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Submit Your Comments About ACTA
alex_guy_CA Notes that the US Trade Representative — who has been negotiating the secret Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement without input from the American people or Congress — is seeking public submissions on how to conduct US foreign copyright policy. This means that Americans can file comments with the USTR asking for ACTA to be made public. Public Knowledge explains the process: "Under the Special 301 process the USTR seeks input from US copyright, trademark, and patent owners about whether policies and practices in foreign countries deny them adequate IP protection. The process has generally been used by IP holders to complain not only about lax enforcement in other countries, but also about limitations and exceptions in their laws that are beneficial to libraries, to education, to innovation, and to the public interest generally. The ability to comment in the Special 301 process is not limited to IP owners only. Any member of the public is free to file comments. If you believe in the importance of balanced copyright policies, file comments with the USTR and make your voice heard. Comments can be filed electronically via http://www.regulations.gov/ docket number USTR-2010-0003. You have to include the term '2010 Special 301 Review' in the 'Type Comment and Upload File' field. ... Deadline for filing is February 16 by 5 pm."
Geist is going to have a field day with this one. What's the real motive?
Wow. A loaded question and a short deadline.
How under any circumstances is this legal? It's not national security you're talking about, it's a trade agreement. I'd be thankful I'm not American but unfortunately I'm Australian so with a government that's so I don't feel like I have any right to brag, nor reason to celebrate. What happened to the Western ideals of freedom and democrasy. Seem to have thrown the baby out with the bath water sometime around the start of the war on Terra.
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
http://www.regulations.gov/search/Regs/home.html#submitComment?R=0900006480a7dc9b
-Clio
Karma: Bad (mostly from not giving a fuck)
Blog: http://clintjcl.wordpress.com
You can take your unconstitutional further criminalization of what is ultimately a civil issue -- copyright infringement -- and shove it up your ass. Rights holders already have all the recourse they need -- the public court system. Taking away my constitutional rights to satisfy the profit needs of some rights holders is simply unacceptable. What do we have to do? Toss CDs and DVDs into Boston Harbor?
My blog
With the probably predictable type of 'input' they'll get for the most part, does anybody think it will be used for anything -other than- justification for the stipulations in ACTA and keeping the 'negotiations' secret?
How about the USA keeps there dictatorial policy on their own continent? Foreign policy... Don't make me laugh, next thing they want to bring democracy to Europe. Yeah sure, please mod this down... but the truth won't go away by modding this down.
Quick! Get this over to 4chan.
A leaked copy was posted on wikileaks, but they took everything offline due to their financial problems. Does anyone have a copy of the leaked document? Please post it here, or add it to this public wiki:
The URLs for the relevant wikileaks docs were:
I haven't found it in archive.org or Google cache. Help sought, thanks.
Please help publicise swpat.org - the software patents wiki
Submit Your Comments About ACTA
Seriously: Why?
It's not like they really care what us little people think. The fact is, what gets put into law will be what the big copyright holders want. Think **AA.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
[Also see the EFF's page about this if you're having a hard time coming up with a letter.]
This is my comment about the '2010 Special 301 Review' for the United States Trade Representatives. I would like to complain about the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, also known as ACTA. As a firm believer in transparency of government and democracy, I would like to strongly object to the outright secrecy displayed around these negotiations. In a modern age, this simply isn't an appropriate forum for creation of new law.
Furthermore, what I have seen in leaked versions of the ACTA is deeply upsetting, on many levels:
- The "Border Measures" provisions are unconstitutional, as well as extremely alarming -- search and seizure without probable cause, on no grounds more severe than suspicion.
- The ISP regulation is also extremely alarming, unduly allowing enforcement agents to remove the privacy and anonymity of citizens without a warrant.
- "Graduated response" programs, such as those required by the ACTA, threaten to deprive citizens of Internet access without probable cause. As Internet access becomes more and more central to civic and daily life, this becomes increasingly threatening.
- In general, the criminalization of copyright infringement, which has always been a civil crime, is a huge provision for what is presumably a "trade agreement" and is frankly arbitrary and despotic.
The creation of ACTA is wholly inappropriate given the existence of another intellectual property organization, WIPO. As a citizen of the United States, I demand that my government cease participation in this mockery of democracy at once.
Thank you for your time.
Ethan
Here's the key thing the treaty will need, as it addresses a problem that already went haywire with the U.S.' flawed DMCA.
