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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."
Our LEFT wing political part is a good 2x more right-wing than most other right-wing parties in the world is what happened.
That and gerrymandering combined with a lack of term limits and now no limits on corporate campaign contributions.
A bullet may have your name on it but splash damage is addressed "To whom it may concern."
What's the real motive?
Pretending to care.
After careful consideration and review, they'll finally decide to do whatever the hell the oligarchy thinks is most profitable, as planned.
You can't take the sky from me...
screw keeping it on their own continent, i say keep it in their own borders, i'm 100% positive that Mexico and Canada would prefer the US kept its nose out of our business. I'm from Canada, so i know i'm at least 50% accurate there :)
First question: "What's in it?" Once you tell us that, we'll have more questions.
Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
Yeah unfortunate you will be modded down as a troll to i think... I know that most people from the US are great people, nice, friendly, smart. But the people with the right to voice often aren't. I feel your pain mate.
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.
I have a better idea.
Pirate. Don't hide. Don't pretend we aren't doing it. Be PROUD of pirating. PUBLICIZE your piracy. Take a copy of Steamboat Willie down to your local courthouse and hand them out to the people there. Better yet, hand them out at the building that houses the Disney Corporation. When or IF you get arrested/sued, make a BIG stink. Explain EXACTLY why you are doing what you are doing, explain EXACTLY why it should be legal, and fight this travesty in the light of day.
I'd say that's a bad example, because (if you ignore Gerrymandering), enough votes force the decision of who gets into office. With ACTA, we could have 200 million citizens protest, and the Congress and the President could still enact it.
But is there a point in supporting this process, if it's bought and paid for my special interests? (I'm not assuming it is; this is what my question was about.)
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.
I'm amazed that some people seem to think being able to import cheap crap from overseas is somehow meaningful when a huge (and growing) percentage of the working population is having a problem finding a job. As long as you have a job, then you can cope with rising prices. Without jobs, then the fact that imported goods are cheap merely means that you are spending your reserves a little slower than you would otherwise - and the money is STILL going out of the country, to a place with a lower standard of living, which means you probably won't be seeing again anytime soon (except maybe as a loan).
I'm skeptical about the specific forms of protectionism being proposed nowadays, but the idea that allowing all our money to flow unimpeded out of our country (without having any dependable mechanism to bring back equal or more value) will somehow be net beneficial for the country is just laughable.
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
What's the real motive?
Pretending to care.
They are not even pretending to care. If you read the notice, it is a solicitation for complaints against foreign countries who are failing to provide adequate protection to US intellectual property owners.
Don't try to out wierd me, three-eyes. I get stranger things than you, free with my breakfast cereal. --Zaphod Beeblebr
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.
They aren't asking for our input on anything, just big media's and then they are only asking which countries they should go after with a rather large axe for being bad for business...
Feel free to write something just know that it will be filtered out before anyone important reads it. Honestly it should be clear to everyone that if they cared about what the public thought they would not be holding these meetings in secret.
But... If you wanna cause some trouble (for the Lulz) then I'd suggest picking a random country, lets say... china.. and then complaining about loosing millions because of IP theft. That at least should get past the filter and maybe even read before being deleted because it just wasn't valuable for their secret negotiations. Now if you want to help them out than might I suggest complaining about Canada or Spain. Pretty sure file swapping was ruled legal in Spain a while back.
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.
When is the last time that China has bought anything of significance from us except for our debt? I think it's high time that America woke up and understood that foreign countries are not necessarily our friends or have our best interests in mind just because they're willing to trade with us. Free trade is going to be the ruin of this country.
"It is a denial of justice not to stretch out a helping hand to the fallen; that is the common right of humanity."
What, you don't think China, Inc. is one huge abusive monopoly?