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Anti-Counterfeiting Deal Aims For Global DMCA
An anonymous reader writes "Negotiations on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement continue on Wednesday as the US, Europe, Japan, Korea, Canada, Australia, and a handful of other countries secretly negotiate a copyright treaty that includes statutory damages, new search and seizure power, and anti-camcording rules. Now the substance of the Internet chapter has leaked, with information that the proposed chapter would create a 'Global DMCA' with anti-circumvention rules, liability for ISPs, and the possibility of three-strikes and you're out requirements."
And, you know, this could alleviate a lot of the "bring iTunes/Amazon MP3/Hulu to the rest of the world" complaints we get so frequently on Slashdot. But all too often you see labels balk at foreign markets and a lot of time (though not always) they cite lack of copyright control and enforcement in these countries.
You are confused. The reason streaming services aren't globally available has nada to do with lax copyright controls and everything to with licensing rights. The system was created decades ago when information flow across borders was 100% physical and thus cumbersome. The copyright cartels exploited that fact by partitioning each country into its own licensing region and then created a market to buy and sell international distribution rights. In many cases there were no buyers for distribution rights in certain countries for reasons like the asking price being too high. The only people who felt inconvenienced by this arrangement were aficionados of foreign culture and ex-pats, everybody else didn't even know what they were missing.
The internet changed the awareness of the people so that today a hell of a lot more people are aware of what they are missing. The copyright cartels have not kept up with the increased demand, instead resting on the easy money of their monopolies, and the market for international distribution rights has not significantly changed. Stronger copyright controls won't enable increased foreign distribution, if anything it will just reinforce the status quo.
In contrast, piracy has actually provoked studios into more rapid foreign distribution - it is now common place for official DVDs of Hollywood productions to be released in countries like Russia, India and China day and date with theatrical release in the west - one recent example is District 9.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
Yeah, right! Like the rest of the world is voting out their corrupt politicians...
I'm telling you... blood is the only thing that will stop this. It's the only thing that matters more to the politicians than money. Blood. As in guillotines. I'm generally against violence. So I won't be the one shooting. But it's the only thing that can work now... Goldman Sachs execs and senators hanging from street lights.
Disconnect your television. Do your own research. Draw your own conclusions. They're probably lying. Don't be a sheep.
I decided to do this. But I still like music. My solution in the end was to attend the National Celtic Festival here in Australia every year, buy a pile of CDs, and then get out one new one every month. Sure, that means that the music is limited to Traditional Music, Celtic Rock, Celtic Punk, and the like, but I'm sure there are alternate solutions for those who like different kinds of music.
:).
Additionally, I use the RIAA Radar to find out whether groups are connected with the RIAA. I've bought some CDs online that are fine by the RIAA Radar.
http://www.riaaradar.com/
What I'm trying to say is, there *are* alternatives out there, people! If you seek them out, you will enjoy your new music as much, and you'll have more chance of meeting the artists too if they're not mega-famous