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Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement
SpaceAdmiral writes "The Canadian government is secretly negotiating to join the US and the EU in an Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. The agreement would give border guards the power to search iPods and cellphones for illegal downloads, as well as to force ISPs to hand over customer information without a warrant. David Fewer, staff counsel at the University of Ottawa's Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic, characterizes ACTA this way: 'If Hollywood could order intellectual property laws for Christmas what would they look like? This is pretty close.'"
If you can't buy a law, buy a treaty. This one would force software patents on the EU. I am ashamed of my country for pushing things like this and I'm amazed we try given our excessive petrolium consumption, excessive pollution and a war of aggression. Is this GWB's way of getting as much done as he can before leaving office or have all of the world's government become this much less democratic?
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
go together?
That which does not kill me only postpones the inevitable.
I can't wait for the baby boomers to die so we can take our damn country back and start thinking logically about copyright law.
How would border guards be able to tell an illegal song on an iPod (i.e. downloaded without buying it in any form), from a song ripped from your private CD collection (which as the RIAA would have us believe, is illegal too), from a song bought from the iTunes store?
Admit it. You post strawman arguments as AC so you get modded Insightful for refuting them, rather than Troll
Someone who's been blinded by the IP propaganda term might confuse "fake" handbags with ripped music. The confusion is intentional and it's designed to take rights away.
Even given that, the demand for ISP logs and invasion of Canadian and EU citizen privacy is ballsy.
Intellectual property was the desert property of the twenth century.
It is just more stupid American foreign policy.
Just today I read that the the drug war fuelled by America's love of cocaine and marijuana is resulting in thousands of people getting killed in Mexican gang wars over smuggling routes, yet the US War on drugs policy persists, keeping the black market trade the biggest and bloodiest industry in the world.
On the north border they want to remove the rights of people just to make a few cocaine snorting media exec's happy.
And we have seen what US foreign policy has done to the middle east.
Its no wonder so many people hate the US, their politicians have systematically contributed to most of the crap that is currently going on in the world all in the name of consumerism and captialism. Its not about democracy at all, its all about how cheap their gas is and what boat they can buy with their annual bonus.
> I'm guessing you're a member of "Generation-Me"
You mean the baby boomers?
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
Didn't you hear? The Constitution doesn't mean anything any more. From free speech, to firearm rights, to search and seizure. But it was nice while it lasted.
That which does not kill me only postpones the inevitable.
It'd be nice if this minority government would have an election forced so we could get rid of Stephen "Little George Bush" Harper and his Conservatives. It's no coincidence that all these "Canada trying to get X law put it" stories are coming around now that they're in power.
The baby boomers built the country? Please! They were sitting around protesting, free-loving, and smoking dope while their parents and grandparents actually built what we have today. No one on this planet has the same entitlement mentality as United States baby boomers. No one.
You don't know me. I do like my life, I work hard, and I also vote. Forgive me for expressing dismay over the possible adoption of ridiculous policies.
Where do you draw the line between whining and merely stating one's opinion? Seems to me like you are a whiny baby-boomer who can't handle the criticism of younger people (I'm 27). See how easy it is to flip that around? I can argue with you and make up negative things about you, rather than actually attacking your opinion with logic.
I got it though, you have enlightened me. The baby boomers were here first so they deserve the chance to not only gobble up the world's resources and pollute the environment, and to write up some draconian laws that will persist and cause the next generations to suffer for decades after they are dead and gone. All so that a few large media corporations (run by baby boomers) can get wealthier and the CEOs can be entombed in large structures with their luxury cars and secretaries.
I got news for you old man, you're gonna die, and your country will be ours. So long. We won't miss you.
You seem to think that this would be a problem for US Customs. I travel to the US by car once every two weeks or so, and it doesn't matter to them if they need to hold up a car for five seconds or five minutes; their shift ends when it ends. It's more work for each individual traveller to the States, but all in all, it's still a day's worth of work to the average customs officer.
