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EU ACTA Doc Shows Plans For Global DMCA, 3 Strikes

An anonymous reader writes "The European Commission analysis of ACTA's Internet chapter has leaked, indicating that the US is seeking to push laws that extend beyond the WIPO Internet treaties and beyond current European Union law. The document contains detailed comments on the US secret copyright treaty proposal, confirming the desire to promote a 'three-strikes and you're out' policy, a Global DMCA, harmonized contributory copyright infringement rules, and the establishment of an international notice-and-takedown policy."

29 of 406 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Global government by TheRaven64 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    No, evidence that there is a movement afoot by the US government to undermine the freedom and liberties of citizens of the world. You already have a corrupt copyright regime, now you're trying to foist it on the rest of the world.

    --
    I am TheRaven on Soylent News
  2. DOA in the US Senate by tjstork · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I don't think this treaty would pass in the US Senate. I would forsee the unlikely coalition of far rightists and far leftists actually collaborating to defeat this, just as they actually have on some other things.

    --
    This is my sig.
    1. Re:DOA in the US Senate by jandrese · · Score: 4, Insightful

      What's more, because US treaties are backed by the power of the Constitution, they are very difficult to repeal later down the road if they turn out to be a bad idea, or, as is more often the case, the other governments back out of the treaty and leave the US holding the bag. Few countries put as much force of law behind treaties as the US. This is also one of the reasons the US never signed on to Kyoto, because it was assumed that the other countries wouldn't be able to make the ambitious targets and would quietly back out, whereas the US would be stuck with it.

      --

      I read the internet for the articles.
  3. Re:Global government by Shatrat · · Score: 4, Insightful

    That's a bit unfair.
    The goal is undermining the freedom of all people.

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  4. thousands of government bureaucrats by circletimessquare · · Score: 4, Insightful

    versus

    millions of teenagers who are
    1. technologically astute
    2. media hungry
    3. POOR

    let them pass any goddamn law they want. who fucking cares?

    its nothing more than damage to route around, like the internet was designed to do

    --
    intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
  5. Re:Obama ? Come on ! by wizardforce · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Yes blame Obama. He picked Biden as his running mate and he isn't any more innocent in regard to the actual treaty than Bush was.

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    Sigs are too short to say anything truly profound so read the above post instead.
  6. Re:A Plea to the Rest-of-the-World by wizardforce · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's not the rest of the world's jo to restrain our leaders. It is OUR JOB to restrain our leaders.

    --
    Sigs are too short to say anything truly profound so read the above post instead.
  7. Re:How would this fly by wizardforce · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I would think that after all that has happened in the last decade, people would stop being so surprised when our bloated government abuses its power *again*.

    --
    Sigs are too short to say anything truly profound so read the above post instead.
  8. Re:Means nothing. by Anonymous+Brave+Guy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    People like you are as much a problem as Big Media's absurd power grabs. You are unashamedly breaking the law, which makes you the poster boy for Big Media when they are pushing for ever more extreme laws. And while you will deserve it if you ever get screwed by those laws, lots of people will wind up suffering through no fault of their own if these measures go through.

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    If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
  9. Re:Global government by TheGratefulNet · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ROW is already just as corrupt as the US.

    get your head out of your patriotic ass. corruption knows no country or ethnic boundaries. if you are human, you are corruptable.

    its a wave right now. all countries are joining in. they love it! their leaders, that is. the citizens all hate it. but their needs were NEVER important. any illusion of that was just that, an illusion.

    you are either in power or not in power. and those in-power right now are enjoying a huge rape-fest of those that are not in-power.

    but this is WAY beyond any one country. its a WAVE and all leaders are enjoying the anti-freedom wave right now.

    sorry for the wake-up call. you can go back to your disney view of the world if you really want to, I guess...

