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ACTA Could Make Nonprofit P2Ps Face Criminal Penalties

Posted by Soulskill on from the just-as-bad-as-stealing-fractions-of-pennies dept.

dan of the north writes "Based on sources and leaked documents, Knowledge Ecology International now asserts that ACTA drafts are in fact 'formally available to cleared corporate lobbyists and informally distributed to corporate lawyers and lobbyists in Europe, Japan, and the US.' — The ACTA proposals currently include language that would make copyright infringement on a 'commercial scale,' even when done with 'no direct or indirect motivation of financial gain,' into a criminal matter. Both KEI and Canadian law professor Michael Geist, who has been working his own sources, say that the current proposals require all signatories to 'establish a laundry list of penalties — including imprisonment — sufficient to deter future acts of infringement.'"

5 of 149 comments (clear)

  1. With such a clear definition of the scale required by AvitarX · · Score: 5, Insightful

    There is no way this could be misapplied.

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  2. Re:this would kill by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I think that's what they want...

  3. Re:"Criminal Matter" by aurispector · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This the other shoe dropping now that the RIAA claims they have stopped filing suits.

    The problem here is that citizens of signatory countries will have no recourse within the laws of their own countries since it's a treaty. This will get very ugly if the bastards get their way - and they probably will. This makes me physically ill.

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  4. Anti-Competitive Harassment. by plasmacutter · · Score: 5, Interesting

    What is not covered in this article, but buried deep in the links, is that this treaty calls for nations to act immediately upon accusations without any burden of proof, and to absolve copyright companies from any responsibility if they engage in false accusations.

    Imagine DMCA takedown notices for the physical world. Talk about a cudgel for anti-competitive harassment with impunity.

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  5. This will die if exposed to the light by mbone · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They are trying to keep this secret because it would be politically poisonous if revealed.

    As I think our friends in Europe have begun to realize, laws based on treaties prepared in secret by bureaucrats without democratic accountability are inherently corrupting of democracy itself. They are also an invitation for the corrupting influence of special interests, who will try and accomplish in secret what they cannot in public.

    If these restrictions are worthwhile, let them be proposed and debated in public, as normal laws are. Otherwise, I think this whole process should be shut down. It has been going on far too long for any good that we have been getting from it.