Condemnant quod non intellegunt.
Camping on quad since 1996.
I understand IP. I understand what is theft, and what isn't. I don't abide by customs searches for somebody's IP. I bought and paid for every single piece of music I have. None were torrented, or obtained through nebulous means from a copyright respect perspective.
And the music moguls now want to enforce the ability to check on me. With WHAT??? How can a customs agent possibly determine the MP3s that I have are, or are not purchased with validity???? THEY CANNOT!
IP protection isn't the backbone of the US economy. It's an intangibles-fantasy to think so. That's not what my father built, his father built, my mother built, and so on. It's the asset protection mechanism of the nonsensical. It's not innovative, it's not producing return on the intangible asset, it's as flimsy as derivates. Yet I respect the concept of asset ownership, and my rights under the law as a consumer. Now some nitwit's pressured various treaty signators to look at my damn MP3 player-- where's the justice in that??????
---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
Maybe it's the product of growing up under the red scare, but between the anti-Vietnam movement, the war on drugs, "Family Values", the war on terrorism, and the bare minimum of environmental laws/cheap gas/tax breaks for SUVs, the boomers' voting record will probably cause them to be remembered as the most cowardly and coddled generation in history.
"Generation-Me" indeed.
Why yes, I do have karma to burn.
Software patents are one small but important piece of the IP Empire which demands universally oppressive laws.
The list goes on and on but it has one common theme, your rights mean nothing, shut up and get back to work for the man.
I am a name troll of Westlake. Visit my homepage to learn why.
When will we get a notion of priority in this sick world? We've got so many issues in this world, much to do with security and protection; Please tell me why pirated music will take priority when our current ACTUAL border security is a joke? I'm imagining a scene where some guy is getting shook down for copied music while hoodlums rape a woman nearby unquestioned. Lets get a list of frikkin priorities here.
The only thing that surprises me about this is that the agreement doesn't have "Anti-Terrorism" in the title.
16 hour work days, food that's poison, obesity, insurance and medicine they can't afford. At some point it collapses on itself because there's only so much greed an economy can stand. We are entering a recession exactly as predicted by Former World Bank Vice President, Chief Economist and Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz in 2006.
Rights are universal. Whether the US government is obligated to protect the rights of anyone other than a US citizen is a matter of much debate, all inconclusive. But abusing those rights of any citizen makes a mockery of liberty. At the hands of a US government employee under official orders, such a mockery makes a travesty of the basis of the US government as a government created by American people to protect those rights.
--
make install -not war
Never said it was. In fact, I consider the mere existence of the border to be a grave injustice to all. Freedom of movement is as paramount as all others.
What?
Repeal copyright. All of it. If they want to fight, give 'em a fight. Let us not piddle about minor interpretations of legalisms. Let's gut the whole thing. Patents too. Both of them were designed to promote progress and now the serve the opposite purpose. They should be done away with.
Patents shall not issue. Copyrights shall not be granted. All patents and copyrights are void. (New amendment)
Help stamp out iliturcy.
Paragraph 1 of the Charter says that The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees the rights and freedoms set out in it subject only to such reasonable limits prescribed by law as can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society. and Paragraph 8 says that Everyone has the right to be secure against unreasonable search or seizure. This is definitely unreasonable search and seizure, and there's no way you can justify searching private devices without cause for copyright infringement. Also note that this paragraph says "everyone", not "every citizen of Canada".
This idea of selling bits is a dot-bomb era fallacy, much like the 99.9% of business plans during hat time which failed, and which you seemingly have bought into.
Cory doctorow does a good job of tearing this apart in this talk
Copyrights are imaginary, they are a concept which anyone can readily ignore, and which those with current military parity DO ignore (china, russia).
VLC FOR MAC IS DYING! IF YOU DEVELOP, PLEASE SAVE IT!!
I think you don't get it.
This is part of "Make everyone criminal". If not enough people are breaking rules, you invent some more rules that they have to break in order to live comfortably.
