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Thousands Take To the Streets To Protest ACTA
An anonymous reader writes "The protests
against the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement continue
to spread in cities across Europe. The protests began in Poland, where thousands
have taken to the streets and opposition politicians have worn Guy
Fawkes masks in protest against the country signing the agreement last
week. The scenes
from Poland and France
are remarkable, demonstrating the widespread anger over
the decision to join ACTA. A full rundown of protest plans
can be found
here."
These protests are short-lived and I wonder if they end up doing any good. I am against ACTA and I have called my congressman as has my son to ask him to not support it. Interestingly, he knew little about it and wanted information. We had a fairly long call. At the end of the call he said that he would not vote for it. How many others in congress are not aware of what's in this bill? Protesting is well and good but I think making phone calls, emails, etc. are also very, very important. We can get to folks in congress one phone call at a time and put ACTA out of our misery.
http://www.busyweather.com/
ACTA represents the end of political power as we knew it, growing up. ACTA, the NDAA, SOPA, PIPA, and the inconcievably invasive H.B. 2288 (which I am ashamed to say originated here in Hawaii) represent some of the best efforts by the 1% to control what we say and do, especially online. What hubris!
Thinkingman.com New Media
While artists and such do deserve a right to be able to make a fair shake on what they produce, why should patentable items only have a 20 year shelf life while a song have 100+ years of protection?
This is insane.
That should give the entertainment/content industry pause, if there was a strong united Internet demand for fair copyright terms.
That should give some pause to those trying to hijack the production and distribution of ideas.
There are going to be about 4,000 geeks in Brussels next weekend for FOSDEM - I bet at least half of them could be persuaded to pop over to the EU parliament for a little bit of protesting...
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
partly to FTFT, partly to inform: ACTA is an enabling piece of EU legislation that allows Governments to shut down websites they deem to be overly freethinking in their politics (eg positive action group blogs and newsboards). This is nothing to do with copyright infringement but with ACTA, they won't need pesky courts of Law, or even investigation into claims of copyright infringement - just the mere suggestion of copyright infringement will be enough for permanent shutdown and shitlisting of the domain.
Screw due process, Slashdot is subversive and it links to copyrighted material. Hell, you don't even have to go to court or attend police interviews.
Bye Slashdot, 'twas nice knowing you.
Operation Guillotine is in effect.
The problem is that ACTA is being touted as executive agreement which the president has already signed. IIRC a bunch of senators were even denied access to the ACTA negotiations as a matter of "national security." Obama has essentially given congress the finger.
why should patentable items only have a 20 year shelf life
You say it as if the moment a patent expires, any products covered by that patent become unprofitable to sell. There are a lot of counterexamples to this statement...
if there was a strong united Internet demand for fair copyright terms.
Copyrights are dead and everyone knows it. Trying to enforce copyrights, as originally envisioned, is as crazy as trying to tell people that they are not allowed to drink their tap water. It is not going to work. In the worst case -- the one where we continue to have copyrights -- we need to turn copyright infringement into an offense that you receive a ticket for, like parking your car in the wrong place. The better alternative is to develop a new system for compensating artists and ensuring public access to arts and useful sciences.
Palm trees and 8
You know, you bring up a good point. If the internet community can try to fight with legislation of their own - legislation that would limit copyrights and extend fair use and public domain - then these media giants might find that they've awakened a sleeping giant. Not only should we be contacting our congressmen and telling them what to oppose, but we should also be telling them what type of changes we want made in regards to copyright.
Even if the endeavor isn't successful, imagine how scared shitless the MPAA would be if we could get guys like Ron Paul and Ron Wyden to introduce a bill that would get rid of the Mickey Mouse Protection Act or other such nonsense. Furthermore, if we can convince guys like that to vocally campaign on these issues, it would do a lot towards raising awareness.
"From the depths of my skeptical and rationalist soul, I ask the Lord to protect me from California touchie-feeliedom."
Because when was the last time the US or Canada had occupying forces on their land or had had their cities flattened by invading forces. When was the last time they actually fought for their country like say Solidarity movement did in Poland, never. People have had life too good here for a long time so they can't be bothered...
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
It would be nice if people stopped conflating the two.
Copyright: World wide by default
Patents: Only valid where it is applied for (IF granted) . In view of the cost, most patents are only applied for in 1 country/jurisdiction.
Copyright: No cost to the copyright holder
Patents: Applicant must draft costly patent application
Copyright: Never ends in your lifetime or that of your children
Patents: End when the proprietor stops paying the renewal fee and in any case within 20 years.
Copyright: Even for DRM where the work will never enter the public domain
Patents: The applications are publicly available (for the treasure trove on just about any topic, see for exampole http://espacenet.com/ for everyone world wide (including developing countries).
Copyright: Has to be original (low bar)
Patents: Must not only be New, but also Inventive (very high bar; sure, some bad stuff slips through but there are review process/opposition procedures to weed them out if someone is bothered by one). The invention must be described in a way in which an ordinary person skilled in the art can work it (or the patent is null and void).
So, while the patent law is crude, it is working. You don't think that applicants would provide the long explanatory texts that patent applications are if they had no chance of getting protection for their invention, do you?
Copyright law, I agree with you: No balance between society and copyright holder. And the balance is shifting in the wrong direction too. If you conflate the two, you make it harder to get something done about copyright law.
Bert
Those differences are irrelevant in the face of one striking similarity: both are granted by government, both are protected with the force of government, both are a subsidy to specific business models and both must go.
You can't handle the truth.
This is the argument for apathy, and it's wrong. Protesting isn't just about results, protesting is about standing up for what's right. Regardless, I do believe there are positive results - right now we, along with many others around the world, are discussing an issue that may not have occurred to us, or we may not have known about, had it not been for a group of Polish protestors.
Money isn't everything. That's just a defeatist attitude. It's the type of attitude that, by accepting injustice as inevitable, is complicit in it.
"From the depths of my skeptical and rationalist soul, I ask the Lord to protect me from California touchie-feeliedom."
To correct this misleading statement: ACTA is a trade agreement pushed by the US government rather heavy handedly. So it is quite clear that the usual suspects MPAA/RIAA pushed this forward. Being a trade agreement or at least presented as such it used secret negotiations and participants having to sign non disclosure agreements. This "trade agreement" status is a rather shady arrangement which served to avoid public scrutiny and democratic control. ACTA is not EU legislation. Though the EU has signed, it still requires ratification by all EU member states. The troll above clearly thinks that he can influence the process by misinformation.
My guess is that the building opposition and increasing public awareness following the SOPA debacle will leave this process dead in the water. Good riddance.
Actually in this case attendance was not a problem - tens of thousands physically showed up. It was also done with remarkably little violence, so at least media could not spin it as violent hooligans rioting.
He signed it months ago, as a matter of fact. Before all the publicity surrounding SOPA and PIPA.
He's been doing a lot of that lately, ignoring the Constitution.
Source: http://www.infowars.com/obama-signs-global-internet-treaty-worse-than-sopa/
ACTA is a trade agreement pushed by the US government rather heavy handedly
For those who think this is or would like to paint it as an exaggeration.
Upward mobility is a slippery slope - the higher you climb the more you show your ass.
GP's post is not misinformational at all.
Go ahead, allow ACTA to be signed, ratified, and put into effect. THEN, go online, open up a website, and start building up a case AGAINST ACTA and it's proponents. Watch to see how fast your site is taken down.
ACTA is nothing, if it is not a tool to censor the masses, and to form public opinion - while at the same time enabling "Rights holders" to fleece those same masses of their hard earned money.
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br