Consumer advocates declare war on copyright treaty

[Newsjock]

Source: CBC News

The latest round of talks on a global anti-counterfeiting agreement kicked off in Mexico on Tuesday, and so did a new wave of opposition to the secret treaty.

The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, which is being negotiated privately by Australia, Canada, the European Union, Japan, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, United Arab Emirates, United States and a few other governments, is galvanizing consumer and civil liberties groups.

A number of these organizations on Monday launched a joint declaration of war on ACTA, which they say threatens the fundamental freedoms of the people living in member countries. The treaty is being motivated by U.S. entertainment lobbies, and would allow internet providers to spy on customers and criminalize the everyday behaviour of millions of people, they said.

... Leaked documents from the ACTA negotiations, going on for the past year and a half, show that a number of anti-consumer provisions are being discussed, the groups said. They include:
-- Allowing internet service providers to cut customers off if sharing copyrighted files is alleged.
-- Limiting the interoperability of legally acquired digital content, such as music or movies.
-- Authorizing border guards to search and seize laptops and MP3 players if copyright infringing material is found on them.
-- Introducing criminal sanctions for copyright infringements.

The groups held a web conference on Tuesday to discuss the joint declaration and criticize ACTA governments for their continued secrecy.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2010/01/26/acta-copyright-secret-discussions.html

[RC]

1. How would they know if there actually was copyrighted stuff on a laptop?

Would you have to carry around the licenses for everything also?

[alp227]

2. Good to see some people standing up to Big Corp on behalf of the little guys.

[im1013]

3. Well if thsat isnt a heaping pile of shit!!

Go ahead and pass that crap.... see how many movies or music I buy then.

NONE!!


:grr:

[Downwinder]

4. Just take all Copyrighted material off the internet, ie, AP, NYT, etc. n/t

[insidejoke]

5. Actually, News Isn't Copyrightable...

And it's only protected until it's stopped being "hot" according to the Supreme Court's longstanding decision in International News Service v. Associated Press (1918), and once news has stopped being "hot" it can be copied, even copied verbatim.

That's what makes me laugh about Murdoch wanting to turn his news sites into pay services. If he does that, it'll only be a matter of hours before someone starts a website like like Day-Old-WSJ.com, and gives away yesterday's news for free.

[New Dawn]

6. Fuck the "entertainment" monopolies!

[NashVegas]

7. I Used to Be Staunchly Against This Stuff

Until so many of my friends, most of whom earn no more than $40-$50k a year doing work they love, kept losing their jobs due to market and profitability shrinkage, thanks to arrogant, jealous, cube rats in the tech and IT industries.

No one ever needed Wikipedia, and Jimmy Wales was asking for how many millions of dollars for his free information service, compiled by unpaid volunteers?

[420inTN]

9. Information may be free..

but servers and bandwidth aren't.

Just because the information provided is free, doesn't mean that the servers, disk backups, and bandwidth are. Just as you have to pay for your web service, so do those who post the information that you browse.

I don't see anyone bitching about the DU asking for donations. It costs money to keep the DU running. It costs money to keep wikipedia running.

[420inTN]

10. I'm one of those cube rats...

I'm not sure how people are losing their jobs due to our arrogance or jealosy. Without us "cube rats" in the tech and IT industries, there wouldn't be much of a internet or DU for that matter.

[Odin2005]

8. K&R for LIBERTY!