ACTA Internet Chapter Leaked — Bad For Everyone
roju writes "Cory Doctorow is reporting on a leaked copy of the 'internet enforcement' portion of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. He describes it as reading like a 'DMCA-plus' with provisions for third-party liability, digital locks, and 'a duty to technology firms to shut down infringement where they have "actual knowledge" that such is taking place.' For example, this could mean legal responsibility shifting to Apple for customers copying mp3s onto their iPods." Adds an anonymous reader, "Michael Geist points out that the leaks demonstrate that ACTA would create a Global DMCA and move toward a three-strikes-and-you're-out system. While the US has claimed that ACTA won't establish a mandatory three strikes system, it specifically uses three-strikes as its model."
This is a much bigger threat to freedom and democracy than terrorism ever could be.
I guess the transparency on this project, although inherited from the previous secretive administration, went the same way as the CSPAN broadcasts of the health care debate.
Sounds more like "DMCA-minus" than "DMCA-plus", with mines being planted in the DMCA safe harbor.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
Once ACTA gets implemented (which it no doubt will worldwide), it won't be long before the three strikes provisions are not only used to eliminate people Sony, EMI and Universal don't like, but those the government doesn't like as well. You'd better hope that you vote for the "right party" in the next election, or you may find you can't access the net one day...
I think I have posted 1 time since I opened am account here. This issue caused me to find my login /password.
This thing scares the shit out of me. Something that is seemingly "all encompassing" treaty for internet use should be out in the public for ridicule.
What would be the due process for contacting whomever in government has the power to stop this thing? Or do we have no option? I am generally apathetic about internet policy because I have FIOS, but this treaty has changed my outlook.
An equally wise American once said "..and that government: of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
And? One would have to be a deity of disingenuous rhetoric to make a case that there is anything "by" or "for the people" about the contemporary government system. It's been gamed, expertly so, and the only ones who could fix it are those who benefit from it.
You'd better start to love it, because ACTA and more like it are going to happen, and there's not a damned thing anyone can do about it.
Cue naive, high-school idealists who blame the voters and/or claim that voting could stop it.
It was incredibly good for the economy, if by "economy" you mean "campaign funds."
It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Einstein
People can't be scared of things they aren't aware of. Most people aren't aware of much the government is doing these days.
Governments passing laws to control people so much seems to indicate that the government is scared of the people and is trying to regain control.
Oddly enough it seems we are in the situation of government fearing the people more that the people fearing the government. So that means... We have Liberty?
The fact is that each of us probably commits three felonies a day as it is, or so says Harvey Silverglate of the EFF, ACLU, and FIRE (see his book "Three Felonies a Day.") Heck, it's probably a felony (under wire fraud statutes) to surf Slashdot while you are at work. And given that it's a felony there, it's probably also a felony under the CFAA. So if you surf Slashdot at work, you are already two thirds of the way there.....
The fact is it doesn't matter if you have done anything wrong. The current state is that the government can prosecute just about anybody on vague laws and make it extremely difficult to fight (try hiring a lawyer will all your assets frozen).
I am of the opinion that the Constitution is in shambles anyway. I oppose this treaty but I am too cynical to think that will make a difference. Prosecutors can ALREADY go after anybody they want to.
LedgerSMB: Open source Accounting/ERP
No, you're not, but you are still in a minority.
Face it, 90% of the population of any given country involved in ACTA don't care in the slightest about copyright and patents and net neutrality and the like; at least, they don't realise they do, even if they do. They're quite happy to carry on with their lives and put up with or work around any shit that new legislation throws at them without changing their day-to-day routine.
The much wiser man was a complete moron then.
When government fears the people there is a ineffectual weak populist government that fears making difficult decisions because people collectively are pretty damn stupid. Alas that isn't catchy and doesn't use a clever mechanic of opposites, but alas, reality can't always be handled in a pithy statement.
Government should respect the people, earn their trust, and work as their loyal servants. Neither side should fear the other.
Next up, you're not allowed to know what you've been charged with or what you've been sentenced to.
If ACTA is anything to go by, it appears there are those who feel we do have [too much] liberty.
"In prison you just have to shut your eyes and take it. Here you have to shut your eyes and give it."
