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US Plots "Pirate Bay Killer" Trade Agreement
An anonymous reader sends word that Wikileaks has revealed that the United States is plotting a 'Pirate Bay killing' multi-lateral trade agreement, called 'ACTA,' with the EU, Japan, Canada, Mexico, Switzerland and New Zealand. "The proposal includes clauses designed to criminalize the non-profit facilitation of copyrighted information exchange on the Internet, which would also affect transparency sites such as Wikileaks. The Wikileaks document details provisions that would impose strict enforcement of intellectual property rights related to Internet activity and trade in information-based goods. If adopted, the treaty would impose a strong, top-down enforcement regime imposing new cooperation requirements upon Internet service providers, including perfunctory disclosure of customer information, as well as measures restricting the use of online privacy tools."
And we (the US) are pissed at China for what, now? Sounds like this is taking a page out of their playbook for censorship.
Information wants to be free!
A shift in the way we think about copyright has to happen, or this is going to get out of control in a hurry.
Normally the people who upload/post leaks aren't afraid of a little lawsuit action. It's the jerk-offs that don't seed after they've downloaded files that fear the RIAA. Let them be gone I say.
You just outlawed every search engine!
"Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement"?
These people are dishonest even in naming their legislation. This is the "Anti-Copying Trade Agreement", or perhaps more aptly, the "Anti Fair-Use Trade Agreement".
... but if they can hurt enough individuals, maybe other individuals will be to scared to continue to download.
Its scary to me how close this tactic is to the ideal of terrorismThe post and thread here appear to be very US-centric -- they assume that any trade agreement that the US decides to offer to the world will be immediately accepted by other sovereign states.
The proposed bill tramples the constitutions and bills of rights held by a number of the proposed signatories.
Think for a moment: not only would the treaty be illegal in, for example, Canada, but can you imagine the government touching this treaty with a 10' pole? After NAFTA? With a minority government? With the public and media attention currently on the unfair and heavy-handed tactics being used to pressure Canada into adopting US copyright laws right now?
Now try applying this to all the other proposed signatories who have fewer ties with the US. I truely doubt this treaty will ever survive the proposal stage.
Of course, that doesn't mean it shouldn't be protested against; most likely the US will try to slip these conditions into some unrelated treaty amendment in the not-too-distant future.
Is what worries me the most. If applied broadly, that could apply to many types of software, that have legitimate purposes. e.g Anonymous proxies, OpenSSH, Freenet, etc. Basically anything that hides or obscures your communication from eavesdropping could become illegal.