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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.'"
A copied song--as it was not produced by the authorized agent--could be considered "counterfeit." At least, that's the closest to understanding that I can get to by guessing. It sounds like someone's buggered all their sense away.
If you haven't been down-modded lately, you aren't trying.
Sacred cows make the best hamburger.
how will they manage file encryption.
Just one more excuse to induce more fear in the normal population.
- Human knowledge belongs to the world
Copied disks sold as retail are counterfeit. Copying disks breaks copyright. But it is a stretch to see how you could tell if the stuff on an MP3 player came from counterfeited or original sources.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
ISP records don't have anything to do with it either. This is naked imperialism - a power grab without disguise. It's not about "protecting" brand names, it's about silencing political dissent.
Think of it like speed traps. You, presumably, sped. The speed trap captures this, takes that moment-in-time shot, and you get the bill in the mail. You are, at this point, guilty until proven innocent. Yes, you are guilty, you were speeding; (important) technicalities such as calibration times of the speed trap, etc. aside... you were speeding.
Now it's up to you to 1. challenge this and 2. provide evidence that either you were NOT speeding, or that you were speeding for a damned good reason which exempts you from getting a ticket.
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So to get back on-topic...
"How would border guards be able to tell an illegal song on an iPod"
If it's in the AAC format with Apple's Fairplay DRM - which they license to nobody and all that.. then it's probably legit.
If it's an MP3, it'll get added to the list of 'probably-illegal' bits of music.
"from a song ripped from your private CD collection"
1. Challenge it, 2. provide evidence that you, in fact, are in posession of that CD.
"(which as the RIAA would have us believe, is illegal too)"
If that is indeed the law - which, last time I checked, it's not - yhen you're screwed even in the above case regardless.
"from a song bought from the iTunes store?"
Presuming you purchased an unprotected MP3 - that purchase should be listed in your iTunes Account. 1. Challenge it, 2. provide the evidence - name Apple if you want.
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Now, personally, I don't think this will actually be checked all -that- actively. Lines at airports and the like are queued enough as it is and they're strapped for money just to check for things like, you know, actual terrorists, drug smugglers, etc. That's not to say I'm complacent - I already sent in my letter of protest several weeks back, but we're not exactly part of the G8 countries so that's probably going to do fook all good - but I don't think that the first kid with a few MP3s on his system is going to be shipped to Gitmo either.
Now, with that out of the way, the clauses regarding the restrictions of privacy tools use online (and, possibly, offline; that TrueCrypted drive you've got and such) I find far, far more unsettling (and was the majority of the body of my protest letter; personally I can't really justify saying "I'm only downloading a movie! What's the harm!?", but I did point out the ridiculousness of involving law enforcement officials in this, never mind the penance, and my disagreement with those clauses on those grounds).
I'm still waiting for them to hook this into a "That way we'll get the terrorists, too!"-type defense argument.
But maybe they're not, and they're expecting people, to just fume at the worst bits, then blank those out and just leave it with the anti-piracy bits which might be grudgingly accepted.
The baby boomers couldn't wait for their parent's generation to move on and allow them to legalize pot. Logical thinking about copyright won't happen either.
America is moving towards an information economy. Those in power are aware of the transformation and are trying to protect future American interests.
When the manufacturing is all being done in the cheapest places (globalization) America will only have her service economy, IP (If America owns Hollywood, she can buy and sell the world's spare time), and such control over business dealings in foreign lands as her businesses can muster and enforce.
Can you get rich by doing your neighbor's laundry if he is doing your in return? The GDP generated by Americans doing services for Americans is only wealth in terms of employment.
If IP is not protected, the only remaining wealth in America will be foreign businesses. Foreign businesses can be nationalized as soon as America's military isn't a major threat.* So suppose these events happened:
1: Rampant piracy makes ownership of IP moot
2: Japanese, Saudi, or Chinese businesses dump their bonds.
