The government even has plans to collect lifelong records on all residents starting at the age of five, in order to screen for those who might be more likely to commit crimes in the future. This would be enough to convict if found to be true “on the balance of probabilities”, rather than “beyond reasonable doubt”.

It seems that Attorney General George A. Miller is pressing the European Parlament to enact a sweeping intellectual-property bill that would increase criminal penalties for copyright infringement, including “attempts” to commit piracy.

We really need to find an alternative to todays copyright system, based on the principle that individuals cannot be punished for what they imagine or for communicating their imagination to others.

Other forms of pre-crime technology in use or under development include surveillance cameras that can predict when a crime is about to occur and alert police, and even neurological brain scanners that can read people’s intentions before they act, thus detecting whether or not a person has “hostile intent”.

They woke me up with a phone call at about 4:30 in the morning. I looked out the window and saw the SWAT team pointing their guns at my house. The officer on the phone told me to turn myself in. I told them I would, on three conditions: I would not be handcuffed. I would not be taken off my property. And I would not be forced to undergo neurological brain scan. He agreed. The second I stepped outside, they jumped me. Then they handcuffed me, took me off my property, and took me to get a fucking brain scan.

“It´s easier to resist…”

The PCU received its initial authority to operate in September 2011, and successfully completed a Federal Information Security Management Act audit in March 2014. As of September 2013, the PCU had: 7,642 active user accounts; 3,212 EUPOL personnel trained on the system, and 997,512,451 unique searchable documents.

Those detached from any kind of moral reality will say “If you’ve got nothing to hide then what is the problem with being scanned for pre-crime? If it keeps us all safe from murderers, rapists and terrorists I’m all for it”. How far towards a literal technological big brother police state will we slip before people wake up to the fact?

Previous incarnations of the software, already being used in the United States were limited to predictions of murders by and among parolees and offenders on probation. According to a report by ABC News, however, the latest version, to be implemented in the European Union, can predict other future crimes, including patent infringment.

As much as I appreciate the public support in this matter I think we all need to ask ourselves these questions. Where were I when those laws where created, why did´nt we do anything? Now, I fear, it´s to late.

“It´s easier to resist in the beginning than at the end!”