    --

    --
    "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
  10. look at the growth of disk space for $100 by paulsnx2 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    By 2025 (at the current rate of advance sustained over the last 30 years) a TB of disk storage will cost about a penny. For $100, you will be able to buy a hard drive that will hold 2.5 *centuries* of HD video. While that might not be enough to hold all of mankind's copyrighted media, it will be more than enough to hold more media of whatever format will be in use in 2025 than a person could reasonably consume in their lifetime.

    http://brownzings.blogspot.com/2009/11/disruptive-change.html

    The point is, if we copyright any and every scrap of content produced, and maintain the same sorts of restrictions on such content that we enforce at the current time plus all the restrictions of the ACTA.... We will have no legal way to use a storage card we might get as a prize in a Cracker Jack box, much less a drive we actually buy.

    And if people can carry around cheap storage sufficiently large to simply clone everyone's media libraries who they might meet, to sort out what they want later, who needs the Internet to "pirate"? (Thus what would be the real use of "Three Strikes"?)

    When I write a joke, it is copyrighted. But jokes are so easy to repeat, and so hard to track that there isn't any way I can be paid for each time my joke gets retold. When media becomes easier to pass along than a joke, how can anyone require a payment for each retelling? There are other ways to be compensated, and the entertainment industry is going to have to learn to live with Moore's Law just like any high tech company does. Learn to leverage the efficiencies they gain with better technology to offset the loss of revenue that occurs as technology eliminates sources of income.

    Live Concerts, Movie Theaters, endorsement deals, Shirts, and other value adds (plus who-knows what value adds might arise in the future) may be where the entertainment industry will have to go. Cheap (and I don't mean $10, or $5, or even $3) downloads of non DRM movies would bring in plenty of income from those that simply don't want to bother with other services.

    Life is tough as technology takes away your income. But we are not going to kill the advance of technology, as much as the entertainment industry would like us to.

  11. Re:A Plea to the Rest-of-the-World by TheRaven64 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    would you please, PLEASE restrain my country's insane leaders?

    We'd love to, but right now we're having trouble restraining our own insane leaders. I'm not sure quite how we ended up with leaders - I thought I was voting for people to represent me, not lead me.

    --
    I am TheRaven on Soylent News
  12. Re:A Plea to the Rest-of-the-World by garcia · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I think the majority of Americans thought that they corrected the mistakes they made 9 and 5 years ago when they elected the most recent idiot to office. Unfortunately they just brought a whole new idiot with a whole different secret agenda.

    Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

  13. Re:Means nothing. by jedidiah · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Once something is ripped, you don't need any special tools to copy it.

    That is the core of why DRM is so absurd. It only takes one guy with a cracking tool to give access to the other 6 billion of us.

    --
    A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
  14. Re:A Plea to the Rest-of-the-World by muuh-gnu · · Score: 5, Insightful

    In order to do your job, you'd have to vote them out of office. But you cant vote them out because your system in practice allows only two parties. The US hasnt had a third party winning somwhere since more than 100 years. 300 Million citizens and only _two_ fscking parties to vote for, every god-forgotten country-so-small-you-cant-find-on-the-map from the Balcans would laugh its collective ass off about calling that "democracy".

    Add to that the fact that, at least regarding copyright, the two US parties basically agreed to form a cartel (MAFIAA isnt called MAFIAA for nothing), and youre simply out of luck.

  15. Re:Obama ? Come on ! by Lendrick · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Unfortunately, this treaty isn't a left/right thing (ACTA originated under the Bush administration, and the Obama administration is carrying on with it). Almost universally, the public hates it and the government loves it (save for a few principled politicians on both sides).

    I'm unabashedly liberal, and I believe that there are places where the government can do a lot of good. This is definitely not one of those times. Rather than pointing fingers at other voters, what we need to do as the American public is band together and fight this thing.

  16. Re:Global government by digitalunity · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I think you underestimate the pacifism of most Americans. They just don't care anymore.

    240 years ago the men that founded the USA were running away from what we have become. Freedom has given way to corporations needs and our ever more difficult struggle to maintain our standard of living. We need a revolt, but I just don't see that happening. Just look at even more repressed countries like Iran and North Korea.

    The time has come and gone to make peaceful change, but the country will have to descend much farther into the depths of hell before people will get off their ass and make a change.

    --
    You can't legislate goodness. Let each to his own destiny, by will of his freely made choices.
  17. Re:Obama ? Come on ! by Zerth · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Pansies! Why vote for the lesser evil?

