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FTAA Treaty Threatens Innovation
The Importance of writes "IP Justice has published a white paper on the intellectual property aspects of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) treaty, which is an attempt to create a single free trade agreement for the Western Hemisphere. Read the press release. The analysis is pretty devastating. The proposed language of the agreement has a number of serious flaws, including (but certainly not limited to) enhanced criminal penalties, a super-DMCA provision, reduced scope for fair use, and database protection elements.
The proposed treaty is supposed to be complete by January 2005 and go into effect December 2005. Now is not too early to let your representatives and others know what a bad idea the intellectual property elements of the treaty are."
Innovation depends upon the flexibility to create new responses to an environmental situation or need. Treaties that fix rules around the environmental conditions restrict those responses, and ergo, they restrict innovation. One might also argue that many of our laws restrict innovation--like immediate execution for DNA-proven rapists and murderers as a response to prison overcrowding--but hey, don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.
...tizzyd
Perhaps we should try killing someone instead.
Seriously, WE THE PEOPLE don't have the money to buy the ears of our representatives the way the corporate interests can. WE THE PEOPLE won't soon even really have the power of voting the bums out of office, if Diebold, Inc. gets their way. WE THE PEOPLE have few options short of throwing the tea in the harbor.
Here's what we can do.
Stop paying taxes, as they go to benefit some fucked up government claiming to be ours - but which does nothing in the public interest. Of course this would have to be universal, or the few fools who try it will get thrown in jail and the rest of us will pay even more to cover thier prison expenses.
Stop voting, completely. Don't even show up. When the next president wins with 2 votes it will be clear that these people only represent their corporate buddies. Of course, this isn't much use either, other than as a statement.
Hold the people behind these corporations accountable for their actions. If you can't do so legally, through civil suits or what not, do so through violence. If Mr. CEO of Evil Corp, Inc. were to take a bullet in the head following the latest introduction of an evil bill in the senate by the senator his company bought out, there may be less of that in the future.
People are running these corporations, which in turn 0w3n your government. The only way to regain control of this country, is to make the people behind these corporations pay. Pay in court. Pay in blood.
Is this too extreme? It's your country, you decide.
Hey, if Pat Robertson, a Christian Role Model that I look up to and learn from can advocate Nuking the State Department for the good of his country, I can advocate violence against crooked evil greedy CEOs for the good of my country. Or are you saying there're two sets of rules. One set for huge financial donors of the republican party, and one for the rest of us?
because I have been enjoined by this Holy Office to abandon the false opinion which maintains that the Sun is the centre
For example, with NAFTA Canada sued the United States saying that banning asbestos is an infringement of Free Trade.
So? They had a point.