Purported ACTA Wishlist Would Put DMCA To Shame

ulash writes "Ars Technica has an article about the (alleged) leaked 'wishlist' that RIAA submitted to the US government back in March of this year listing what they wish to see as a part of ACTA. The list includes such gems as forced filtering of materials by the ISPs, gutting the parts of the DMCA that provides safe harbor to the ISPs, and even restricting supplies of 'optical grade polycarbonate' in countries 'with high rates of production of pirated optical discs.' While the effectiveness of such a 'wishlist' on the law is not by any means objectively measurable, if one takes into account how *AA was instrumentative in the passing of DMCA, I think it is more than likely that they will get at least some of their wishes."

Comments

At what point

[Anonymous Coward]

At what point are they satisfied?

Re:At what point

[Endo13]

It looks like they won't be satisfied until they can charge an "entertainment tax" that everyone on earth has to pay simply for being alive. And of course, dictate exactly how much that tax must be.

Re:At what point

[spidercoz]

When they can charge us for thinking about music

Re:At what point

[pitchpipe]

Never. If your livelyhood was threatened by by changing global economic dynamics, at what point would you be satisfied by government intervention? Especially when that intervention will always be ineffective?

Really what they are going to succeed in doing is continuing the decline of the United States as a global power relative to other countries through restrictive trade practices and strong arm tactics to the point where the U.S. will not be the preferred trading partner because of all of the baggage that comes with it.

In essence, they are selling us down the river.

Re:What about when the **AA's are out of business?

[ivantheshifty]

That's exactly right, and why everything the **AA's do is so dangerous. The RIAA is an example of an industry group that knows its business model doesn't cut it, and rather than adapting to face advancing technology, it's instead desperately flailing to stymie progress and preserve itself for just a couple more years. But the rest of America will be grappling with the DMCA for decades. God help us all if ACTA gets enforced.

Hardly surprising

[SimonGhent]

Well, it's fairly common practice to submit a huge list of "wants" whether your list is business requirements, suggestions for law makers or what you want for Christmas.

Put a few obviously silly items on the list and the ones you really want probably look a bit more plausible. I in no way advocate what they are asking for, but the way they are asking could be considered pretty smart.

Re:What about when the **AA's are out of business?

[uxbn_kuribo]

Not only that, but with every industry on the decline due to recession, the RIAA seeks to blame piracy for its downturn. Gee, guys, ever think that maybe poor people buy less albums? The way they talk, people have an obligation to support their industry. I swear, they're just as bad as the travel companies.

Re:What about when the **AA's are out of business?

[uxbn_kuribo]

And for that matter, the bit about security officials searching mp3 players for illegal music? Let's not worry about the guys sneaking bombs into the terminal, let's worry about the guy with some Coldplay (ugh) mp3s! Furthermore, how can an airport offical determine what mp3s are legal or not? I mean, they could be freely distributed (like Jonathan Coulton's work) or legally downloaded. Hell, Youtube regularly removes "copyrighted" videos at the request of people, despite no copyright being violated, despite fair use, and even despite the claimant not owning the copyright at all. The *IAA will soon reach a point where everyone (not just us internet folk) knows that if they could form their own police force like the Gestapo, they would.