DMCA needs to exempt bypassing technological measures which limit access, if the purpose is to not infringe copyright (the librarian of congress part of DMCA sort of does this, but very poorly and with a lot of weird arbitrary limits that have chosen with seeming ignorance of traditional fair uses). And it needs to exempt trafficking in devices that bypass technological measures, if the primary purpose is to access the work for noninfringing uses (DMCA totally fails on this, and so far the U.S. government hasn't even tried to fix it yet).
(i.e. it should be legal to create, sell, ship, and use a BluRay player that plays the disc by cracking the protection instead of purchasing/licensing a player key. (Remember it's the movie's copyright holder that the law ostensibly is intended to protect, not Sony's hardware division or media spec consortiums.) And it should be legal to reverse engineer players in order to get player keys for use in such players. Do that, and BluRay discs become legally playable (if with some difficulty) and people can start buying them instead of pirating them. Then if the studious have a lick of sense, they'll publish all the keys to tide customers over, while they scramble to create Yet Another format that doesn't include any DRM.)
Ergo, ACTA should contain a provision that all signatories enact such exemptions if those signatories have any laws which prohibit access or otherwise interfere with non-infringing uses. If a signatory outlaws playing lawfully obtained media, they should be held in violation of ACTA since their government (as is currently the case with U.S.) has taken a pro-piracy stance.
The treaty can then correct the violator by abstaining from recognizing any international copyright for that signatory's works. i.e. if US outlaws accessing BluRay discs (thereby interfering with Germans who want to sell BluRay movies in US; potential US customers have to torrent German highdef movies instead) then US copyrighted works should be public domain in Germany. Tit for tat unless the violator decides to allow the market to exist in their country.
Of course, that's a very weak proposal, that still pays a lot of lip service to licensing bodies and large hardware manufacturers. An even more sensible policy would be for ACTA signatories to deny copyright protection to works that have any technological measure which limit access. Do that and then everyone wins, both users and creators. But one step at a time.
I'm sure that America will use it's usual ways of enforcing copyright, buy the bomb, bullet or economic sabotage if a country does not comply to the "American way." See how long it takes a serious point to be moderated as Troll.
I don't mean this at all in a snarky way, but...
Does anyone have a sense of whether or not us submitting comments would actually change the outcome?
...to my old software release post-mortems. The ones I was always so happy to be able to vent my frustrations at. The meetings that let me know management cared (snicker).
Am I missing something? I read the Federal Notice rather quickly, but I don't see anything about ACTA. They're looking for comments specifically for "Identification of Countries Under Section 182 of the Trade Act of 1974." Wouldn't they just disregard any comments that don't address what they've asked for? (To "identify those countries that deny adequate and effective protection for intellectual property rights or deny fair and equitable market access to U.S. persons who rely on intellectual property protection.") I suppose one could submit a comment saying that the parties negotiating ACTA are denying adequate and effective protection (etc.) under Section 182 of the Trade Act of 1974, but I don't know that this would have any effect on the ACTA negotiations.
Nothing will get any better until things get loony. I hope to see house confiscations, children removed from families, people put in jail.
We're already _almost_ there.
This will foster the development of better anonymous networks and the adoption of proper encryption techniques to defend against these crazy laws.
Just like consuming illegal drugs, nobody is going to stop copying things that don't exist.
..don't panic
It's not national security you're talking about, it's a trade agreement.
As an American protectionist, I would think that the issue is really about how Asia approaches trade. They are all mercantile nations, not genuinely free trading ones, and, after waiting for 30 years for trade to somehow balance, I'm done with waiting and am ready to pull the plug on trade with at least Asia.
Australia, and Europe, I am not so worried about. Those nations come from the same cultural background, have been long allies, and at least play by similar rules. Like, I have no problem buying a Pontiac GTO, which was made in Australia, because Australians have similar wages, legal and cultural underpinnings, and hey, the first two Men at Work albums were pretty good stuff to listen to. Plus, 400hp RWD is always nice to have.
This is my sig.
Now that corporations can funnel as much unconstrained money as they want, look to them to dominate the debate on ACTS, DRM, copyrights, patents etc.
Turn off the lights, the party's over.
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
If you are working on ACTA or trying to internationalize intellectual property ... Kill yourself!
Similar to the upcoming US election results
Since you haven't conducted the ENTIRE preceedings with input from the Public, we don't consider them valid.