    Vote for the guy that will ruin the government, then we might have a chance at getting something new...

  18. MAFIAA owns the mainstream media by tepples · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I seriously doubt we'll here anything negative on the mainstream media about ACTA.

    I share this doubt. The only major TV news outlet that's not MAFIAA-owned is PBS. All the rest share a corporate parent with an MPAA member: NBC, CNBC, and MSNBC are with Universal Studios, ABC is with Disney, CBS is with Paramount in National Amusements, and Fox News is with 20th Century Fox in News Corp.

  19. Blame news media in bed with the MAFIAA by tepples · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Blame the corrupt entertainment industry that lobbies our lawmakers into betraying the very people who elected them.

    One can't get elected without the exposure that the news media offers. Look at how the press buried Ron Paul, for instance. I'd blame the lack of separation of news media and fictional entertainment: NBC, ABC, CBS, and Fox News are all owned by MPAA members.

  20. Re:Means nothing. by dwandy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Describe a credible system in which anyone can copy anything without restriction but there is still sufficient incentive for people to produce and share high quality work in the first place, and I'm sure the sceptics like me will be interested in what you have to say.

    The Fashion Industry.

    --
    If you think imaginary property and real property are the same, when does your house become public domain?
  21. Re:Means nothing. by amplt1337 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So, why don't you see if you can do better? Describe a credible system in which anyone can copy anything without restriction but there is still sufficient incentive for people to produce and share high quality work in the first place, and I'm sure the sceptics like me will be interested in what you have to say.

    It's called "not having copyright," and it was good enough to give us Shakespeare and Milton.
    Really, what's the problem here? Are we worried about musicians? The vast majority of popular musicians would make more money working at a 7-11 than they do during their time on the market under the major labels.
    Are we worried about books? People have been writing books without copyright for as long as there's been books. The publishing industry is collapsing under its own weight, because of the abundance of free content out there (since the Internet appears to prove that people prefer "free" to "good").
    Are we worried about movies? ...why? Hollywood comes up with maybe two worthwhile ideas a year. Before I fight you on that one, I'd like to hear your explanation of any system that will actually cause people to produce and share high-quality movies, since it sure isn't happening now.

    Really, for someone with a sig protesting the power of the state, you seem awfully chipper about "property" that's been wholly invented by the government.

    --
    Freedom isn't free; its price is the well-being of others.
  22. Re: Time to improve on TOR / Freenet by Abreu · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Now is the time to start financing the guys who work on the TOR and Freenet protocols

    --
    No sig for the moment.
  23. Re:Perfect Place to Post This by GameMaster · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Much of what you said is wrong, even if I don't, necessarily agree with the OP's rabid rant.

    "I own my home and the ground its on so I can do what I damn well please."

    This depends, entirely, on where in the US you live. Many, many parts of this country (especially in and around cities) have zoning laws that restrict what you can and can't do on your land (examples: no cars on blocks, no loud noises at all hours, building size limited based on lot size, zoning board final approval over what you want to build, etc.). You can get away from much of this by living way out in the country, but even that isn't a gaurantee. Then (as mentioned by someone else in this thread) there are eminent domain laws which say that the government can take your land at any time as long as they pay you for it. You may not like it, but they are the law.

    "Pet regulations aren't just for rabies, they are humanitarian so we don't have streets teeming with unvaccinated starving wild dogs and feral cats like Calcutta. Car insurance is so you don't get hit by a deadbeat who won't pay to fix your car, and is a common protection."

    both true enough.

    "Emissions tests are really only in California so you give yourself away as being against liberalism simply to be contrary since you have the choice to live where you will, but then you wouldn't have anything to bitch about, no?"

    Thanks, I'll have to remember to let them know that the next time the state of Illinois tries to fine me for not bothering to submit to their mandatory emissions checks. Also, someone should write a letter to the New York State DMV to let then know about the typo on their website where it says "All vehicles registered in New York State must get a safety inspection and an emissions inspection every 12 months. " (http://www.nydmv.state.ny.us/vehsafe.htm). Let's see, that's two examples of you being, outright, wrong in your facts (representing, might I add, a very large portion of the population and, by extrapolation, a large portion of this country's economic opportunity with which to support yourself and your family). How much you wanna bet we can find more if we look?

