ACTA Is Backta, New Round of Talks Start Today

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."

Comments

"ACTA is Backta"

[mdm-adph]

Please don't ever do that again.

Re:"ACTA is Backta"

[noidentity]

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.

Re:"ACTA is Backta"

[commodore64_love]

(turns off the pr0n). Yo chill! Homie don't play dat.

Clearly this ACTA will be shoved through the same way NAFTA, DMCA, Pelosicare, and the EU Lisbon Treaty was shoved through even though 70-80% were against all of those bills/treaties. Alex Jones claims it's because governments are being run by a banking elite and megacorporations, but I don't think it's anything so complicated. I believe our leaders in the EU, US, and elsewhere have simply decided they are the new nobility, and they are blessed by god/time/fate/whatever to rule over the serfs (us). i.e. Democracy is dead; the People are ignored.

ACTA will pass. It might change names (like the EU Constitution was renamed Lisbon Treaty) but eventually it will pass in direct opposition to our wishes.

L8r.

Re:"ACTA is Backta"

[gstoddart]

Alex Jones claims it's because governments are being run by a banking elite and megacorporations, but I don't think it's anything so complicated.

Then you, sir, have lost sight of the power of lobbying.

ACTA, and anything related to trade and copyright have been pushed through because they've been beneficial to business interests. Most of the US bailout funds was spent on big banks because it would be awful if they had any inconvenience. Then, 6 months later, they're paying it back from record profits so they don't need to listen to the government telling them what they should do.

'The people' are ignored because they're not making campaign contributions on the scale of the MPAA/RIAA, and ACTA is being pushed through because precisely those industries want to be sure that the world is beholden to the US DMCA style laws.

You are correct, the politicians have decided they're the modern elite -- but, they still take a lot of direction from the corporations who tell them how they want things run.

ACTA

[Yaa 101]

ACTA is megalomaniac masturbation of the political and business elite.

Re:ACTA

[mcgrew]

It's not masturbation, it's gang rape. We're all going to be fucked by it.

No surprise

[dkleinsc]

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.

Evil From a Democratic Point of View

[darkonc]

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.

Re:Evil From a Democratic Point of View

[Jade_Wayfarer]

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.

Re:Evil From a Democratic Point of View

[JockTroll]

>The democratic process is dead. What options are left to us?

Boomsticks and boompacks. What else? The self-appointed elite sees no reason to listen to the little people, the little people must use extreme measures.

Re:Evil From a Democratic Point of View

[JockTroll]

Did you elect Sony's CEO? I didn't. Did you give your representative a mandate to uphold your rights or to uphold Virgin's shareholders' profits? Because I see no such mandate in my constitution. Did you vote for them because you wanted your country's laws changed as ordered by Big Media? Because I didn't. And lo and behold, all parties left and right jumped at Big Money's orders except for some fringe movements which can and will be safely ignored because they simply lack the numbers, and won't be able to reach critical mass in time.

Last time I checked, throwing your citizens' rights into the toilet to favor Big Business (especially foreign big business) in exchange for "campaign contributions" is bribery and selling your country's sovereignty to private entities is treason in my book.

Since there is no lawful way to remove those turds from their seats, I say burn them.

Re:RE-ACTA

[dyingtolive]

The political and business elite don't consider anyone who would be harmed by this to be people.

Re:THIS IS NOT A PROBLEM !!

[William Robinson]

This is a good thing for all concerned !!

Unfortunately, there is no such thing as absolutely good for all concerned. Remember, "Everything is gray".

IP could be good for many people, and I would love to see it being applied fairly. But when people choose money over humanity, the things start getting ugly.

I still remember when India was discussing about joining WTO, their biggest concern was something they had been doing since ages, but patented in US (example Basmati rice). It was general impression with Indians that the moment India joins WTO, somebody from US would stand with gun in front of farmers in India, preventing them from growing Basmati rice they have been doing for generations.

Standings

[Wowsers]

Where you stand with the ACTA agreement if implemented.... no need to worry about it, it will cut the legs off of ordinary people, whilst pandering to big money to tighten it's grip on the little people. Thus the problem of "where you stand" will be eliminated.

You can't win

[rsilvergun]

you're up against full time lawyers, and you're just a bunch of starry eyed idealists with day jobs & kids on the way.

Re:You can't win

[Rudeboy777]

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.

ACTA has nothing to do with counterfeiting.

[Anonymous Coward]

I downloaded the version of ACTA posted previously. Considering the title is the Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, I figured it would talk about the illegal production of currency, with a page or two that lobbyists stuck in the middle dealing with copyright infringement. So I did a text search on "money," "coin" and "currency."

The only results were talking about whether money exchanges hands for illegally copied works.

In other words, the Anti COUNTERFEITING Trade Agreement has nothing to do with the illegal production of false currency. Nothing whatsoever. The "Counterfeiting" in the title refers to simple copyright infringement. It's trying to equate copyright infringement with one of the most serious crimes a sovereign nation can face.

If a treaty has to lie right in the title in order not to provoke outrage by the citizens of the countries governed by it, it's a bad treaty. No exceptions.

Re:ACTA has nothing to do with counterfeiting.

[Anonymous Coward]

counterfeit v.t. Imitate (an action, thing, etc.) with intent to deceive; make a fraudulent imitation of (money etc.).

Counterfeit covers money but it also covers fake Rolex watches, fake medicines, fake DVDs, etc.

Re:ACTA has nothing to do with counterfeiting.

[SheeEttin]

It's not referring to currency counterfeiting, but goods counterfeiting, like that guy on the street that sells "Rolex" watches for $5, or the guy that sells DVDs out the back of a station wagon.
Of course, I assume that was the original target, but the final bill is apparently more targeted at your everyday consumer, trying to put all the power in the hands of corporations.

Still 2 boxes left

[PinkyGigglebrain]

The jury box, unlikely to succeed in all honesty.

The ammo box, where it all seems to be heading.

I would prefer that blood not be shed but as History has shown, sometimes its the only way left to bring about change. For good or ill, there will be blood.

Re:THIS IS NOT A PROBLEM !!

[Runaway1956]

The real problem with this whole "anti counterfeiting" thing is, the common man, the "little people" have no voice. Yeah, the talks are more transparent than they were a year or six ago - they've lost their "top secret" status. But, who is speaking for the PEOPLE? Absolutely no one.

Which songs are entering the public domain, this year?

Which movies are entering the public domain this year?

Which patents are entering the public domain?

Which copyright and/or patent laws are being made less restrictive this year?

When I hear that some party to these talks are actively pursuing the overhaul of copyright law, THEN I'll feel that some good may come of ACTA. Until then, I view ACTA as little more than a highway to hell. If one party wins out, we go to Satan's throne room, if another party wins out, we end up in the far reaches of Satan's kingdom. But, it's still hell.

I want 20 year old copyrighted works in the public domain, unless the so-called "rights holder" is willing to pay some HUGE bribes to society. Not to a handful of lawmakers, but to society as a whole. Give something to us "little people", in exchange for a continued monopoly on some specific copyrighted work. God knows, that bastard Al Gore doesn't need anything, or Obama, or anyone else in Washington. Give something to the school kids, and the moms and dads who have to pay for all the cool schitzls that the school kids need/want.