Until such time as the ENTIRE AGREEMENT is reviewed PUBLICLY, with input only from individuals and not fictitious persons, and with equal weight for the views of all said persons, we will disobey any and all parts of it which we see fit to disobey, as an act of civil disobediance.
Copy, paste, send.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
there is already a law to discourage this...
Take your pick: "dumping is prohibited" or some other environmental protection law that will be used against any Bostom CD partier.
*sad sigh*
That might not be a bad idea... /me calls for a Boston CD Party!
Sweet jeebus, man, don't do it! Dolphins are having hard enough of a time of it as is without you dumping cases of crappy Brittney Spears music on them...
HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
It will turn out just like the place where they asked for public comment on off-shore drilling. When the overwhelming majority is not in favor of what they want to do, it will just disappear into a black hole and get ignored.
The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
For you will certainly be arrested for littering. Watch it, man, the TASER is unholstered.
You are arguing that the means (house confiscations, the removal of children, jail) justifies the ends (revising copyright). I don't think that ends justifies this means.
Besides which, what makes you think insanity will lead to positive change? You have already had all these measures for illegal drugs for decades.
If I expressed my opinion concerning ACTA they would lock me away.
I'm sure a lot of people will cynically disregard the opportunity to comment as pointless; ignore this urge! While this comment period touches a fairly narrow area, if you care about this issue PLEASE COMMENT. Bring yourself up to speed on the proposed regulation (summary: http://www.regulations.gov/search/Regs/home.html#documentDetail?R=0900006480a7dc9b), and make your comment as efficient, relevant, and precise as possible.
Commenting on regs is NOT like writing your congressperson! Public comments to proposed regs are reviewed, and are considered; these public comment periods are not just for show. Industries with vested interests in an agency's regulations are aware of this, and are certain to have their say in the matter. Have yours!
There's more context in the linked summary, but here's basically what they're asking for input on:
USTR requests that interested persons identify those countries that deny adequate and effective protection for intellectual property rights or deny fair and equitable market access to U.S. persons who rely on intellectual property protection. USTR requests that, where relevant, submissions mention particular regions, provinces, states, or other subdivisions of a country in which an act, policy, or practice is believed to warrant special attention. Submissions may report positive or negative developments with respect to these sub-national entities.
19 U.S.C. 2242 : US Code - Section 2242: Identification of countries that deny adequate protection, or market access, for intellectual property rights.
Both the Request for Comment and the underlying law specifically refer to the identification of foreign countries with bad IP policies. So I still don't see how this opens the door for complaints about the U.S. Trade Representative's secrecy regarding ACTA. I don't want to discourage anyone from complaining -- certainly the Trade Representative should know that people are concerned about this -- but as I understand it, they have the right to disregard any comments not responsive to the request.
when we don't know what the discussion is all about! My biggest worry is how the USA is trying to create conflict for the sake of profits. It seems that in my lifetime the USA has done more to curtail my freedoms and not protect my interests than any previous generation. This is a comedy.....
DRM? No thanks, I'll just get it somewhere else...
As much as I'd like to discuss this rationally, my ultimate message is best expressed by Dethklok
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_sioHsT7GQ at 1:24
...doesn't work with "Government Of, By, and For the People."
In other words, "No Legislation Without Representation." Really, people, we should do our best to identify the U.S. lawmakers behind this garbage and VOTE THEIR ASSES OUT OF OFFICE! Passing laws without the people's oversight is what COMMUNISTS do!
But I don't see the connection. How does "it" refer to this law?
"The ability to delude yourself may be an important survival tool" - Jane Wagner -
I ask you to make a part of the United States' position the following:
1. ACTA negotiations must be open and transparent and conducted in such a way as to permit the American public ongoing input into the negotiation process as it occurs, rather than conducted behind closed doors, with only the end result visible, after an agreement has been concluded.
2. The preservation of fair use must be a critical and integral part of the United States' position in the negotiations, and the fair use rights of its citizens must not be compromised in the final agreement.
3. Copyright terms must not be extended any further than U.S. law currently provides, and should, if anything, be reduced in order to provide the artistic compost necessary for the creative process to thrive. The U.S. must take the position that excessive copyright term lengths stifle innovation in the arts, rather than preserve it, and that its citizens and humanity as a whole are ill-served by the progressive march towards infinite copyright extension.
