answer.

 

If USA can do it, why can't we?

It's obvious that the Swedish Government has been puppets of USA for some time now, but apparently cant everything that is done in USA, be done in Sweden. USA have reviewed and investigated their own surveillance network.

So, why doesn't the government want us to know how FRA works? Are they using the facility to do something they aren't suppose to?

Well, they have done it before (without being brought to court for that matter). 

 

I recommend checking out Klambergs blog for more on this, or his own FRA-wiki database giving you some deeper insight on FRA and it's database. (warning: swedish)

The "secret documents" of the police have leaked...

Well, this wasn't any suprise really. The newsportals are screaming "the impossible have happened", "This shouldn't be possible, the cheif of police said". Well get a grip, anything can and will leak out if there's any value in it.

This brings me to FRA, IPRED and all the other laws that concerns surveillance of private citizens. If the polices' "Secret Documents" can leak out to criminal organizations, can't the information gathered by FRA leak out as well?

• What if certain organizations got hold of information on YOU?
• What if these organisations started blackmailing you?
• What if you where to testify against the mob, and they got hold of lots of information on you?
   
  

Well, I don't think I have to say more, you got the picture.

Now there's cameras IN YOUR HOME!

Maybe not in Sweden yet, but now England has taken the big step to set up camera surveillance in 2000 families homes, and the plan is to extend it to 20 000 homes.

 

To intercept and correct anti-social behaviour they say

They wan't to turn us into robots. This reminds me of the movie: Equilibrium

 

This is what happens when you "don't care"

Stupid people, and I really mean STUPID! Not only are the ones responsible for this really stupid. Many of you don't lift a finger to fight against this, and that's even worse. The worst part is that this WILL happen to Sweden and many other europeian countries as well, if people don't start acting NOW!

 

The Treaty of Lissabon is the first step to this, and you don't even know it. Counties in the EU super state will stop having the right to stand against new laws, made by the parlament, which will force more countries to loose their freedom and their Right to Privacy.

The time to fight against this is now! Not later. So get your lazy asses up and do something already. I don't want to find you whining then it's to late if you haven't lift a finger to fight against this.

 

Thanks, Henrik Alexandersson for this information.

Blog update: Poll results!

Well, my poll about what you guys and girls would like to read about on my blog is now over, and here is the results!

• 36% - Game Development 
• 50% - The Right to Privacy (spelled that wrong in the poll)
• 9% - Other
• 4% - I don't know

This shows that my concept of having two different subjects on one blog might actually work! Or so I would like to think, after checking my poll results. 

My next blog post will include some of the best tips for building a good portfolio. Stay tuned! I will try to get the post up by tomorrow!

Movie time with the Pirate Party!

I like this one, and it's very well made. Good job Morphanimal!

Michael Jackson would have wanted it...

What if MJ got some privacy?

Would he have been alive today? Yes, I think so. Think about what massive surveillance can do to a person.

Well, Michael Jackson is extreme, but it is still the same thing. He knew that he hardly could do anything without someone watching him and I'm positive that kind of drove him a little bit mad.

How will sensitive people react?

By now, you guys know how I'm reacting to this surveillance stuff, but I'm not a very sensitive person. How would a mentaly sensitive person react to being monitored 24/7? Maybe they will react like MJ and stay inside all their lives and in the end die of starvation and drug addiction? (now that's not 100% why MJ died, but you get the picture)

 

As I see it, we are already doomed. Too many people close their eyes and pretend it isn't happening, only to realise too late that it's actually real.

Well, at least "I" faught! What did you do?

FRA... IPRED... Stockholmprogramme... whats next?

When will it end? Can you, as I, see where this is going? Just watch this video, will you? =)

Henrik Alexandersson recently wrote about how the justice department and EU-parlament will go on with the Stockholm programme. It all looks like it's going to be behind closed curtains. It will be very hard to know what changes they make, what they might add or remove.

We citizens wont need to know this, we are only stupid and don't know the best for the country... right?

The Right to Privacy... IS SCREWED!

I recently read on Rick Falkvinges blog about the new and dare I say largest threat against our Right to Privacy: The Stockholm Programme (swe: stockholmsprogrammet).

