Look Inside A PC-killing WIPO Treaty

mouthbeef writes "The Broadcast Treaty is a proposal from a WIPO Subcommittee that's supposedly about stopping 'signal theft.' But along the way, this proposal has turned into a huge, convoluted hairball that threatens to make the PC illegal, trash the public domain, break copyleft and put a Broadcast Flag on the Internet. The treaty negotiation process is unbelievably convoluted and hard-to-follow, and they've just wrapped up the latest round in Geneva. But for the first time, a really large group of "civil society" orgs were accredited to attend. Me and another EFF staffer and the Coordinator of the Union for the Public Domain created a heavily editorialized impressionistic transcript of the meeting (EFF mirror, UPD mirror), trying to untie the knots in the negotiation. This is the first time that a really exhaustive peek inside a WIPO treaty negotiation has ever been published -- get it while it's legal!"

Comments

That else are the gonna do?

[Skyshadow]

Hey, if the government doesn't trash the economy and the rights of individuals in order to protect an outdated and relatively small sector of the business community, what good are they?

Re:That else are the gonna do?

[Tristan7]

And as much as I hate what my senators vote for, they do represent the firmly held beliefs of the assholes that live down the street.

Stop stealing the photons I'm emitting

[IvyMike]

I'm serious. I keep emitting photons, and all these people keep engaging in signal theft, usually by looking at me, or even more nefariously by having cameras.

Re:Stop stealing the photons I'm emitting

[JeffTL]

Actually you are REFLECTING photons, therefore infringing on the intellectual property of General Electric, Westinghouse, many other lumination consultancy firms, and moreover the stars themselves. Pirate!

Re:Stop stealing the photons I'm emitting

[DaHat]

I'm more concerned about the evil radio waves which keep trespassing on my property, permeating my entire home and being. My tin foil hat just isn't enough!!!

I'm thinking I need to construct a large set of lead shielded antennas and satellite dishes so as to keep them from getting inside my home... and... while I've got em captured, might as well do something with em, same I have no clue what to do.

Re:Stop stealing the photons I'm emitting

[WormholeFiend]

I encrypt the photons that I reflect with Hawaiian Flower print shirts.

Re:Stop stealing the photons I'm emitting

[Spackler]

Actually, that fluorecent dye in detergent is to make you show up better on the spy sattelites on a warm day. When tracking just heat, they can get confused from the heat coming off pavement, but painting you (actually, your clothes) in a dye is like sticking an animal tag on your ear. Clear as a bell. The only way to counteract it is to run around naked (unless you used soap in the shower which also contains the dye). Wrapping yourself in tinfoil is also effective.

Spack

The Human Brain Is Illegal?

[the_mad_poster]

participate in the manufacture, importation, sale, or any other act that makes available a device or system capable of decrypting or helping to decrypt an encrypted program-carrying signal.

Apparently procreation and thinking are not something WIPO is keen on, as the human brain is a "a system" of tissues "capable of decrypting or helping to decrypt an encrypted program-carrying signal".

Uh, if you don't want your signal stolen..

[the_rajah]

for Pete's sake just don't broadcast it!! How simple is that. Duh!!

"Do the Right Thing. It will gratify some people and astound the rest." - Mark Twain

workers unite

[nut]

Rich capitalist pigs are trying to steal the internet off the people who make it actually work for them.

I say turn the internet off for a couple of days, see how they like that ;)

NPA

[freejung]

wouldn't that make sex illegal too?

They can have my penis when they pry it from my cold dead fingers!

Do these guys have any idea what they are saying?

[mark-t]

This proposal would outlaw the creation of any "system capable of decrypting or helping to decrypt an encrypted program-carrying signal".

However, whether these people realize it or not, it is humanly possible to decrypt or to help decrypt a program carrying signal by hand, starting with nothing more than the raw unencrypted data! Technically, that would make the act of human reproduction illegal, since the child could very conceivably grow up into a person with enough mental accuity to take on a task like that. Yes, it would take time, but there's no mention of how long is has to take in order for the system to be outlawed. This proposal is tantamount to governing what people are legally even allowed to _think_ about and absolutely, categorically, _MUST_ be stopped.

Trying to find a positive spin on this...

[mark-t]

On the plus side, with no more home computers, nobody will be using Windows anymore either.

Re:The world gets together to talk

[bruthasj]

Wha .. Wha? My HDTV isn't letting anything through, what are we talking about? It says to click "Yes" and not worry about it ... is this okay?