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Concerns About ACTA In EU, Canada
Elektroschock writes "An EU document on the Anti-Counterfeiting Treaty was leaked. The main purpose of the trade agreement is to impose the European enforcement measures for IPR infringements on the US and emerging economies, widen the enforcement measures to include criminal sanctions for patent infringements, and introduce internet content filtering measures. Civil society groups such as the FFII criticize the ACTA process because negotiation documents are not made publicly available by the governments. The EU document ('fact sheet') from the EU Trade Commissioner explicitly mentions: 'Internet distribution and information technology — e.g. mechanisms available in EU E-commerce Directive of 2000, such as a definition of the responsibility of internet service providers regarding IP infringing content.'" And an anonymous reader adds Michael Geist's push for more transparency around ACTA negotiations in Canada.
This is just another instance of the US trying to control everyone and everything in the world. Someone needs to put a stop to it, but that wont happen.
http://www.p2ptechtime.com
would we want anything like this here in the U.S. ??
I don't know anybody who does. Maybe a CEO or two... certainly not the majority of the population. There is nothing here that benefits anybody but the already rich.
"An EU document on the Anti-Counterfeiting Treaty was leaked. The main purpose of the trade agreement is to impose the European enforcement measures for IPR infringements on the US and emerging economies, widen the enforcement measures to include criminal sanctions for patent infringements, and introduce internet content filtering measures."
I'm sorry you all have it backwards. Bad things are suppose to flow into other countries. Not the other way around.
Shai Schticks:"You don't make peace with friends, you make peace with enemies"
I've been considering making a Firefox extension, or a greasemonkey script, to filter attention whore articles, such as those about Jack Thompson, Uwe Boll, John Dvorak, or those submitted by Roland. Filtering kdawson would be good too. Unfortunately, I have no experience writing extensions or greasemonkey scripts for Firefox.
On the other hand, if we filtered all of the stories that we complain about on Slashdot, there would be nothing left. Then where would we waste our time?
=Smidge=
Is it just my observation, or is eldavojohn an idiot?
The only way to save yourselves is to the industry where it hurts and not spend a dime on any sort of music or movie. Let them eat air!
This is my sig.
Writing software seems rather foolish now.
Unless you're already in jail, you'd be nuts
to risk criminal charges.
About the only software development that might
be able to continue is Reiserfs.
All patents and copyrights shall be for a period of fifteen minutes, with no renewals.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
If you live in one of these countries that puts the priority of Media giants ahead of citizens, so much so, as to bankrupt and criminally charge somebody for acquiring media by a means that the companies themselves simply have yet to put a working infrastructure to compete, I feel sincere sorrow. This is a global issue. In Canada we have yet to implement any such legaslation in stone but no doubt media companies will be pushing for a sort of global standard. Giving these companies the right to monitor filter and ban essential networking for people only furthers the truth as to whose interest politicians are looking out for. The fact that it isn't working in Australia (filtering), United States (destroying citizens lives over songs they wouldn't have bought legally anyways) or in France where a year ban could seriously affect ones job, social life and communication with family, coworkers and information. The internet is so much more then a pipe for downloading illegal content, it's a vital part of many peoples lives as a whole. For anybody who has had a taste of this union of media and government I can all but urge you to fight it tooth and nail, as once the laws are in place it is a lot harder to stop them.
Everyone knows that murder, assault, rape, theft of tangible goods, and even child pornography are just petty crimes that we waste a lot of money enforcing. The real crimes we should be targeting are those which involve Intellectual Property and may even possibly have an impact on company profit margins through such things as lost potential sales, or the inability to overcharge by virtue of an artificial monopoly, or restrict use to what is most convenient to a company. How can even a million human lives compare to a potential lost sale? IP crimes are so heinous we should be bringing back the death penalty and torture. I say anyone who backs up their DVDs should be put to death!!!