 

Greetings the Stockholm Programme, Goodbye Privacy

I will translate the list that Henrik Alexandersson blogged about into English:

• An expanded co-operation between EU and USA "in the field of freedom, security and justice".
• National Anti-Terrorist center in all EU-states, which will report directly to Brussels.
• All EU-states will share their intelligence with all other EU-states.
• Increasing and more effective "data-mining" (FRA...).
• Real time access to information about, among other: citizens travels, bank errands, cell-phone positions, use of internet, finger print and portrait.
• Enhanced surveillance through an active gathering of individual citizens electronic footprints.
• EU-standardisation of surveillance.
• EU-harmonization to clear out legal obstacles for surveillance and bugging.
• EU-leveled analyzation of materials from the EU-states surveillance and bugging.
• An expanded EU-bureaucracy for surveillance, bugging and analyzis, called SitCen.

 
Demonstrate and spread the word!

There's huge demonstrations about this in Stockholm on Wednessday, unfortunately I'm out of cash so I cant go there, but if you can - you should!

Also, keep blogging about this and spread it to everyone  you know. People must know what's happening and should rise up to stop it! Our privacy is at stake! Stop closing your pathetic eyes, hoping that everything will be okay or that "it will never happen to you". It's happening, it will NOT be okay!

IPRED: Go against us and you die!

The swedish system of justice is not working, it's corrupt. Not only can IPRED break the law and get away with it, anyone questioning the evidence in a legal dispute with IPRED gets punished by the court.

(EDIT: When I say IPRED I'm refering to "companies through IPRED")

 

IPRED breaks the law, nothing happens

Rick Falkvinge listed three points where IPRED  broke the law:

• IPRED breaks into a private server...
• ... gives themselves permission to private data...
• ... without indicating in any way that a copyright had been violated.  

So, IPRED can break the law and get away with it, but we can't? Are they above the law? The same thing happened when FRA did surveillance without permission, even BEFORE the law of them being allowed to do so. The government is above the law, but we aren't. This is justice to them.

 

Don't EVER question the evidence!

As Rick also stated, "this is not all". The accused part in the legal dispute tried to question the evidence and the fact that it had been gathered in an illegal way. The result of this was that they where sentenced to pay 75 000 kr (about 9000$) just becuase they questioned the evidence.

This sends a clear message: OPPOSE US AND YOU DIE! 

 

Thanks to Rick Falkvinge for this information...

Exceptions in laws - A tool for World Domination

While surfing on the Party Leader of the Pirate Party (Pirat Partiet) Rick Falkvinge's blog, I read a post about exceptions being created for the IPRED law. You can read all about it here (swedish blog).

 

IPRED uses exceptions in constitutional laws

IPRED has been given an exception in the Privacy Protection Law where it clearly states that IPRED may, if thought neccessary, use private information on induviduals on matters like intrusion on the intellectual property law.

This clearly shows us one of the first steps on exception laws, where they once again get to abuse our Right to Privacy. When will it stop? Will it ever stop?

 

Wasn't Hitler doing this?

First of all, Hitler was a nutcase. But what he did that was so smart, for him, was that he made exceptions in laws to allow him to gain more and more power.

Exceptions in laws sounds small and insignificant, but it is truly a tool to gain absolute power over a community. Just ask the ones that lived in Germany when Hitler was ruling.

Some Nostalgia - Philosophy of Liberty

Watch the movie and you will understand why I'm fighting for The Right to Privacy:

Knock knock, it's the surveillance guy...

Is this the future? Istead of cable guys knocking on our door to install cable tv, there's Surveillance guys, here to install cameras where we live.

I know that many of you think that I'm exaggerating when I write about these kind of things and sometimes, yes I do. But I do it with a purpose: to wake people up, to see the danger that's on our doorstep - The surveillance guy.

In all history, mankind is known to not see the danger until it's too late. I want to try to change that, even if I know that its next to impossible. Although I don't see many people even lifting their fingers for this and that's freaking embarrasing.

If we keep on ignoring democrazy and letting insulting laws as IPRED, FRA, The Data Retention Directive as well as the Telecom Package go through, we kind of diserve having a dictatorship. 

