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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!"
Boy, it's obvious the UN isn't in the pocket of the Big Corporations, yessiree!
Will they outlaw ink and paper next?
and look what they choose to do with it. *sigh*
Wasn't the country's ideal built around the phrase "Government by the people, and for the people."?
Learn something new.
The US is only the best at ignoring them if they're inconvenient. This would cause so many problems for US business that the government will ignore this even if WIPO were to descend from a cloud in a fiery chariot and writing the treaty into the side of a mountain with a flaming finger.
"I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B
This shows what happens when bureaucracy gets a hold of power. What's next? Banning oxygen, since its a flame hazard?
got sig?
This could outlaw calculators -- especially ones that can do hex -- pen, paper, crayons, blackboards, telephone.
It can outlaw trucks, cars, and telephones since they can be used to make available ideas, calculations, and formulas, that can help decrypt signals.
Fight Spammers!
Is getting my brain fried because of too much TV electromagnetic radiation considered signal theft?
That's just a propoganda slogan.
It's a capitalist government, of course it's for the rich by the rich.
And as the rich (i.e. large shareholders) interests become detached from nation states via multinational corporations they will increasingly use international treaties to strenghten their position and weaken democracy in foreign lands.
Just circuitry? This treaty refers to a "device or system." That's by no means limited to circuitry.
The atmosphere is a system, a physical one, which provides sustenance to humans and allows them to remain alive so they can decrypt signals. Hence, this treaty outlaws the atmosphere.
A human is a system, a biological one, which is capable of decrypting signals. Hence, this treaty outlaws humans.
The universe is a system, the ultimate system, in which the pesky humans and their decrypting computers exist. Were it not for the universe, nobody would be able to break their precious signals. Hence, this treaty outlaws the universe.
Jeez, if you're going to hold people to the letter of the law, you better make damn sure your law doesn't accidentally outlaw the universe.
that a new type of governance is being successfully pushed - 'capitacracy'. This is where only the largest businesses and wealthiest people have any say and all forms of communication/expression and liberty not controlled by said entities will be outlawed? Regardless of its intent, every lawyer knows this vagueness can be exploited to further all kinds of oppressive litigation and control. It's time to start skimming the gene pool
After all... the fact that George W Bush is President proves that we do not have a democracy.
Not at all.
The fact that Gore aquiesced and neither Gore's nor Bush's supporters rebelled due to the court's decision and the Senate's failure to act is proof that we DO have a democracy.
The fact that the Senate didn't do their job and debate the Florida results in Congress, which essentially gave Bush the presidency, is proof that each left-wing Senator elected before 2000 is a pansy and a pushover who should resign.
Once it was said that couch potatoes hurt themselves watching TV all day.
No NOT! They hurt many more. Millions of couch potatoes made dancers and singers and their supporting corporations SO strong that they're now trying to control information and educational channels because it *may* be used to *steal* *BROADCAST* signals !!!
What next ? Are they going to ban copper wires cuz they can be used to hook onto power grid and *possibly* steal electric power ???
Throw that idiot box out of your house if you're really serious about protesting against this insanity!!
- mritunjai
OMG, we can no longer reproduce if this goes thru since we can't participate in manufacturing humans 'cause they are capable of decrypting and helping to decrypt encrypted program-carrying signals! AIEEEE!
Keep in mind that the goverment would agree to it, and enforce it, for everyone but them. The goverment itself would of course pay no attention to it whatsoever. This is geared towards helping corperations bring suit against people who they feel are either stealing or helping people steal their product. While I agree that the terms are overly broad, the reality is they're not talking about outlawing PC's, they're talking about outlawing things like cards for PC's that allow them to be used for theft of sat or cable signal. My personal view on this is that it is the responsiblity of the broadcasters to insure that their signals are secure enough that they can't be broken with little or no effort. The corperations don't feel that way.
DeviantArt Page
NSFWThe constitution is supposed to be vague - it deals with a lot of things! Statehood, congress, the whole framework of the federal government, etc. The key to the constitution is you can't make a law that goes against it without amending it (which is terribly hard to do).
This is a specific treaty, that deals with a specific issue, and has no need to be so vague. The Kyoto treaty isn't vague, it's quite clear. So why should this treaty be allowed such leeway?
