[masta.g.86]

It's rare that I create new threads but this is pretty important...

As the 6th round of Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) negotiations get underway in Seoul, Korea, a dispatch has been sent to President Obama expressing concern over the “lack of transparency and openness” surrounding the initiative.

The letter notes that “Unlike nearly all other multilateral and plurilateral discussions about intellectual property norms, the ACTA negotiations have been held in deep secrecy.”

While a curious mix of entities have been allowed to see ACTA documents, after signing a non-disclosure agreement, the letter states that “there were no opportunities for academic experts or the general public to review the documents,” adding that “very few” public interest or consumer groups were included as well.

Among the signees of the letter were The Entertainment Consumers Association (ECA), Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), Knowledge Ecology International (KEI), Students for Free Culture and the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights.

Countries negotiating the agreement include the U.S., Australia, Canada, the European Union, Japan, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, and Switzerland.

BoingBoing (thanks Torven) sums up a few leaked bullet points from ACTA, among them:

• That ISPs have to proactively police copyright on user-contributed material. This means that it will be impossible to run a service like Flickr or YouTube or Blogger, since hiring enough lawyers to ensure that the mountain of material uploaded every second isn't infringing will exceed any hope of profitability.

• That the whole world must adopt US-style "notice-and-takedown" rules that require ISPs to remove any material that is accused -- again, without evidence or trial -- of infringing copyright. This has proved a disaster in the US and other countries, where it provides an easy means of censoring material, just by accusing it of infringing copyright.

• Mandatory prohibitions on breaking DRM, even if doing so for a lawful purpose (e.g., to make a work available to disabled people; for archival preservation; because you own the copyrighted work that is locked up with DRM)

The EFF tears into the leaked material in a post on its website, saying that, “The leaks confirm everything that we feared about the secret ACTA negotiations.”

They continued:

The Internet provisions have nothing to do with addressing counterfeit products, but are all about imposing a set of copyright industry demands on the global Internet, including obligations on ISPs to adopt Three Strikes Internet disconnection policies, and a global expansion of DMCA-style TPM laws.

Source


A good comment to pay close attention to:

What this seems to be, to me, when combined with the attack on Net Neutrality, is an attempt by larger businesses to turn the Internet into a purely business venture, where the 'great unwashed' are little more than a minority whose opinions are worthless, rather than the large social network it currently is.

Without wanting to sound like a conspiracy theorist, it occurs to me that the last thing any organisation wants, is for customers to communicate with each other and share their experiences. They'd much prefer a feedback page that they can edit to suit themselves, destroying social groups like youTube, famous for exposing several bad practices by companies, attacking people who publicise problems with companies by accusing them of filesharing and having their page removed without trial, and the DRM thing is just a continuation of the attack on personal property, where companies feel they should still own the stuff you've bought, and should control your ability to criticise them.

I wonder what effect this would have on Ripoffreport.com . That site was a fantastic idea, and it'd be sad to see it go.

It is not just companies.. governments do not want popular access to information either. Even democratic governments are generally against the idea since when it comes down to it, the same kinds of people end up runing things regardless of what structure the government or company takes.

One for teh lulz:

Spoiler

And were going to put a Moat around our servers and demand the black knight be kept at the gates ... Ah nothing like going back to the Medieval days and imposing Draconian Laws upon the public. Maybe instead of just take down notices we can use the Pear of Anguish to force people to confess that they are trying to pirate music and movies; if they die they were innocent if they admit to it they were guilty.

Anyway, if true, this would certainly cause widespread (forced) change on the internet.

 

[zidine00]

If this happens im out of here (internet that is). They are not getting my money, wasnt the whole point of the internet the unrestricted shairing of information, not the unrestricted advertising of fat cats attempting to dominate everything and everyone, who use this service.

Heh, i guessed there was a plan behind net neutrality after all, finally i can take off my conspiracy theory cap and say told you so. (im thinking this is the right forum, but im probably wrong, either way its now on both.)

 

[masta.g.86]

Heh. That's exactly what I was thinking.

If ACTA becomes a reality, I'll be looking for a new hobby. A heavily controlled and filtered internet is not my cup of tea. If I wanted that, I'd move to China.

 

[xZabuzax]

This is why this world is like this... because of mother phuckers like the ones behind the ACTA crap, and we can't do nothing about it because they are the ones with the power and can do anything they want (meaning we are just underlings) while they think they rule the world and we owe them something.

 

[Kirby]

While Net Neutrality has a good jingle to its name, the fact of the matter is that the FCC will gain power to regulate ISPs even more. So lemme get this straight: the same government will keep the internet free as well as become a police state to weed out copyright infringement...in other words...filter everything? Someone fill me in on how these 2 can even coexist

 

[Xblade]

This will never work.


Underestimating your extremist consumer will lead to ultimate butt****.

 

[Fadingz]

Again, China is not on there :rotflmao:, where 50% of the world Internet piracy is.

 

[masta.g.86]

This will never work.


Underestimating your extremist consumer will lead to ultimate butt****.

Roman 1: Hey, do you think the Roman Empire will ever fall?

Roman 2: Hmm. Nah. Something like that could never happen.

 

[Cid Highwind]

While Net Neutrality has a good jingle to its name, the fact of the matter is that the FCC will gain power to regulate ISPs even more. So lemme get this straight: the same government will keep the internet free as well as become a police state to weed out copyright infringement...in other words...filter everything? Someone fill me in on how these 2 can even coexist

Well, it's the same government who invaded countries to bring democracy, while now they are making these plans in deep secrecy, against the will of the people. Go figure

Seems like they're paving the roads towards darknets and encrypted data. Good luck stopping technological innovation.