So people, please meet the surveillance guy. You're gonna see alot of him in the future.

Cencurship and Big Brother, here we come!

This makes me so mad. There's two things that is absolutely crushing the Right to Privacy and also the Liberty to Speak and Express yourself on the net.

 

The Telecom Package - The new way of National Cencurship

With the Telecom Package (swe: telekompaketet), the government can shut people down from the internet. The internet is a way of expression and communicating with others.

What will happen if the government gets the power to SHUT PEOPLE DOWN at their will (of course they will need to suspect you for file sharing)

Isn't this the same as cencuring newspaper or duck taping peoples mouths? Okay, they need to catch someone for file sharing, but think about how easily they will be able to manipulate that or make "add-on" laws which allows them to only suspect a person to be able to shut them down. 

 

The Data Retention Directive - We see all, WE KNOW ALL!

With the Data Retention Directive (swe: Datalagringsdirektivet), they can monitor your every movement, litterarly, and track e-mails, phone calls, mms, sms and you name it. Everything you do that's connected to the net, in up to 6 months.

They got their eye on you. Watch it so that they doesn't start to dislike you for your opinions. They can dig up any crap and then shut you down so that no one can hear you scream.

 

The government is doing the frog trick on us...

Watch it yourself:

Infant Cyborgs = The future?

There's talk about placing chips inside little babies right after birth. This, so that they can be monitored "for the good of the nation" or whatever they call it.

This is most rumours, but I would like to get some concrete proof of this. All I have found is articles supporting this rumour, but nothing concrete. If these rumours are true, which it very well might be, I'm really REALLY terrified. 

 

Please don't place chips in our babies!

This is scary stuff, and if it's true, I'm not sure I want to live here anymore. I'll build a spaceship and fly to Mars or something. At least, there I've got a Right to Privacy.

"VeriChip is the first Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved human-implantable radio-frequency identification (RFID) microchip. It is marketed by VeriChip Corporation, a subsidiary of Applied Digital Solutions, and it received United States FDA approval in 2004. About twice the length of a grain of rice, the device is typically implanted above the triceps area of an individual’s right arm" - Wikipedia

 

Citizens, please meet Mr. Surveillance

The fact that many nations want to monitor their citizens isn't something new. Actually it's something going on and escalating at this very second. At this moment, the government is tracking and soon storing all our internet based information for six months. 

When they've got our internet life, what will be next? Chipping our infants?

"Privacy advocates have protested the VeriChip, warning of potential abuse and denouncing these types of RFID devices as "spychips," and that use by governments could lead to an increased loss of civil liberties and would lend itself too easily to abuse. One such case of this abuse would be in the microchip's dual use as a tracking device." - Wikipedia

 

This is my assumption: If we don't act now, our future might very well be babies with computer chips implanted into their bodies after birth.

(This is much more real than you think. You problably think I am over reacting to this whole surveillance stuff, but I think we need to be serious about this stuff before it's to late.)

It's time to fight for the Right to Privacy!

Many laws involving surveillance has been accepted into many countries around the world. Right now in Sweden, our opinions have been ignored several times already, by having the FRA and IPRED laws thrown against us. Now, the Data Retention Directive is on the verge to explode upon us.

For your notice, the EU Parlament has filed a monition (legal action) towards Sweden, for NOT having it's people voting through the Data Retention Directive already.

The EU Parlament is kind of saying: "It's okay that you have a democracy and vote for what you want in your country, but if you don't vote as we wish, we will SUE you!"

 

Vote before or on the 7th of July!

I think that if we don't use our democratic right to vote against these kinds of stuff, we kind of deserve this punishment.

By not voting, we don't embrace the democracy that we are so thankful for that we've got. If we don't vote we can't change anything and the government can rule as a dictatorship. We don't want that, do we?

But honestly, I don't care what you vote for, just vote! If you vote towards fighting against these surveillance laws and threaths against the Right to Privacy, you got my proud and powerful (woot?) salute.

(dont know what to vote? VOTE BLANK!)

 

A fun video!

Here's a fun video that shows how important South Park thinks it is to vote.

 

This is my assumtion: If we dont use the power we have to change the wrong things about our society, we are indirectly voting for Dictatorship.