    This, of course, brings us to the sheer BS of your basic premise of "you have the choice to live where you will, but then you wouldn't have anything to bitch about, no?". We all live in what I like to call "the real world". Of course it's possible to move if you don't like your states laws, but in the "real world" moving is often a harsh economic/social hardship on you and your family especially if you happen to own you house outright like you just got done advocating in your previous sentence. I think it's, more than a little, condescending to try and write off his argument with that kind of, flippant, response.

    "Your tax info is just wrong. You have to file one return for State (that includes your whole family), one for Federal, and possibly a local/COUNTY"

    That's only true if you are either young (and don't have all the complications of a full family and investment portfolio) and/or are willing to pay much more in taxes than the system is designed to charge you. When you start to have kids, houses/condos, investments, businesses, you start to have to file multiple extra tax forms at the state and federal level to declare everything and (more commonly) to claim tax credits/deductions. Before you start going on about how no-one if forcing him/her to claim all the credits/deductions, remember that the tax rate is calculated assuming that the people eligible for those credits/deductions will claim them. Without them, a person will be subjected to much higher taxes than they are supposed to (I'm talking about people who, honestly, have a claim to them, not to people that game the system to claim credits/deductions they don't, really, deserve). US taxes are not the simple, one form per government level, system you are trying to claim they are.

    "Airline security is theater to make sure people don't stop (as I have) using the

    --

    Rules of Conduct:
    #1 - The DM is always right.
    #2 - If the DM is wrong, see rule #1
  24. Re:Means nothing. by Gorath99 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It's called "not having copyright," and it was good enough to give us Shakespeare and Milton.

    I'm not sure we'd have had a Shakespeare if he had lived in an age in which anyone could record and distribute plays at near-zero cost. You don't need so much copy protection if it's already hard to copy your work.

  25. Re:Assurance contracts by Anonymous+Brave+Guy · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This idea is a common proposal in these discussions, so let me ask you a few basic questions about it.

    Most obviously, how does a new artist get started this way, when he doesn't have any fans yet? Are consumers expected to start pledging to random people on the off-chance that they produce a good result? There is nothing to stop someone adopting this approach today. How many artists have successfully started a career by doing so?

    The copyright system lets an artist who thinks they can make a good product do so, and if the product turns out to be good it can be its own recommendation. The artist bears the risk rather than the consumer base, and the artist can reap rewards proportionate to how many people benefit from their work and how much value those people perceive the work to have. (I appreciate that in reality Big Media get in the way of this, and I have no problem with changing the copyright structure to keep the rights with the artists and other creative people where they belong, but this does not undermine the fundamental idea behind copyright.)

    --
    If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
  26. Re:Means nothing. by Anonymous+Brave+Guy · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You mean like artists and entertainers before copyright came along

    Before copyright came along, it was very expensive to make copies of works anyway. As someone else already pointed out, copyright followed only a few years after the invention of the printing press.

    It's odd that people are so quick to point out the changing world when saying copyright should be abandoned, yet so slow to notice that the evidence they give for the viability of alternatives predates those same changes.

    current artists and entertainers whose works are not covered by copyright?

    And who are they, and how much material do they produce and of what quality, relative to artists whose works are covered by copyright?

    --
    If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
  27. Re: A 3rd Party to the Rescue? by gink1 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It's not the two party system that is the problem it's something that both parties (and even hypothetical 3rd parties) have in common: greed.

    Our politicians are almost all for sale to the highest bidder - typically rich Corporations with agendas that will usually harm Americans.

    For a million dollars or more the politician becomes the full time servant of their new Corporate masters and stops serving the Citizens.

    Note that this problem is insolvable since the politicians would have to approve of any solutions!

    As far as support for the MAFIAA, it all depends on how much cash they have doesn't it?

  28. Re:Assurance contracts by WNight · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Bullshit. That's how you'd like to see it done, but any disobedience to civil authority is civil disobedience.

    The type where you leave your name is the worthless kind, because they break your fingers.