For me the proper solution to the piracy concerns from the US is to stop the import of all movies, music, tv shows and any thing else they are so worried about people stealing at the border. If other countries did it as well then production would move from the US to other locations. Problem solved they wouldn't have to worry about people stealing their content any more. I swear, I try not to hate Americans, but when they start demanding that we abandon our laws and customs and adopt theirs I just loose it. How long till the next secret treaty is about making every one, every where abandon their gun control laws because that is how it is in the US?
If this goes through here's what I'm going to do: make suggestions wherever there is a receptive venue to restore a functioning public domain. If regulation such as this actually does go through and all those pipes (heheh) are suddenly sitting there underutilized, well, they need something else to fill them back up! Starting with restoring a sane public domain would be a poetic way to accomplish this! Say everything 20 years and older is the target to be public domain. So, any movie, music, book, and software from 1990 and back right now. ISP's who would suddenly be looking at a drought of demand for their infrastructure would probably be receptive to such a proposal. Mom and Pop who suddenly found they couldn't download the latest pop song would also probably be receptive to the idea at least out of a sense of revenge. Seriously if it's going to be class warfare then throw a little corporate warfare into the mix: pit ISP's against content industries. At the very least I could be a little smug. And if it doesn't work, get all your friends and family to move to the really cheap ISP plan which is all they'll actually and reasonably need in this new corporate dawn. ISP's are the ones set to lose the biggest in this, all the more reason to give them ideas as much as possible.
Shh.
It's in your interest that the rich become richer. After all, doesnt it trickle down?
I'm still waiting for that top 1% to release the cash on us poor 99%ers
Oh wait, they're just going to lock us up for pirating things they sell that we cant afford, because they refuse to pay us a humane living wage and provide us a country of fair laws that represents the interest of its people....
we are so fucked.
Its the kind of shit that makes you want to fly planes into buildings... but then they label you as "crazy" rather than try to understand why you were crazy... even when you write a perfectly sound explanation as to why.
Actually tyrants fear the people more than democrats. In a democracy, those in power mainly fear to get voted out of office. Tyrants fear to be forcefully removed, with high probability of being killed, and an assured uncomfortable life if he survives the revolution.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
Lofty goals. This isn't enforceable, legally or practically. Three strikes and you get kicked off the internet? How? Will I have a chip in my arm that keeps my router from working? Even if they were somehow able to blacklist me from every ISP how would they stop me from using freely available Wifi? How will they shut down Freenet? How will they stop me from burning CDs and just handing it to my friend?
This isn't going to change anything.
If you build it, nerds will come. Soylentnews.org
A Man much wiser than me once said "When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty. "
There should be neither.
The government should be the people.
Right now the government is more the corporations than the people.
Until we start electing people who grew up downloading music, or those in power will have lawyers bills because their kids were charged with downloading music, I doubt much will change.
It's a matter of national security. As the American manufacturing sector withers away and we become a service economy, our creative content* will remain our largest export, and we have to protect our country's cash cows. I'm not joking.
* Of course, I don't agree with bullshit like ACTA and the DMCA. The content providers haven't produced anything worth a shit in decades so the best solution to this is not to buy their shit and instead donate that money to the EFF and The Pirate bay.
Keeping it secret is a matter of national security when the nation is controlled by private interests.
Most are either too affluent (or is it effluent?), or too desperate, to care about these things.
The narcissistic direction that western culture has taken - "I'm alright Jack, sucks to be you" - magnifies this issue. Without concern for the common (greater) good, I think we will ultimately consume ourselves.
-I.
An equally wise American once said "..and that government: of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
Unless you want to leave his government, then he is all for jailing you without trial and suspending habeas corpus. He is also cool with using total war in order to invade one section of the country, burning down such cities as Atlanta and devastating the region. He also brought about the income tax, which was at the time unconstitutional (like much of what he did). Sure, he freed a terribly oppressed group of people, but he used another form of slavery (conscription) to achieve it.