That's it! Those two things would bring America crashing to her knees, and destroy the cultural, economic, and military might of the greatest nation on earth. There really is a 3: profit for many powerful people. This is what America's leaders are doing about the situation:
Hiding the extent of the danger
Misguidedly passing draconian IP protection laws
Maintaining a large, secret technological lead (black tech: its real. No, I don't believe in UFOs)
That's what they're doing. I pass no judgment here, I'm just saying, that is the cause of these actions.
*Did you know that 50% of American businesses overseas (overseas divisions)are owned by the Chinese and theoretically controlled by the Chinese government? Did you know that the Saudis can take controll of foreign firms with the flick of a pen?
If video games influenced behavior the Pac Man generation would be eating pills and running away from their problems.
Well, I think they use our Bill of Rights as toilet paper over there in Gitmo... So, we, as US Citizens, have the right to remain silent. Anything we say can and will be used against us on a tribunal. And whatever we don't say, they will take out from us through Waterboarding...
Anyways, this law will just give one more reason for the TSA a**holes to seize more property from us before we board planes.
Is there a free country somewhere? I think I am moving to Brazil... They have no RIAA, and they pretty much download everything illegally over the Internet.
I seem to recall that Alan Cox, and probably others, were so disturbed by the DMCA in the US that they vowed never to visit the US again. So, the Linux Symposium has been held in Ottawa for some time.
Will this force Linux conferences to be held outside the US, Canada and the EU? Of course Alan Cox lives in the EU. It really makes one not wish to even travel through the region, which is pretty difficult if you think about air travel hubs, etc.
Seriously, how are they going to take my ipod of 8,000+ songs, mp3s, ogg files, Linux .iso images, podcasts, etc.,
.iso images, podcasts, etc.,"...
.iso images, podcasts, etc...that would cost you much more than that to replace.
They would just take the iPod. Their opinion would be "fuck you and your 8,000+ songs, mp3s, ogg files, Linux
All your base belong to us.
Sounds like (bad pun I know) that the Canadian customs and border patrol is going into the used iPod business. Just taking them away from people and then reselling them, maybe erased, maybe not (for a little extra charge). Or maybe if you slip them a hundred dollar bill, they will let you keep your iPod of 8,000+ songs, mp3s, ogg files, Linux
Sounds rather profitable for the right border guards. Apple will love it too because people will have an incentive to be constantly buying smaller and smaller iPods that will be more difficult to detect.
One good thing about the situation. The drug dogs can't sniff out a hidden iPod. But don't worry, Steve Jobs will come out with a way for the dogs to detect them through smell. After all, every time the Canadians steal someone's iPod, he makes another sale. And a resale of all of the songs on it too!!!
Go Steve. He's probably behind the whole idea in the first place. After all, it's not like any corrupt Customs shithead is going to mess with his iPod!
It is all stupid anyway. I work in Azebaijan (lots of restrictions on P2P and VOIP) and before that I worked in the UAE (where VOIP is illegal). Several other crazy places (like Thailand where they banned YouTube) before that. I am used to crazy laws. I now use a proxy in Switzerland that costs me $5 a month because it gets me through the censors anonymously using SSH. As these stupid laws proliferate the anonymous proxies in Switerland will have a golden era. US, Canadian and EU citizens will now need them as well so that they can carry their iPods empty through customs and go online and fill them up the other side. If you want to avoid the eyes of the MAAFIA use SSH to a proxy in Switzerland (land of the free).
Avoid the proxies in Sweden etc. as they are subject to EU law, Switzerland is not subject to EU law and do no reveal your identity to anyone.
I love stacking my barbecues in the shed at the end of summer - you can't beat a bit of grill on grill action.
"How would border guards be able to tell an illegal song on an iPod"
If it's in the AAC format with Apple's Fairplay DRM - which they license to nobody and all that.. then it's probably legit.
It's pretty unlikely that any border guard is going to be checking the format of any random song on any random traveler's iPod. Most will most likely happen in the worst case is that the border crosser will have to get a 'certificate of compliance' from a record store or Apple store. You'd bring your iPod to the Apple store, they'd run a check of the DRM on all the songs, seal it somehow (maybe in a plastic bag), and then give you a 'certificate of compliance', all at a hefty Apple fee. You would show this to border guard. They might or might not let the iPod through. They might or might not let you through. You might have to pay a supplemental fee (in cash of course) to get either you and/or your iPod through the border.