4. Penalties for copyright violation should and must fit the actual economic damage incurred by copyright holders, with Draconian punishment reserved exclusively for those who profit financially from infringement. The U.S. position should and must be that damages for infringement by individuals who do not seek to profit financially from their actions must neither be excessive nor unduly harsh.
5. Artists should be given the right to sue copyright infringers for monetary damages, regardless of when or whether those artists have formally registered their works, if and only if the infringing use was for the financial gain of the infringer.
Check out my novel.
Signed,
A Canadian
"Yes, I have a Disaster Recovery Plan. It's called my Resume"
This is about "special 301" reviews, which are a scheme for applying diplomatic pressure on countries that do trade things that US companies don't like. Anything submitted that doesn't relate to a specific issue with a specific country is irrelevant.
If you want to bitch about ACTA, write your congressional representative.
Regulations.gov does not use persistent tracking technology (also referred to as 'cookies') to place software files or other information on your computer.
Sunlight for ACTA
Sadly, I am a constituent and I'm sick of oath breakers
Today the topic is (ACTA) that is currently being negotiated by retards in the Office of the United States Trade Representative. Who I might add don't represent a damn thing about me.
more Unconstitutional garbage?
I wonder if it came from Biden's desk?
Meanwhile the FED is legal counterfeit. Clickty Clickty Clic
You should be ashamed. Public Comments are worthless admit it publicly you chicken oath breakers
You Waste Our Time With Your Fake Leadership And Lies
FINANCIAL DOMESTIC TERRORISTS!
Ohhhh Ahhhh the random packet sequences are to die for
Seriously.
Go ask Lawrence Lessig.
That.
STFU with this "ask the "PUBLIC" junk".
The public is so sorely misinformed (on oh so very many varied issues) please understand why I think this is dumb.
Thank you sirs.
They'll probably just database all the responses, creating lists of anyone who doesn't support it, and using their other Orwellian surveillance that they illegally inflict through the private sector, the government can then list, track and persecute anyone who doesn't agree with them.
The problem is more than just this specific treaty. The problem is a President who is all too happy to cede the sovereignty of the nation he was elected to represent to unelected global corporate treaty organizations. We've seen this attempt in every facet possible, at the Climate Change Snake-oil Salesman Convention, and beyond.
How about this? Don't sign secretive treaties that are unrepresentative of the will of the people or in respect of governing documents in each country. Perhapse, instead of giving trillions of taxpayer dollars to wall street bankers in backroom deals, and passing pet projects using the disguise of a "stimulus package". How about realizing that this is and never has been about money. It's about the control of information. major media are losing money, mostly because of their lack of market control, due to alternative markets. Government are losing face also, due to alternative venues to corporate talking heads in the media disseminating real analysis sans the usual spin.
In a free market system, the people determine what business models will succeed or fail. Those who adapt to new trends, and deliver a desirable good or service succeed. Those who ignore their customers and/or try to dominate them fail (as long as monopoly/anti-competition laws are actually *ahem* enforced)
In a fascist market system, government bureaucrats, and abusive monopolies make back room deals with each other in order to enforce their stranglehold on the market, kicking competition to the curb, and resisting free market changes to their business model.
You make that comment by not consuming media from the entities backing this treaty.
Note: The word I used was consuming. You must not buy, borrow, rent, steal, duplicate, distribute, or or otherwise allow your time or money to be expended on interacting with a product of these companies.
Don't buy media from stores.
Don't go to your local cinema.
Don't rent a DVD.
Don't download rips from torrent sites.
Write to your local radio stations and tell them you've stopped listening in protest of this treaty, and write to their advertisers. They will listen, as they can't stay afloat with nobody hearing the adverts.
Most importantly, get your friends to join you.
Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
Last year, Canada was put on the watch list. Because... we're full of pirates!
Arrrr.
This year, please comment on just HOW ineffective it's been. Canada is (obviously) home to more pirates than ever, AND we have WAREHOUSES FULL of illegally copied goods ready to ship to the USA!
Really. I speak as a Canadian. I want to be on the "Priority Watch List", and not just on the "Watch List".
So get your comments in! Make this Canada's year!
Things to mention: "Canada has not yet implemented ex officio customs authority to allow warrentless seizures". "Canada is a massive trans-shipper of counterfeit goods". "Canada has not yet improved on its weak Internet IPR posture". And, just for good measure, state "I believe that Canada is a candidate for Section 306 monitoring at this time".