SSC
Not that I agree with your parent, but just because a man is famous and revered does not mean that he was infallible. Many wise men have made mistakes throughout history; Jefferson is one of them (ever hear of the embargo he put in place? That was one of them. Let's not get started on him and slavery)
SSC
seriously, let them pass every goddamn unenforceable law they want
ten million technologically sophisticated, media hungry and POOR teenagers have them beat, sight unseen. they simply cannot enforce ACTA. seriously. its castles in the sky
i understand completely the concept of a legal framework to encourage the creation of cultural works via economic incentives
except what they are talking about goes WAY WAY beyond that concept and extends into the realm of corporate ownership of culture for no purpose that serves the general public in any way whatsoever
seriously, when
1. grandchildren of some guy who wrote a song are legally entitled to a cash flow, and
2. when pseudolegal structures are empowered to intrusively monitor the supposed free exchange of ideas central to a healthy society,
then the very idea of intellectual property law is philosophically and morally broken, and must simply be ignored and/ or outright actively destroyed by anyone with a moral compass and a passion for the concepts underlying western liberal democracy
ip law is a parasitical device distribution companies have bought and paid for via legislative interference to somehow validate their existence. distribution companies that have simply been replaced by the internet. they can buy all the fucking laws and all the prostitute legislators and all the legions of corporate legal goons. who fucking cares. unless they actually break the internet to the extent of china and iran, which even their legislative whores would feel uncomfortable about, their entire legal fantasy is an unenforceable joke for some highly motivated teenagers to route around, package as a point and click interface, and give away for free
technological progress is a bitch. no law can trump it unless you want to stop the very notion of progress itself. so for all of the power of media companies, i simply don't see them powerful enough to crush the foundational concepts of western liberal democracy simply in order to retain their antiquated reason for existence
death throes of a dinosaur. people should fucking know when they are defeated already. and the entirety of the media industry has most certainly been defeated
if they won't go peacefully, we'll just kill them. p2p is only the beginning. there are a million more technologically sophisticated methods. dark nets. steganography. obfuscation. protocol impersonation. and best of all: play countries against each other. set up shop in one, jump to the other. always a step ahead of the assholes. who are we? any goddamn poor terenager. there's no structure needed. a simple desire for one's own culture is the only imperative needed to defeat these assholes. let them sniff all they want. it's a pandora's box. a hydra: cut off its head, we grow ten more. they're doomed. let's make sure they fucking know it
bring it on media corporate assholes. bring all your legal goons and all your bought and paid for legislative puppets and all your paid for tech hacks and all your pseudo corporate governmental entities. we have you beat, and we welcome the fight in the name of the greatest principles of the free exchange of ideas and a free society and simple moral integrity. you're fucked, and your defeat is for the common good
you can't own our culture. we won't let you. we are simply motivated for the love of music, literature, and cinema. you don't own it. we the people do. fuck off and die. we will burn your toll booths to the ground
bring it on. bring your worst. we have you beaten, hard
i spit on you corporate assholes. i relish your comeuppance
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
If you can be terrorized and that is their intent then they are terrorists. You do not have to be killed for it to be terrorism.
A team of industry lawyers taking you for everything you have, your time, possibly your freedom and now even more criminal law. They want to make examples and terrorize their customers. "Hired guns" now wear suits but the phrase lives on for a reason.
Democracy Now! - uncensored, anti-establishment news
How about aquiring a list of those who created ACTA, and accusing them all of whatever.
But I think a new virus would be better. One that targets ACTA creators and their friends, and has a child porn payload. Then it automatically triggers a call to the cops. ^^
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
Doesn’t this exist already in the US? It’s the laws that allows homeland security to deport you to Guantanamo.
No phone call. No asking why. Nothing. Basically the laws of Gulags and KZs. (And at the same time Cheney’s company builds tons of new jails too.)
Land of the free my ass! :(((
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
Did you include a check?
It's a sad, sad world where we have to rely on China and Russia to "protect" our freedom.
Fuck systemd. Fuck Redhat. Fuck Soylent, too. Wait, scratch the last one.
These people do not get cut off, people with this much power never do.
Vira with illegal payload won't do the job for these persons, they will pay, bribe, cajole, lawyer their way out of anything.
But hey, you've just had most of your family and neighbors locked up.
There's only one way out of this, publicity, publicity, publicity.
This needs to be blown up so big all over the news, that none of these people/organisations/corporation can hide anymore.
~men are from earth. women are from earth. deal with it.~
You HAVE a weak and ineffectual government. It has inherited a stack of strong in irresistible lobby group and ancillaries from the strong and effective (and completely and utterly corrupt) Bush administration.
The weak government you have is bowing down to what SEEMS to be a stronger force: the legacy of corporate whoring Republicans left behind.
What you need is a strong and effectual government WHO WORKS FOR THE PEOPLE.