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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*
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!
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.
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
The 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!
You have it BACKWARDS. The US and corporations are pushing *for* this treaty. The purpose is to shut down the pesky public and pesky innovators with things like VCRs and the internet and PVRs and opensorce software that can allow a computer to be or do anything with 'content'.
Corporations especially want to eliminate that pesky 'fair use' nonsense.
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- - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
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
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.
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.
"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' . . .