"Secret copyright treaty leaks"

from http://www.boingboing.net/2009/11/03/secret-copyright-tre.html by Cory Doctorow



Anyone have any thoughts on this topic?

It will never fly.

Sounds like a great way to get voted out of office were anyone to try to force it through.

Yep, I just love finding favorite Xmas light display videos now with no soundtrack because it infringed someones copyright on the 20yo music used.

It's going to be lonely around here when they come after all you, bit torrent/lime wire/downloader types.

I first discovered the issues around ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement) while watching television a few hours before reading this thread. It concerned me enough to look further.

ACTA is something to be very worried about.

1st, the talks are extremely secretive. You can find a couple of discussion papers, but nothing about the actual content of the proposed treaty. Participants have all signed Non Disclosure Agreements. In fact, if it weren't for some leaked documents a few years ago, nobody would know this is happening. They have since tightened up the security around this. Ask yourself this, what does it mean when a government enters into secret talks with other nations regarding your rights?

2nd, ACTA suspends your rights to due process. It allows authorities to seize your belongings, such as iPods and laptops, without a warrant, after only 3 unfounded allegations. Or even evidence. It forces 3rd parties to give up information about you. It allows the authorities to ban you from having Internet service provided. Consider what that means to your communication, education, entertainment, research and so on.

3rd, ACTA does nothing to prevent the counterfeiting and piracy. In fact, the participants do NOT include any of the countries cited as being the major counterfeiters and exporters.

And it won't matter if a politician is worried about getting voted out. He or she has no choice. Don't support ACTA and all those campaign contributions suddenly go to your opponent, the one who DOES support ACTA. And even if they do get voted out, what do they have to look forward to? A nice pension and a lucrative career as a consultant or lobbyist.

Now, here's a little scenario I have in my head. I'm a Canadian and have my own club in SL (Abe's - Home of The Grid's Largest Table Dances). Remember that LL is in the US. In comes an EU based griefer and I end up banning him. He emails two buddies and the three of them file false allegations that I am using pirated material in my club. The EU cops contact the US feds (FBI?), who go to LL and, without a warrant but citing ACTA, they obtain my personal information. Then the RCMP are contacted and, again, without a warrant or other court order, confiscate my computer, force my ISP to discontinue providing me with service and put my name on the list of people not legally allowed to access the Internet, like they do with criminal hackers and child pornographers.

We all know there are people who will make false allegations so they can "get even" with you. ACTA will give them one hell of a weapon to bash you with.

Under ACTA, you will not be allowed to copy your legitimately bought music from your DVDs to your iPod. You can forget personal mixes to give to friends. You can go to a library to read and borrow a book. But what about online reading? What about quoting lyrics and dialogue in a blog? Hell, just think about those greeting cards that allow you to include a small recorded message. If you use a bit of a song, then you are trafficking in copyrighted material.

And ACTA isn't limited to media. It includes ALL copyrighted products and materials. Think of how ACTA will impact the tried and true method of reverse engineering. It will impact the purchasing of similar products. For example, a duly licensed manufacturer of medications in the EU would not be allowed to sell their products to anyone else, even though they paid for the license to manufacture the stuff. Think your meds are expensive now? What will happen to those prices if there is no competition for other international manufacturers. ACTA even includes packaging! Want to make a poster to celebrate your love of Lego? Forget it.

One more thing. While the information available about ACTA is severly limited to the participants' secrecy, there is NO information about an appeals process. In fact, when it comes to any court process, they use the terms "ex offcio" and "ex parte". Ex officio refers to an administrative or judicial office (such as the FBI) taking action of its own accord and ex parte means on behalf of one side or party only. Together, this means that any law enforcement agency can act on their own accord against you and without informing you that they are doing so. Wouldn't this allow for wiretaps without court order in the name of combating copyright infringement? But, not to worry, under ACTA, they don't need wiretaps. In fact, they only need 3 allegations.

Furthermore, being an international treaty, who do you make an appeal to? In my scenario above, which courts have jurisdiction? How do I get my name off the No Internet list? Get my laptop back?

So, please, look into this for yourself. ACTA will destroy our rights to due process of law, our rights to privacy and much more.

FIGHT THIS!!

(PS: Check out something called Corporate Fascism)

I hope our senators have enough sense to send this back. But of course since the average age of the US Senator is around 103, I doubt they will understand enough about the issues to do anything that reasonable.

He did promise change.


This is just one of the ways that the U.S. government is trying to take control and limit speech. The Fair Speech Doctrine serves to silence those who bring these types of stories to light.

There have been a couple leaks in recent weeks about how they plan on using international treaties to back door around our Bill of Rights. And it goes back to the prior administration. These things take years and years to work out.

Seems like the US government has been taking notes from Linden Labs. Betcha they'll even have a "town hall" to encourage "open discussion, which will be taken under advisement."

I've also seen this report saying that the idea involves the ability of law enforcement to search your digital property without reason: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnQXLEtD5Do

It sounds like a case of life imitating art where someone watched Terry Gilliam's film 'Brazil' and thought it would be a good idea

Its not one administration or another. I did put Obama in the quote and make the change comment about him. I also said the "U.S. government" when talking about rights. Bush had the Patriot Act.
I am a true believer that Washington wants the voting public at eachother's throats so that they can push through more extreme measures. All the while claiming its the other parties fault we're in one mess or another.

I find it hilarious that the Boing Boing writers, who were so overwhelmingly pro-Obama in the run-up to the 2008 presidential election, are now shocked at this. Big Entertainment has the same kind of huge influence on the Democrats that Big Oil does on the Republicans. What else did they expect?

It's definitely a corporatist agenda. I can see a resurgence of 'cottage industry' arts in the wake of this. Who's going to want to even touch anything corporate-produced no matter how slick and glossy it is when you could be whisked away to some anonymous guantanamo-style holding bay just for sharing some music, a photograph or a film with your friends?

The technology to create content [music, video, literature, etc.] is ubiquitous and free. I think it's about time for people to tell these overweening corporations to stick their shiny products where the sun never shines because we can create our own culture, literature, art and entertainment. We don't need them for anything. Ever.

To paraphrase the old anti-nuclear slogan: Corporate media? No thanks!

How the heck are they gonna enforce THAT? I bet there'll be a lot of countries that say nay just to spite them.

I think its just plain old funny the people who voted for him had then and have now no clue whats coming down the pike... will be very interesting to watch thier reaction to all this.

I wonder if passing such a link will violate the (future) ACTA. After all, who owns the video clip being shown?

Its the senate and HoR that push most of the crap. Our country does best with a semi middle Democrat president and strong Republican House and Senate, look at the Clinton years.
Back to Obama. He was the most liberal Senator in office at the time, even more so than Ted Kennedy. No matter I guess, there are more and more leftists in America today than any time in the past. Obama makes sense to them. Its the 'independent' voters who are freaking out that I say told ya so to. Its just like G.W. Bush, he's was too far right for most of America and only fit a small %'s ideal. We need a guy like Walter Williams (in my opinion the most intelligent economist of our time, professor of economics at George Mason University http://economics.gmu.edu/wew/ ) or even Mike Huckabee as president.