Search

[umaerth]

I don't know how many people are aware of this, but the United States, the European Community, Switzerland, Japan, Australia, the Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Mexico, Jordan, Morocco, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, Canada and the European Union are going to resume negotiations on a piece that has some very disturbing connotations for many internetters.

The ACTA is supposed to "establish a new international legal framework" and it's goals are to "set a new, higher benchmark for intellectual property rights enforcement that countries can join on a voluntary basis." Sounds like something everyone should at least know is going on, right?

Well, the ACTA was (to the best of my knowledge) composed in secrecy until someone leaked it in 2008. This is a document that "includes a provision to force Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to provide information about suspected copyright infringers without a warrant, making it easier for the record industry to sue music file sharers and for officials to shut down non-commercial BitTorrent websites such as The Pirate Bay."

I think we all know that bittorrent websites have it coming to them. I won't lie, I've come to them like a desperate man to a mistress when they've got what i need too. But this agreement not only targets the filesharing - it's like a tactical nuke to the file sharers themselves.

That ISPs have to cut off the Internet access of accused copyright infringers or face liability. This means that your entire family could be denied to the internet -- and hence to civic participation, health information, education, communications, and their means of earning a living -- if one member is accused of copyright infringement, without access to a trial or counsel.

There's also some goodies about being able to search electronics without a warrant, ISP's having to turn over all information about their clients to the government, and if you break any DRM (digital rights management stuff, like the formatting on Itunes) you will get in big trouble.


I doubt this plan is really all that plausible, I mean, EVERYONE has pirated music they've downloaded, or that was given to them. Has anyone heard anything else about this? It's scary to think about, but I wonder if it's implementable.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Counterfeiting_Trade_Agreement#Secrecy_of_negotiations
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/11/03/secret-copyright-tre.html
http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Proposed_US_ACTA_multi-lateral_intellectual_property_trade_agreement_%282007%29

This is all I could find. 

[Rigor_Mortis]

Most of what I've heard with this is scare tactics, in both directions.

On one side, I've heard the old line, "If you don't do anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about!"
And on the other side, "They're going to shut down youtube! No more 80's rock video's for you!"

It's been fairly difficult to wade through the nonsense and figure out what is really going on. The secrecy is bullshit. Another thing that bothers me, is after reading what has leaked, and after wading through the technical jargon, It doesn't look very palatable.
The idea of innocent until proven guilty is going to take a shot to the kneecaps. Searches without probable cause are allowed by what I've read. Since when has that been legal? I'm pretty sure we're violating lady liberty (in spirit if not letter) here somewhere.

I don't profess to be the best at analyzing the convoluted word traps these lawyers create when writing this stuff, so if anyone has a better handle at that stuff, I'd love to hear it.