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:At what point

[ShibaInu]

Well, except for the fact that the RIAA is controlled by four large multi-national firms. EMI is British, Universal is owned by Vivendi, a French company, the head of Warner music is Canadian and Sony BMG is about as multi-national as you'll find anywhere. If anything, the RIAA and the companies that control it are trying to do this everywhere. US politicians are going along for the ride, but so are governments all over the world.

Re:At what point

[Mix Master Nixon]

Let them just try it. Why keep shooting yourself in the foot when you can blow the whole leg off?

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.

the printing press

[circletimessquare]

had some unintended consequences

it made books cheap, leading to better educated commoners, leading to the creation of a middle class, leading to the idea of democracy and equality

i'm obviously broadly glossing over the historical details, but the lesson is that the printing press allowed for the realization of a number of previously impossible and unforseen societal changes

whatever the internet is going to do society in the realm of unintended consequences, one is sizing up pretty obvious:

the invalidation of the concept of intellectual property

intellectual property works when only a small number of players distribute data. it takes a lot to run a vinyl pressing plant, and easy to find and shut one down that doesn't play by the rules. but when every single person is a one man effortless data distribution factory, then getting everyone to play by the rules of the game becomes impossible to enforce

such that there is no more game. the idea of intellectual property simply ceases to be a valid concept. if it gets out on the web, it stays there. and anything not on the web is given a strong incentive to get on there. witness the imbroglio over guns n roses chinese democracy album recently. once its out there, you can't take it back, and it is extremely easy and anonymous to get out there

what can you enforce in such an environment? say the *AAssholes actually get their way and get all of their draconian laws passed. who cares?

do they honestly believe anything will change? the technology will simply treat their laws like damage, and route around them. this is what the internet was made to do

go for it *AAssholes, give the laws your best shot. why do you believe any legal structure will work to contain the internet? or, i guess the next step is: break the internet. destroy what makes the internet compelling and useful in order to preserve a dying business model

heh, had to open my big mouth

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.

Presumption of guilt

[Tweenk]

Interesting excepts:

Section D.1 basically says that when you pirate something, they can confiscate anything they deem "related" to the infringement (all your PCs are belong to us).
Section I.1 says that all optical disks must be approved by MPAA/RIAA thought police prior to pressing.
Section J.6 requests that ISPs are guilty until proven innocent.
Section J.10 says that MPAA/RIAA should be able to directly spy on your Internet use.
Section K.1 implies that IP pirates are tied to terrorists and organized crime.

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

[zippthorne]

Strip searching people for any reason will often yield busts...