In case anyone has failed to detect the sarcasm above, I believe our society is becoming one twisted piece of SHIT and the IP legislators are leading the way to hell.
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
The leaked document contains no indication that patent infringement is slated to be criminalised or content filtering introduced. There is only a vague statement about renegotiating the liability regime for service providers, which could mean anything from obtaining cross-border subscriber information to implementing notice-and-takedown to full-on filtering.
Also, this document reads like a public press release. In what sense was it 'leaked'?
What this means is freedom of speech, not porn.
Remember, the US constitution has that nasty
clause that allows foreign treaties to override
chunks of itself. This toasts the 1st ammendment.
(Europe is big into banning Nazi stuff, etc.)
Without free speech, the people in power are able
to prevent political opponents from arguing.
This agreement is being pushed through in secret: there's no general support for this kind of treaty in the USA, in fact it sounds like a good deal of it is against the US constitution. If Australia or Brazil was the most powerful country in the world, the people who want these kind of controls would be spending their efforts to coopt and corrupt their governments instead.
bigger question is, can they count?
Submitter: "The main purpose of the trade agreement is to impose the European enforcement measures for IPR infringements on the US"
TFA doesn't say anything about the EU trying to enforce measures on the US - in fact, what seems to be happening is that the RIAA, MPAA etc. and the US government are pushing for the removal of ISP liability protections, and the use of criminal law for enforcement within the EU. After all, didn't the Copyright Czar law already "add new classes of felony criminal copyright infringement" in the US, with one stated goal being to "lobby foreign governments to adopt stronger IP laws"?
I really, really hate stuff like this. Why doesn't anyone call the industry on this? Whenever I hear "but it won't be used against small-scale infringers" I want to shout at them THEN FUCKING PUT IT IN THERE! Put it in writing, in the treaty / law / whatever, that it can't be used if fewer than 200 files are shared. Spell it out that you won't prosecute anyone who possesses less than a quarter of his whole movie collection as illegal downloads.
Two reasons why we should not accept wishy-washy talk like this:
Why can people like that get away with blatant lies like that time and time again?
-- Language is a virus from outer space.
Of course it wasn't 'leaked', but it sure sounds more devious when you put it that way.
Just like the line "impose [...] on the US" sounds all sorts of evil and invokes yea olde knee-jerk reaction.
The United States is in on ACTA - heck, who - within the U.S. - do you figure are the driving forces behind the darn thing?
Then again, if knee-jerk reactions will help to get it abolished, maybe "the document was leaked and Europe is evil" is something that's acceptable.
The ACTA saga rolls on. One bonus of stories like this is that it shows how worried the participants are by the attention they are receiving. This after all was supposed to be pushed through on the QT.
Note the special pleading going on - we will not search your iPod, it's just an augmentation of existing regulations etc. No mention of the fact they are still presuming guilt on the part of the consumer and are asking for unprecedented intrusion into individuals personal data.
The fact is this is a treaty designed by copyright holders to give them more powers to protect their IP at the expense of everyone else. No doubt the provisions will be used against major traffickers of stolen IP but they will also be used against individuals by overzealous companies too.
Someone please remind me how they plan to force this on the US? It's bad enough that we have to kowtow to the UN's pipe dreams; now the EU wants to get its oar in? Enough is enough. The already UN wants to censor our internet and take away our guns, and now the EU wants to prosecute programmers as criminals for infringing on IP?
I'm becoming increasingly concerned that many 'election issues' are smokescreens to hide the real issues. This trend of relative morality and world government must be stopped. If we cannot protect basic human rights (including the right to live), keep our national sovereignty, and maintain personal responsibility for welfare, Western civilization is going to fall prey to this strange new breed of Islo-fascist Socialism we're seeing.
Personally, I think we as 'geeks' are far too wrapped up in our own little world of free software battles. I am making it my goal to do what I can to oppose socialism (especially our socialist education system, which is a root of the current problems) and get us out of the UN. Our precious free internet will cease to exist if the US Constitution goes out of operation.
