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ACTA Is Backta, New Round of Talks Start Today

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the forgive-me-rhyming-gods dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Negotiations on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement resume today in Lucerne, Switzerland, with the ninth round of talks. The Toronto Star highlights the mounting opposition to the deal from developing world countries such as India and China, while Michael Geist has posted a video of a recent lecture that provides background on the agreement and where things currently stand."

6 of 73 comments (clear)

  1. "ACTA is Backta" by mdm-adph · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Please don't ever do that again.

    --
    It is by my will alone my thoughts acquire motion; it is by the juice of the coffee bean that the thoughts acquire speed
    1. Re:"ACTA is Backta" by noidentity · · Score: 4, Insightful

      No shit. It seems that many of the sites I've been reading have dropped to the level of some unknown blog, with lots of stupid things like this. Attention: your audience isn't a bunch of third-graders who are amused by headlines like that, among other cheap attempts at making something funny.

  2. No surprise by dkleinsc · · Score: 4, Insightful

    For comparison, consider efforts to get voter approval for casino gambling in my home state. The potential casino owners attempted to get approval in just about every election, and despite being shot down 2 times eventually won on the third try. Why did they keep trying? Because even if they had to spend $100 million in advertising and campaigning, they knew that the upside was much higher than that. So they were continually willing to spend whatever money and time it took to win.

    ACTA is much like this. The copyright owners believe it will make them huge sums of money long-term, quite possibly in the $trillions. So they will keep spending the time and the money to propose ACTA or ACTA-like ideas until their opponents run out of time and money.

    --
    I am officially gone from /. Long live http://www.soylentnews.com/
  3. Evil From a Democratic Point of View by darkonc · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Negotiating, in secret, a treaty that is likely to result in 'A responsibility' to pass a change in the laws of a country is intrinsically undemocratic and, as such, evil from a point of view of democratic principles.

    Freedom of speech is meaningless if the issues about which one has cause to speak are shrouded in maximal secrecy.

    --
    Sometimes boldness is in fashion. Sometimes only the brave will be bold.
    1. Re:Evil From a Democratic Point of View by Jade_Wayfarer · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Oh, that's easy. They'll just negotiate new meanings of words, like this:
      Freedom - licensed ability to use product, service or feature*.
      Speech - licensed ability to use copyrighted words and symbols of $language_of_choice for intercommunication**.

      * Subscription plans for advanced "freedoms" are available to premium users. Basic "freedom" pack includes a "freedom" to pay for services/products/features and "freedom" to consume advertising.
      ** Basic license grants ability to intercommunicate only with one other person. Mass intercommunication (with 2 or more persons at once) available only to premium users.

      After that you can enjoy your "freedom" of "speech" as much as you wish.***

      ***After exceeding a prepaid limit of enjoyment additional fees will be charged.

      --
      Absence of proof != proof of absence.
  4. Re:You can't win by Rudeboy777 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    As much as I'd like to share in your despair, there are always new starry-eyed idealists coming right up behind the generation that now has a day-job and kids. You may tell them to get off your lawn, but they will always be an important force in the world.

    --

    From hell's heart I fstab at /dev/hdc