We ARE all being ruled by corperations!
d iaBosses
Well at least by proxy. Coperate reps bribe/dine/blackmail/makeloveto ministers/senators/congressmen/presidents/MEPs/Me
and the rest of us end up losing what little rights we have.
WIPO is a forum set up by the powerful for the powerful. An unelected body whose job it is to increase the powers of producers and reduce the rights of consumers.
I'm sick of this rubbish. Big business getting laws passed so that if we want to even glance at a film we must pay money each and every time. what's next? CD's with ongoing fees? DVD's that self destruct? MP3s with encryption?
Oh wait......
May the Maths Be with you!
Nothing on the GNU site describes how this 'breaks copyleft'. So does it break copyleft? Or is it simply a bad idea?
engineers are all basically high-functioning autistics who have no idea how normal people do stuff
Given the stupid software patent trend started in the US, they're more likely to end up embracing and extending this precedent than withdrawing from it.
Once this or a similar treaty/law goes into effect, I will be damn sure to keep even better care of my exsisting hardware, and I won't be upgrading until the piece of hardware breaks.
That should be in 10-20 years. and if enough people do this as well, the HW manufactors will just go out of buisness because no one wants to buy there DRM'd CRAP.
It's ether that or a civil war...
I seem to recall subscribers were supposed to be a part of the editorial process, able to e-mail the editors with corrections and dupe alerts.
Has this even happened? The editors here are notorious for operating in a black box, rarely answering e-mails at all.
If computers are outlawed, or probably more reasonable - computers without DRM (or any other device you can think of), what can we do to counter it?
How much would it cost to build a small microchip cleanroom in my garage (for my own use, of course)?
Lodragan Draoidh
The more you explain it, the more I don't understand it. - Mark Twain
Look... whatever... nobody is going to ban PCs or pen & paper or your brain or math or your TV set.
Right. And if that's all it takes to make you happy...
Though we already know that the general-purpose PC is directly in the sights of these companies for termination. But as long as your rented locked-down media-center pay-per-view system came from Dell and it has a Pentium in it, it's still a PC, right?
These people have their own agenda, however they aren't stupid by any stretch (which they would have to be if these interpreted outcomes have any chance of happening; think about it, don't just react). Calm down, go back to what you were doing and forget about this...
Yes, think about it. The point is not that this will result in the outlawing of PCs or paper, but the fact that it could. When they could apply the law to anything that means they will apply it to everything they want to. Someday, that just might include something you don't want them to. But you missed your chance, because you believed it couldn't happen.
This is exactly the same technique behind the passage of the PATRIOT act. "Oh, but it will only be used against terrorists!" they said, even though nothing in the act itself ensured that this was the case -- it could be applied to practically anything, but just calm down about it because that won't happen, okay? Then a couple years later, morons (particularly Democrats) in Congress are shocked and dismayed that *gasp* the PATRIOT act powers were used in many (mostly) non-terrorism investigations! "I never would have voted for it if I'd known that was going to happen!" they said. Shite. Idiots.
And what will be your excuse when you still have your "PC", but you can't install any software that wasn't approved by the Powers That Be because that software might not respect the new rights they just gave themselves? When that and your precious pen & paper is all you have? Well?
The enemies of Democracy are
The freedom you give up now
We're not giving up anything now. We gave up our freedoms when we decided that it was not treason of the highest order, and certainly worthy of kicking someone out of office next election, to make law in the US via treaty. The abysmal treaties that have constrained patents, trade, and any number of other activities and rights are not subject to any judicial review, and they are written, primarily, by members of the executive branch, thus curtailing the powers of the legislature.
Treaties should be constrained to only adopt existing US laws in a global context. If the executive wants a treaty saying that US citizens will walk around naked, then they should have to pursue a law in the US first. This would slow the processes and make it much less convinient to make law via treaty.
Argentina doesn't really have a significant media industry with the exception of exporting some telenovelas. How did they get into the middle of setting intellectual property and technology standards? Maybe it's the less than democratic governments in the developing world that are equal members of WIPO that put all this weird stuff in here. I'm talking about the same countries who put Cuba, Zimbabwe and Sudan on the U.N human rights commission.