The government can't save you.
ACTA is DMCA style legislation wrapped up into a Treaty. This treaty wishlist includes making ISPs liable for any copyright infringement that passes through their network.
Think about that... If you ISP lets copyrighted material through to your computer, without knowing for sure you're allowed to get that content, then your ISP is the one who will face prosecution as secondary-infringers.
How are ISPs to respond to that? By only letting you talk to sony.com etc? By blocking all encrypted communication where they can't see what you're sending? It's either shows a huge misunderstanding of how the internet works, or intentional malice to line the pockets of copyright collecting companies.
So while the treaty remains secret, several media companies (Time Warner, News Corp, Sony, Walt Disney Co) has been consulted.
The result of the treaty is to hand the worlds ISPs to Time Warner, News Corp, Sony, Walt Disney, etc. If you're indebted to another company just to be in business then you are owned by them.
Internet New Zealand has responded with this: Internet NZ submission and there are many other responses here Coffee.geek
Time Warner, News Corp, Sony, Walt Disney Co. made the largest donations to the US senators pushing this.
I work in a video production company that makes promotional videos for schools and lately the stuff they say: more school hours and higher standards for our "Global Knowledge Based Economy" bugs me, especially when seen against laws like this where violating some stupid patent has such severe consequences. If what is planned out is what I think it is, a lot of kids that go through this "feel good knowledge based economy" bullshit are going to have a very rude awakening when they're older.
Coincidentally notice that what the schools teach tend to be so narrow in scope regarding technology, as if to ensure the resourceful hackers of yesteryear never happen again.
Coincidence?
It appears, to me, that somebody wants people to stop using the internet for various purposes that might be in contradiction to their financial goals. They claim they are losing money.
So, once they get what they want, and the internet is no longer a means of the free exchange of ideas, information, etc, what the FUCK do they think is going to happen?
Hmmm...maybe people will stop using it? And what happens to all the corporations that make THEIR money from the internet? Are they going to stand there and let it happen?
From my point of view, this "war" against copyright infringers is going to blow the whole damn boat out of the water. Right now, it is a war against "us", when it should really be a war between those corporations. A lot of people(read, companies) other then "us" supposed copyright violators stand to lose a lot of money, and I am not talking about the copyright holders.
Where are THEIR voices, on this matter?
Most of the population probably didn't want the DMCA. And yet it's still the law.
Apparently the DMCA was pushed through using a very similar secretive forum-shopping campaign acta's proponents are currently undertaking.
They were laughed out of congress in the US and world-wide, so they took it to the international level, where they also met massive resistance.
They kept shuffling it from organization to organization, until eventually they buried it deep enough to pass without the "negative input" of stakeholders like the developing world or the elected representatives of the governments they were coopting.
My guess is this agreement will either have to be ignored by most legislatures, or the DMCA and the constitutions of the western world will be looked upon as quaint.
VLC FOR MAC IS DYING! IF YOU DEVELOP, PLEASE SAVE IT!!
It was leaked, it is not published officially yet and includes very controversial statements such as the remark that the French Presidency is trying to find a way to get "criminal sanctions" in ACTA despite lack of EU competence which leaves it stalled or the planned lifting of the mere conduit principle for ISPs in line with wishes of the French presidency who aims for internet control, three strikes. See http://www.laquadrature.net/
Welcome to the international economy. You trade with our cartel the way we want you to, or not at all. Can't live without importing our food/music/windmills? That must really suck for you then, huh?
I don't mean to troll. But, from Joe the slashdotter's POV, it looks like that sometimes. And the USA has been on the dealing end far often than the receiving end.
Don't wage war on the EU, nor any of its constituent bodies or member nations. Instead, wage it, forcefully, against the international media cartel. You will have many more allies this way.
Otherwise, it'll be nations fighting nations over something the citizens didn't decide. A pointless bloodbath, either figurative or real.