It produces fear and guilt and thought fear conformity and obedience (you don't want to stand out and give anyone reason to go harass you because you know there is something to be harassed about). It gives base for bullying inconvenient people: they can use your filled ipod to give you minor bitch slap as well as to do monster process that will ruin you.
Its all about giving your government more tools. The fact that it benefits big media corps is win/win side effect (RIAA is happy and major newspapers/tv channells wont cover this threaty)
-- Technology for the sake of technology is as pathetic as eschewing technology because it's technology.
A speed trap triggers based on speed (which, if measured right, proves you guilty), just searching for MP3s triggers on the presence of MP3s (which still doesn't prove you guilty). Considering the format evidence for the legality of its source would be akin to a speed trap photographing all sports cars passing by because those are very good at speeding. The presence of an MP3 or ownership of a sports car alone is not enough to prove you guilty of copyright infringement or speeding, respectively.
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
What amazes me is how they figure they can identify illegal content.
Seriously, how the hell can a border services agent tell that the MP3s on my iPod have all been legally ripped from CDs I have purchased? They can't. I buy probably close to about $1000 CDN in CDs each year, all of which end up ripped and played on my iPods or in mixes.
If they simply look and say anything which isn't an AAC bought from the iTunes store then they'll be flagging a tremendous amount of people for no good reason.
There is simply no way that from an iPod you can verify the pedigree of the songs on it.
Amen to that. Harper et al are really sucking up to Bush just far too much. Though, I must say I reserve some bile for the asshat American government (NOT everyday Americans, for you knee jerk mods) for shoving these &*^%&*(^ laws down everyone's throats. America's chief export nowadays seems to be laws to protect the *AA's and screw the rest of us.
This really is appalling.
Cheers
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
I suggest you take another look at the Ontario Court of Appeal decision in the file sharing case. While at trial there were favourable obiter comments regarding the legality of downloading in Canada, the Court of Appeal said no such thing. It is a very dangerous to believe that downloading is legal in Canada or to confuse downloading with the rights given under the private copying levy.
The baby boomers built the country? Please! They were sitting around protesting, free-loving, and smoking dope while their parents and grandparents actually built what we have today. No one on this planet has the same entitlement mentality as United States baby boomers. No one.
I thought that WE had little respect for our elders, but you punks take the cake (and eat it too). We didn't "sit around protesting", we marched around protesting. And what we protested was what the previous generations had fucked up.
We were being drafted to be cannon fodder for a useless war. Some of us volunteered for that useless war out of patriotism (I did). The protests finally eneded thath war. Meanwhile you little whiners are too busy chasing filthy lucre and getting your nipples pierced and foreheads tattood to care that an oil man becaise President and started a useless war for the sole purpose of enriching himself. At least my dad's generation's rich people who starte dthe Vietnam war thought )prehaps correctly) that they were fighting communism, a laudible goal to them.
My generation's protests stopped the war and made the President resign. Where are your protests of the Iraq war? Your stupid generation doesn't even have to be drafted!
Some of us protested the rape of the environment. We got the Clean Air act and teh Clean Water act passed. We got CFCs banned. What are you gutless wimps doing about global warmning? Buying SUVs!
My generation built sna is still building houses, like the one you live in. The parts of the electrical grid my dad din't build were built by those who followed him.
My dad's generation invented computers, but my generation pur those giant building sized machines on your desktop. My generation put VCRs and CDs and DVDs on the narket. My generation made the entire cell phone infrastructure.
My dad's generation smoked cigarettes. My generation smoked pot. Your generation smokes crack.
Your generation uses my generation's music in their fucktardedly stupid commercials. Neither my nor my dad's generation did that.
My generation was pretty ignorant of history, but we were pikers when it comes to your generation.
What has your generation done, except invent internet trolling?
mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
how will they manage file encryption.
umm, assume you are a terrorist and throw you in jail?
This is a very interesting point, actually... under which nations laws are the legality of the copyrighted materials determined?