Just another "Cubible(sic) Joe" 2 17 3061
2010 Special 301 Review
I am an individual responsible for an Open Sourced Rules Engine Technology (DTRules.com). I have been a developer and innovator in the industry for ~25 years.
In late 1987, a PostScript clone I wrote was shipped by Printware to compete with Adobe's Postscript offerings. I have three patents to my name (US Pat. 5542031, US Pat. 7062524, US Pat. 6640317).
My Rules Engine technology has been used in a number of states for performing Eligibility Determination, starting in Texas on the Texas TIERS project.
I am concerned about trade agreements concerning Intellectual Property being negotiated in secret. In particular, I am concerned about the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) being discussed without any disclosure to innovators like myself, and the public at large.
While I have participated in securing patents for my customers and employers, I have been largely concerned about monopolies handed over to large companies and what they might do to crush innovation.
I admit that I got lucky. Adobe at the time decided to compete rather than litigate to deal with companies like might that built clones of its PostScript technology. But this was Adobe's choice, and they could have chosen differently. And at the heart of my Rules Engine technology (which today is servicing clients in Texas, New York, Pennsylvania, and Michigan) is an innovative deployment of that same PostScript Technology originally developed by Adobe.
In my experience, innovation is built upon existing technology. Intellectual Property rights have to be balanced to *promote* the development of technology, not simply handed over to large corporations.
I am concerned that by allowing ACTA to be negotiated in secret, our government is simply trying to protect selected businesses, at the expense of other businesses and in fact the pubic good.
Please publish the ACTA working documents and open up the negotiations to the public.
China has been acquiring the means to produce wealth, that's what they have been buying besides debt instruments. And that's why they are getting richer, and at such a rate. They buy anything at all related to manufacturing. You name it, they want it, either directly, or get just the R&D..whatever it takes. They bought the tools used to make more tools to then go on and build..anything. Anything at all, which they then export, and reap value-added profit from. They buy the means to produce wealth from the west and Japan, turn around, produce the wealth, sell it back to the places that were producing the wealth, undercutting the market there..obvious profit. They make so much doing this that not only can they continue to acquire more machinery, etc, but are sitting on quite the surplus of foreign cash, which they are now going around the planet and buying up natural resources and farmland with. Just sticking some in debt instruments helps them maintain their markets, it's a form of currency manipulation for the most part, it gives them mass leverage.
Crude example, they don't want to have to buy mass quantities of cars and airplanes from someplace else, that just costs wealth,. doesn't make wealth, they want to buy the factories to make cars and airplanes..because running those sorts of factories makes wealth, which expands their domestic economy and provides a lot of better paying jobs.. A to Z there, anything you can name or think of. That's what they have been buying and are still buying.
Eventually, they will have such a monopoly on manufacturing, owning the raw resources from all over the planet plus the factories and toolings needed, etc, that they can move on to the next step and slide away from a weaker yuan/renminbi and concentrate more on their internal markets, and those foreign markets where they get raw resources from. Their current western "consumer" markets won't be of as much importance to them then, there won't be this "need" to maintain really cheap exports that some of the more short sighted economists always talk about. they needed it in the past, and still do today -to a point- but eventually once they dominate that need evaporates rather quickly.
They are fairly close to that point now, on an historical long range timeline. They *had* to suck it up for a lot of years and have cheaper exports in order to keep getting more machinery and tools, etc, market by market by market. As they start to dominate market after market, this removes that particular niche from so much concern for them with exchange rates. They still need to export, but their target consumers will be shifting away from the places where they originally sourced all the machinery and expertise from, to internal and raw resource regions..because that's all they will need at that point. Check and mate then, they win. The 19th and 20th century industrialized west falls to second or even third tier status on the global scale. Much fun and games in those areas then..historians will have much to discuss.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_trade_for_the_People's_Republic_of_China#History_of_Chinese_foreign_trade
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Modernizations
http://www.heritage.org/press/commentary/ed061509d.cfm
http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article14239.html
I went to the site but all the documents "have been withdrawn or do not exist".
:-{
expandfairuse.org
Australia is pushing for transparancy too: http://itnews.com.au/News/166965,greens-push-for-transparancy-on-secret-anti-piracy-talks.aspx
Well, the main thing that needsto be addressed are these outrageous and often fraudulent (in bad faith) software "patents"!