Then you would do all the same routine on your way back home.
Please don't tell me I'm crazy. My friends and I have had a lot of experiences with the US/Canada border and the meatheads in uniform who work on it. Nothing is too weird and crazy to not be true. Especially now.
One thing that may develop is a program that takes standard MP3 songs and reformats them into the Apple configuation, along with the Apple DRM signatures on the files and reloads them onto your iPod. Everything is now 'legal'.
My gut feeling is that the Border guards will just start charging an iPod fee of $50 or so to bring your iPod across the border. Then the Border Patrol will work out a certain percentage of this fee that would go to the American RIAA, a percentage to the Canadian RIAA, and a majority of it kept by themselves for adminstration costs.
By making it explicit that treaties with foreign powers are no less the "supreme law" of the land than the Constitution itself.
In the simplest terms, the federal government is and always has been supreme in international affairs.
You may be able to argue that you being treated unfairly, that too much is being exposed, that you being asked to asked to accept more, much more, than the treaty requires.
But if the government simply frames the issues as a border search for contraband - which it will - you are in for an uphill slog.
To a court, your laptop is simply another container, part of your luggage,
What really bothers me about these international agreements is that, at least in Canada, they are often signed without public involvement. While I don't have any specific examples, I've heard of cases where the Canadian charter (most supreme law in Canada, similar to the Constitution in the US) was over ruled by international law.
I mean, besides writing my federal representatives what can I, as a voting citizen, do about this ? Making amendments to the Charter and Constitution is a REALLY BIG DEAL and not easy to do. But signing international treaties which can over rule our most supreme national laws is standard practice.
Infowars and PrisonPlanet. Take their output, add to the mainstream media, divide by two and you might get a picture of reality.
Well, how about another group of nutjobs - the "Federal Reserve". Since the CPI numbers are meaningless, and the GDP numbers are bogus (compare pre-Clinton and post-Clinton numbers for a good example why), let's look at the relative buying power of the US Dollar, since that's a lot harder to fudge.
Here ya go.
The numbers to look at are the Broad and Major Currency numbers. These indices are relative to a specific point in time - Jan 97 and Mar 73, respectively).
So, looking at the most recent YOY data (APR-APR) - the US dollar has dropped 9.3% YOY compared to a broad group of our trading partners, and nearly 12% YOY when compared to other major currencies. Contrast this to a 4% YOY (broad) or a 4.7% (major) for the 12 month period before that.
You're suggesting there is any respect for them?
I don't think there is any left today. While copyright was useful tool it is no longer so - and it's getting so obvious that even the "average people" are noticing.
The moon is not fully subjugated. I demand a second assault wave preceded by a massive nuclear bombardment.
I'm less sure how they plan to scan the tens of thousands of media files on a given iPod. Perhaps since you're already waiting several hours to check in to make sure you haven't got a pair of nailscissors with which you might manicure someone to death the rationale is to make you wait at the other end too.
Naturally the whole question of how many Pirates and Ninjas there are will then likely swing heavily to starboard.
Simple. Grab your device, mirror its contents, and sift through its contents at their leisure while you're on your way home.
If they find anything naughty (whether it's your MP3s or pr0n, and considering that 99% of pr0n's probably copyright infringement too...), you get a lawsuit in the mail a few weeks later.
The real goal, I suspect, is industrial espionage. By making it "standard practice" to copy/image all storage devices at the border, you greatly increase the odds of getting some leftover data on a hard drive left unsecured by some careless engineer or executive.
the ipod search is obviously a red herring. The real reason for this agreement is far more sinister.
$
Luckily, the RIAA do not get to determine Fair Use.
But this nation's CD rippers are in good company. Bush admitted to having The Beatles on his iPod long before they were available as a digital download.
My captcha was nicely relevant: judicial