ACTA

[Minty]

Hello, if you are a member and/or visitor of any social networking site, blog, or any website in general.... and you happen to be reading this message, i would like you to please devote the next few minutes of your time to what i am about to tell you. a great threat is on the horizon for our internet, one so potentially great that it will negatively effect our web for the worse, and ruin the precious freedoms we enjoy from nowhere else but the web. what am i referring to you ask? well, to put it as simply as possible...

there is a international copyright treaty being proposed and set up in secret, that will end our free internet as we know it. this treaty does a handful of horrible things...

first off, this will impose a "three strikes and your out" type of policy. where if you were to merely get "accused" three times of copyright infringement from anybody regarding anything, you and everybody using your IP would have their internet service shut off forever...

secondly, this would force ISP's around the globe to police and monitor the web at their own legal liability. so they would have to break net neutrality by spying upon their customers internet usage. and since most websites are user-generated based, ISP's would not be able to keep up with monitoring the mountains of data uploaded daily to sites like youtube, facebook, rapidshare, twitter, etc etc....even independent blogs! so the outcome of this would be the ISP's blocking most user-generated content based sites to their customers, to save their own necks. and if not that then they would most certainly be censored and/or shut down by governments and entertainment lobbyist organizations.

finally, this treaty would give police new powers to be able to confiscate your electronic devices at state and national borders, without your consent or a warrant. and if they were to find any copyrighted content on your device they could do whatever with it, and send you the bill for copyright infringement! one last thing, this treaty would also enforce mandatory punishments on breaking electronic content's DRM, regardless of the excuse.

now this evil treaty is known by the name of ACTA, or "Anti-Counterfeit Trade Agreement". and for the sake of our precious free internet, it must be stopped. the internet is arguably the most amazing, wonderful, invention man has come up with in modern times. dont let these greedy bastards ruin it....



here is a link to a news article that you can use to read up on acta and inform your friends & family;

http://boingboing.net/2009/11/03/secret-copyright-tre.html

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/11/policy-laundering/

and here is the official leaked document of the current version of ACTA,

http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/threatlevel/2009/11/actadoc1.pdf

along with a wiki page for the most up to date news regarding its progress...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Counterfeiting_Trade_Agreement


EDIT: Fixed the URLs.

 

[Case]

With none of the links working, this is not really informative.

 

[Minty]

With none of the links working, this is not really informative.

Sorry, I'll try to fix them.

 

[nasher168]

They work now.

 

[Prolescum]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but copyright infringement is a civil matter not a criminal one - it's not for the police or customs to enforce - there are already data protection laws, rights to privacy (guaranteed in the EU at least) etc, this would be thrown out of any higher court (probably why it's yet to be ACTUALLY released) here.

ACTA is not designed to negatively affect consumers: the EU legislation (2003 Customs Regulation) has a de minimis clause that exempts travellers from checks if the infringing goods are not part of large scale traffic. EU customs, frequently confronted with traffics of drugs, weapons or people, do neither have the time nor the legal basis to look for a couple of pirated songs on an i-Pod music player or laptop computer, and there is no intention to change this.

It is also ridiculous to try to apply this internationally, as even nationally, the idea is struggling against the tide (perhaps not in the US where many things are back-to-front, but I don't live there so whatever). EVEN if it gets accepted, do you really think people will sit back and watch their favoured sites disappear to be replaced by homogenised portals? Certainly not in the EU, that's for sure.
The time will come to stand up against this; there's nothing you can do at this stage beyond lobbying your MP/Congressman/Bishop/WitchDoctor/Mother, (I've spoken to my MP about a bill passing through the Lords currently with similar goals).

One point: You're almost screaming CONSPIRACY! in your OP, and this is incredibly unproductive. Take a breath, and avoid the hyperbolic language otherwise you'll just look like a loon.

I'm all for reforming copyrights, patents and trademarks (and by default anti-ACTA), but I'm not sure you're helping the cause.

 

[Minty]

It is also ridiculous to try to apply this internationally, as even nationally, the idea is struggling against the tide (perhaps not in the US where many things are back-to-front, but I don't live there so whatever). EVEN if it gets accepted, do you really think people will sit back and watch their favoured sites disappear to be replaced by homogenised portals? Certainly not in the EU, that's for sure.

Oh, you'd be very surprised.

One point: You're almost screaming CONSPIRACY! in your OP, and this is incredibly unproductive. Take a breath, and avoid the hyperbolic language otherwise you'll just look like a loon.

It's copied and pasted from a activism site, so I'm sorry about that. I don't really have the energy or the motivation to retype it.

 

[Prolescum]

It is also ridiculous to try to apply this internationally, as even nationally, the idea is struggling against the tide (perhaps not in the US where many things are back-to-front, but I don't live there so whatever). EVEN if it gets accepted, do you really think people will sit back and watch their favoured sites disappear to be replaced by homogenised portals? Certainly not in the EU, that's for sure.

Oh, you'd be very surprised.

Countries such as Finland and Estonia have already ruled that access is a human right for their citizens.

...

Recently, the EU adopted an internet freedom provision, stating that any measures taken by member states that may affect citizen's access to or use of the internet "must respect the fundamental rights and freedoms of citizens".

In particular, it states that EU citizens are entitled to a "fair and impartial procedure" before any measures can be taken to limit their net access.

And here

From here from a survey of more than 27,000 adults across 26 countries. I think it's pretty clear people will make the effort when it's in their faces.

One point: You're almost screaming CONSPIRACY! in your OP, and this is incredibly unproductive. Take a breath, and avoid the hyperbolic language otherwise you'll just look like a loon.

It's copied and pasted from a activism site, so I'm sorry about that. I don't really have the energy or the motivation to retype it.

Not wishing to pick holes, I'm probably aligned with you in some political areas, but if you can't be bothered to type your own opinion, why not just post a link in the first place? I assumed it was yours, as most would.
As the OP, you will be asked questions; in fact, you've already responded more than once, so clearly it matters to you.
Just wondering if you're an armchair political waffler or not...

I use linux, support FOSS, the EFF, the FSF, release content with CC licenses blah blah etc - I'm on your side - but I think some pragmatism is needed at this point in time. Copyright owners want more control; users want more content, cheaper. We have to foster dialogue, not an 'us Vs them' attitude that is currently pissing EVERYONE off.

We all agree that the status quo isn't tenable, but it's a lengthy debate and NO amicable solution has come from either side yet.

 

[Prolescum]

http://www.euractiv.com/en/health/meps-defy-commission-internet-piracy-agreement-news-326215