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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.
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.
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
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.
*phone rings*
"Hello Senator Bedfellow's office"
"Hi, this is Bob from the RIAA. We need another new law. People aren't buying as much stuff from us as we would like since the last law we paid you for.."
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"I can't complain, but sometimes still do..." Joe Walsh
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.