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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.
Most of the population probably didn't want the DMCA. And yet it's still the law.
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
Brilliant point. So brilliant that it bears repeating:
If they don't make the legislation read the way they claim it is intended to be used, then you know they are lying. As you point out, it would be trivial to add language to the legislation that limits the scope of the law to "large scale criminal activity". The fact that they have not done so is telling.
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
The submitter got it wrong. The article is basically complaining about new regulations that would come into force IN THE EU as a result of ACTA. The main push for the IP parts of ACTA is coming from the RIAA/MPAA via the US government.
Again, the submitter got it wrong. The treaty will require the IP and copyright laws in the EU and Canada to be amended to be more in line with the already existing ones in the US.
Your concern about "socialism" and the UN is a strawman (and Islo-fascist socialism, besides being an oxymoron, is just flamebait). ACTA is a regular international treaty that has nothing to do with the UN and is much more about corporatism than socialism. Yes, as a Canadian I resent very much the pressure from the corporatist United States of America meddling in the internal policies of my country and I think we should send a strong message to the US that it can take it's anti-individual policies and shove them.