Welcome to the United Corporations (was States) of America.
Preamble: We the Corporations (used to be People) of America, in order to form a better union of greedy businesses to make more money, screw over the average joe, pollute the environment, steal more rights away from individuals, and undo those pesky Bill of Rights.
Permission is granted to reuse this as you see fit. This is public domain.
No the latest pop hit indeed isn't that important, but the principle is. Historically until well into the 20th century "art" (whatever that may be nowadays) never was protected; every composer could "borrow" parts from others, which in fact is how most synphonies and other great works came to be. With "intellectual property", instead of extra motivation, no symphonies of beethoven, brahms and dvorak would have existed.
All famous painters copied one another, refining styles and experimenting with new variations. Yes, most painter or other artists were not rich (most were dead poor) but they did not do it for the money but for the love for art.
Compare that with todays works of "art" and ask yourself what this "motivation" by protection has brought to mankind: not much but a pile of trash.
Btw I'm a capitalist as well. I just believe that ideas, whether great science or art, or plain lowly amusement, must be free in every meaning of the word free. This is not an anti-capitalist thought at all. Capitalism does not equate to greed and destructive commercialisation. Only enemies of capitalism would hold such views.
You have not demonstrated that the UN is sufficiently worse than all the governments underneath it. The UN is no worse than any nation-state, in fact it occasionally goes to those areas of the world the US is so reticent to participate in like africa and provides minimal support. Minimal it may be but it's better than what the US ever does.
You wanna talk UN don't restrict your debate to Iraq or whatever, talk about the whole UN and talk about what the world would look like without the UN and why it would be better.
Anything less is simple finger pointing.
Your arguments are shallow, and a wholesale indictment of the UN would need to be hundreds of pages of foot-noted text. Don't insult my intelligence with this cheap wankery. Since I'm not the one making the ridiculously shallow claim the burden of proof doesn't rest on me.
Photos.
It makes ALL signal decryption devices illegal. Tell me what good is using DRM on anything if there are no legal devices to decrypt the data?
On the plus side, the RIAA/MPAA won't be able to use encryption/DRM to distribute their wares since NO ONE will be legally able to make use of such content. ;)
"When laws stop making any kind of sense or justice, I stop obeying them."
Or as Thoreau stated in "Civil Disobedience," when a law is unjust, it is the duty of the just man to break that law.
Digital Millennium Copyright Act
USA PATRIOT Act and the proposed PATRIOT II Act
CAPPS and CAPPS II
Copyright Extentions
Software Patents
Evoting without a paper trail
ECHELON
Privacy concerns with RFIDs
SLAPPs (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation)
EULAs
Racial Profiling in Law Enforcement
What was done? Nothing. Does anyone here really believe that Congress will "do the right thing" on this "broadcast bit" issue? The magic eight ball says "no fucking way". I personally don't see what the solution is. Bread, circus and prison baby, that's all that will be left.
If I may quote Frank Zappa from "The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing":
Think about this: in Iraq right now there are US Soldiers without bulletproof jackets and Humvees without any armour protection yet with have >$100M USD for a State Funeral of Former President Reagan?Forget it kids, game over.
"And a voice was screaming: 'Holy Jesus! What are these goddamn animals?'" - HST
. . . to its members. That's why you always hear about them voting on resolutions. It's screwed-up because a lot of its members are screwed-up.
People who bash the UN don't seem to realize that there's no alternative. There's only one "everybody." I guess you could disband it, but sooner or later you'd need it again.
You'd need an organization that represents the whole world (not just people who are or could be accused of being in your pocket) to endorse your plan for Iraq. You'd need the help of every nation that diseases spread to in order to fight the next SARS. You'd need a forum where nations can discuss and study things that affect everyone.
You'd end up with essentially the same organization under a different name, accountable to the same screwed-up members. Because you need it.
-- . . ramblin' . . .
Newsflash: Treaties are enforced by the signatories, not by the UN, by whatever means the signatories agree on. Normally that means making the treaty into law. In the US it's even simpler: Once a treaty is ratified, it IS law, thought often a separate law will be passed because the treaties rarely are specific enough to be practical to enforce as is.