 

[zidine00]

Id just thought id bump this with a news broadcast.

sounds a little sexed up (if you have heard that phrase before of course otherwise it just means over exadurated *put in for less embarasing misunderstandings) to me but...

 

[Radix865]

If this happens, I'll get out of the internet too... Oh but can't! Almost all official things here, like paying bills and stuff is done online. Well, there is a way to do it elsewhere but I don't know how!:laugh:

So that's it, they change the world so it will no longer work without internet and then filter and censor it but still force people to use it!

 

[Smooth Criminal]

damn if this ever gets thru its the badest thing that would happen to the internet.

I am wondering what if groups of people come together and create a parallel internet to counter this thing....private line from California to India anyone .

 

[KrossX]

Interesting to see that this has been going on negotiations for many years already...

Dang.

 

[masta.g.86]

damn if this ever gets thru its the badest thing that would happen to the internet.

I am wondering what if groups of people come together and create a parallel internet to counter this thing....private line from California to India anyone .

If this is implemented, I could certainly see that as a possibility. Personally, I think new hacker groups would form with the sole purpose of taking down various internet copyright enforcers. New methods of encryption and ways to get around "the system" will likely also be devised.

 

[Dennemark]

Wow.

Just, wow...

 

[KrossX]

So, where do we subscribe into that encrypted Darknet?

Wow.

Just, wow...

Indeed.

 

[DKT70]

What amazes me is the way US media companies can control other country's laws oO
If there is any humanity, heck even sanity, in the EU, and a chance to show that they can lead Europe in a good way, then the EU needs to stand up and simply tell ACTA to feck off. I would put more faith into going into the EU if they can show that they are all truly united, and not the USA's lap dog.

The trouble is, look at French President Nicolas Sarkozy, told by the EU that 3 strikes breached the "fundamental rights" of an individual. Yet Sarkozy, cosy with these media companies, still wants this. And ooh look, his wife happens to be a singer
I feel sorry for the US citizens, as I feel that it's them who will come off the worst here. And it isn't if there is already enough US hated in the world, not aimed at the US citizens, aimed purely at their Government and these media companies, the hatred coming off this bill would be huge.

What personally bugs me is this whole attitude to a sort of divine right to be paid, regardless of the content and it's quality. I see many "Artists" who supposedly spend months to years recording, then expect the result to be of a monetary value, and for upto 90 years ? oO
What they don't like is that today you can sample a whole album, movie, whatever, before you hand over any money. Unlike in the 80s and 90s, or at least in my youth, where you relied on the Radio and TV to hope that what you were listening to wasn't the only decent track on the whole album.
Today, its release one-good-track albums, although not always, then you listen or watch them how they want you to listen and watch, with complete control handled by them.

 

[Cid Highwind]

Seriously, where is America's fear of communism now? The ACTA treaty would make their society worse than the former communistic society ever was. At least there you were safe within the four walls of your house. In America they simply pass laws that allows your computer to be searched as if you're a criminal, even before there's the slightest reason to do so. Land of freedom my ass. And I'm seriously not an America hater, but it's this corporate sponsored politics that's seriously pissing me off, especially because this plague is spreading towards Europe.

In other news btw,

Michael Geist - Canadian Recording Industry Faces $6 Billion Copyright Infringement Lawsuit

Having engaged in widespread copyright infringement for over 20 years, the CRIA members now face the prospect of far greater liability. The class action seeks the option of statutory damages for each infringement. At $20,000 per infringement (the amount owed on some songs exceed this amount), potential liability exceeds $6 billion. These numbers may sound outrageous, yet they are based on the same rules that has led the recording industry to claim a single file sharer is liable for millions in damages.

After years of claiming Canadian consumers disrespect copyright, the irony of having the recording industry face a massive lawsuit will not be lost on anyone, least of all the artists still waiting to be paid. Indeed, they are also seeking punitive damages, arguing "the conduct of the defendant record companies is aggravated by their strict and unremitting approach to the enforcement of their copyright interests against consumers."

Update: An earlier version of this post noted that record label liability could exceed $60 billion in this case. A reader helpfully noted the math gremlin - the correct number is $6 billion ($20,000 per infringement X 300,000 songs).

The Canadian record industry organization might face a 6 billion lawsuit :evil:

 

[Dennemark]

The Canadian record industry organization might face a 6 billion lawsuit :evil:

Atleast something good about today ^^

 

[masta.g.86]

Seriously, where is America's fear of communism now? The ACTA treaty would make their society worse than the former communistic society ever was. At least there you were safe within the four walls of your house. In America they simply pass laws that allows your computer to be searched as if you're a criminal, even before there's the slightest reason to do so. Land of freedom my ass. And I'm seriously not an America hater, but it's this corporate sponsored politics that's seriously pissing me off, especially because this plague is spreading towards Europe.

The problem is, is that most people don't know very much about it, which is exactly what the governments involved want. All of their meetings are done behind closed doors. Only "select businesses" are allowed to attend. Likely the ones with the greatest amount of monetary pull.

<sigh>

I'll leave a quote.

You Americans are so gullible. No, you won't accept communism outright, but we'll keep feeding you small doses of socialism until you'll finally wake up and find you already have communism. We won't have to fight you. We'll so weaken your economy until you'll fall like overripe fruit into our hands.

...yeah the U.S.S.R.'s former Premier predicted this many years ago. I really wish people would pay more attention to history.