EFF, Public Knowledge Sue Over Secret IP Pact

Cowards Anonymous writes "The Electronic Frontier Foundation and Public Knowledge have filed a lawsuit against the Office of the US Trade Representative in an attempt to get the office to turn over information about a secret Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement treaty being negotiated to step up cross-border enforcement of copyright and piracy laws. ACTA could include an agreement for the US, Canada, the European Commission and other nations to enforce each others' IP laws, with residents of each country subject to criminal charges when violating the IP laws of another country, according to a supposed ACTA discussion paper [PDF] posted on Wikileaks.org in May."

Comments

Means nothing in the UK - they could do it anyway

[Chrisq]

Its meaningless in the case of the UK anyway. Once you give the right to a foreign power to extradite anyone without having to produce evidence why, even if they have never left the UK or committed a crime in this country then this is permitted by default anyway.

When will we get a government that cares about our people more than appeasing the playground bully?

Re:Leave it to the RIAA for suggestions ...

[boredandatwork]

Do they picture a bunch of people running a hidden music speakeasy upstairs of some dingy storefront? I know piracy is somewhat 'organized' in China with the bootleg market, but I did not think most of that stuff occurs everywhere this abomination would affect. I've never been able to drive down the road, knock 4 times on a door and get myself a $2 copy of whatever the kids are listening to nowadays.

The Bush Administration

[mlwmohawk]

I am so pissed off at this administration. They just simply don't care, regardless of what they say, about the constitution or the laws of the country, or even the intensions of the founding fathers.

They make "law" by executive order, which are held as valid unless challenged by the courts or the legislature, then stall the legislature with fillibuster so that no corrective action can take place. Then fight every challenge up to the supreme court, which takes years.

So, in essence, the president is a king because although there is "balance of power" the time between executive order and any sort of push back is years, and the span of time, they have reaped the benefits of the unjust actions.

Disgraceful, but effective, this needs to be stopped some how. I think that, unfortunately, means passing laws that limit the effectiveness of the presidency.

Re:The Bush Administration

[PhilipPeake]

Executive orders are an affront to the constitutional principles of the US Constitution.

This is NOT a power of the President as enumerated by the constitution. It has been tolerated by congress and the judiciary because they see it as useful. If very fast response to some issue is needed an executive order can be made in hours, as opposed to days, weeks, months or years if it has to be passed by congress. From that point of view, it is reasonable to allow this power.

What is wrong with it is that the orders are permanent. IMHO, it should work like this:

Executive orders should automatically expire after one year or at the end of the presidency, whichever comes first. A president *may* renew an order, but only one he has issued. No president may renew an order issued by a predecessor, either in word or effect (no re-writing it in his own words) - if congress thought it a good idea, there has been time to convert it into (real) law.

Speaking as an old person...

[Peter Simpson]

...but minus the fistful of dollars...

To put it succinctly: we're pissed off, too.
I'm not at all happy about what's been happening to our civil rights, our constitution or our country's image in the world. The last eight years have been a boon to the corporations and a disaster for the rest of us. Our elected officials are either too lazy, too stupid, too scared or too much beholden to the corporations. It is on their watch that the PATRIOT act, the TSA and the DMCA have been passed.

So, it's not just the young who lose, it's all of us. Some of us old geezers feel just like you do.

And by the way, you're damn right we have a sense of entitlement. Entitlement to do what we want, as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else. Entitlement to human rights and fair use of copyrighted material. Entitlement not to be treated as suspected terrorists every time we board an aircraft.

Bitter? No, just angry, and hoping more people get that way. Democracy only works if you make it work.

Re:Speaking as an old person...

[flyingfsck]

Actually, 2008 is the year that the USA became a Socialist state and nationalized a big chunk of its economy. Most other things are minor compared to this.

Re:Speaking as an old person...

[ShieldW0lf]

I'm not at all happy about what's been happening to our civil rights, our constitution or our country's image in the world. The last eight years have been a boon to the corporations and a disaster for the rest of us. Our elected officials are either too lazy, too stupid, too scared or too much beholden to the corporations. It is on their watch that the PATRIOT act, the TSA and the DMCA have been passed. So, it's not just the young who lose, it's all of us. Some of us old geezers feel just like you do. And by the way, you're damn right we have a sense of entitlement. Entitlement to do what we want, as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else. Entitlement to human rights and fair use of copyrighted material. Entitlement not to be treated as suspected terrorists every time we board an aircraft.

Exactly.

You think you're entitled to do what you want, as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else. And now that you did what you wanted, you wake up and there's grey hair everywhere. The decision to save money hiring the old experienced guy instead of taking responsibility for nurturing the young guy who doesn't know leaves the young guys helpless and inexperienced and unable to pick up the reigns now that you're tired and old. The decision to treat children and families as an individuals preference rather than the most pressing social need of all left society facing a future where there isn't enough population to sustain the infrastructure.

You did this, with your choices, with your inattentiveness, with your passing the buck to other people, to other nations, or just dropping the ball entirely and denying that you were ever responsible.

And now you think your hard work and your pieces of paper are going to magically deal with these issues, because you are entitled to the retirement your parents had, even though you didn't bear the large families that support such a retirement.

Thing is, the best thing that can happen is that we manage to divest ourselves of responsibility for you old bastards and turn our limited resources to caring for and creating more young people. The worst thing that can happen is that we exhaust what little we have in a misguided attempt to care for you as our civilization spirals towards oblivion.

Why do you think the property values are going down? It's not specultation, it's surplus. There aren't enough people to fill the houses, therefore, they are practically worthless. You'll be trading your deeds for a hunk of bread before it's all done, if anyone is even interested.

As far as I'm concerned, you and your entire generation can go to hell, and any of the young people who idolize your way of life can go with you.

Re:Shine a light on these roaches! Protest!

[Nursie]

Given that several millions of americans are breaking the law in this area, one would think they'd look at it.

OTOH, that never made anyone reconsider drug policy.

Re:Shine a light on these roaches! Protest!

[Artraze]

Politicians make laws in the same way that PHB's manage people. They make the laws and if you break them it's because you're a criminal. After all, they made the laws to protect you, don't you want to be protected?

The trouble is that they make the laws with (mostly) good (but very ignorant) intentions. When they see people frequently breaking the law they think it's more a matter of law enforcement not having the right tools to stop the crime. Therefore they increase law enforcement's power. It would be nice if they instead just figured that the law was unenforcible or otherwise bad, but again, since they wrote it and passed it in good faith, they believe the failing must be elsewhere...

Re:Corruption

[Pichu0102]

Government everywhere are always extremely corrupt, it's just the US government lately hasn't been covering their tracks. Don't worry, they'll learn soon and start covering their tracks again.

That is fine

[someone1234]

The problem is that country USA makes its law a law in country Everywhere.
I don't mind if they 'export democracy', the problem is when they start to export their corporate laws which don't even have a wide consensus in the USA.