Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement

[acmilano]

https://www.eff.org/issues/acta

 

 

In October 2007, the United States, the European Community, Switzerland, and Japan simultaneously announced that they would negotiate a new intellectual property enforcement treaty the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement or ACTA. Australia, the Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Mexico, Jordan, Morocco, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, and Canada have joined the negotiations. Although the proposed treaty’s title might suggest that the agreement deals only with counterfeit physical goods (such as medicines) what little information has been made available publicly by negotiating governments about the content of the treaty makes it clear that it will have a far broader scope and in particular will deal with new tools targeting “Internet distribution and information technology”.

 

In recent years major U.S. and EU copyright industry rightsholder groups have sought stronger powers to enforce their intellectual property rights across the world to preserve their business models. These efforts have been underway in a number of international fora including at the World Trade Organization the World Customs Organization at the G8 summit at the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Advisory Committee on Enforcement and at the Intellectual Property Experts’ Group at the Asia Pacific Economic Coalition. Since the conclusion of the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Issues of Intellectual Property in 1994 (TRIPS) most new intellectual property enforcement powers have been created outside of the traditional multilateral venues through bilateral and regional free trade agreements entered into by the United States and the European Community with their respective key trading partners. ACTA is the new frontline in the global IP enforcement agenda.

 

To date, disturbingly little information has been released about the actual content of the agreement. However despite that it is clearly on a fast track, treaty proponents wanted it tabled at the G8 summit in July and completed by the end of 2008.

 

Why You Should Care About It

 

ACTA has several features that raise significant potential concerns for consumers’ privacy and civil liberties for innovation and the free flow of information on the Internet legitimate commerce and for developing countries’ ability to choose policy options that best suit their domestic priorities and level of economic development.

 

ACTA is being negotiated by a select group of industrialized countries outside of existing international multilateral venues for creating new IP norms such as the World Intellectual Property Organization and (since TRIPs) the World Trade Organization. Both civil society and developing countries are intentionally being excluded from these negotiations. While the existing international fora provide (at least to some extent) room for a range of views to be heard and addressed no such checks and balances will influence the outcome of the ACTA negotiations.

 

The Fact Sheet published by the USTR together with the USTR's 2008 "Special 301" report make it clear that the goal is to create a new standard of intellectual property enforcement above the current internationally-agreed standards in the TRIPs Agreement and increased international cooperation including sharing of information between signatory countries’ law enforcement agencies. The last 10 bilateral free trade agreements entered into by the United States have required trading partners to adopt intellectual property enforcement obligations that are above those in TRIPs. Even though developing countries are not party to the ACTA negotiations it is likely that accession to and implementation of ACTA by developing countries will be a condition imposed in future free trade agreements and the subject of evaluation in content industry submissions to the annual Section 301 process and USTR report.

 

While little information has been made available by the governments negotiating ACTA a document recently leaked to the public entitled "Discussion Paper on a Possible Anti-counterfeiting Trade Agreement" from an unknown source gives an indication of what content industry rightsholder groups appear to be asking for – including new legal regimes to "encourage ISPs to cooperate with right holders in the removal of infringing material" criminal measures and increased border search powers. The Discussion Paper leaves open how Internet Service Providers should be encouraged to identify and remove allegedly infringing material from the Internet. However the same industry rightsholder groups that support the creation of ACTA have also called for mandatory network-level filtering by Internet Service Providers and for Internet Service Providers to terminate citizens' Internet connection on repeat allegation of copyright infringement (the "Three Strikes" /Graduated Response) so there is reason to believe that ACTA will seek to increase intermediary liability and require these things of Internet Service Providers. While mandating copyright filtering by ISPs will not be technologically effective because it can be defeated by use of encryption efforts to introduce network level filtering will likely involve deep packet inspection of citizens' Internet communications. This raises considerable concerns for citizens' civil liberties and privacy rights and the future of Internet innovation.

 

What You Can Do

 

Despite the potentially significant harmful impact on consumers and Internet innovation and the expedited timeframe in which the treaty is being negotiated the citizens that stand to be directly affected by the treaty provisions have been given almost no information about its real contents and very little opportunity to express their views on it.

 

But there is still time to do something to change that! If you live in the US tell your Senators to demand more transparency in ACTA!

 

 

Well here we go again,attacs on freedom of internet continues.Now instead of legal act made in parliament,now we got agreement made by non-elected representatives.Fight goes on!

[HydraulicWaRiOr]

[Oakshaft]

f*ck sakes, why cant world goverments just stay the f*ck out of the internet?

 

Censoring the internet it like telling charlie sheen not to get laid.

[sivispacem]

Can I suggest we keep all this stuff to the three sodding topics we already have covering it?

[acmilano]

Of course if is necessary lock this one but SOPA is basically disabled and this is a new attack on the internet,indipendent from SOPA and PIPA so whatever is opinion of mods.

Edited January 24, 2012 by acmilano

[Darecki]

Many people are not aware of this trade agreement and its consequences.

Poland is going to sign it on January 26, on thursday... Despite enormous public opposition and protests. Polish government is really f*cked up (not just because of this thing), it's a circus, not a government.

Today's protest in Warsaw:

 

And tomorrow in my city.

What's funny, almost all the government's sites are down almost constantly since Sunday evening... People say it's Anonymous' work. Prime minister warned that it these public protests and hacking continue, he'll probably announce state of emergency.

Idle chatter

 

Is it similar in other european countries?

Edited January 24, 2012 by Darecki

[Gareth Alan Willmer]

seems the acta document has been leaked online

 

Acta Leaked online

 

Download acta document

 

 

[Fozzy Fozborne]

The website says ACTA was leaked 2 years ago. I wouldn't hold my breath.

[Jay]

Can I suggest we keep all this stuff to the three sodding topics we already have covering it?

By locking this thread, you're censoring the internet

[anus]

It seems that nothing short of gunning down every single one of those involved in these bills in cold blood is going to stop them from f*cking up the internet.

[acmilano]

 

Update: An earlier version of this post claimed the act required Senate ratification. Reports are conflicting, but it appears this is not the case. ACTA has been signed as a sole executive agreement, meaning the president’s signature on this is all it takes for it to become law, though Sen. Ron Wyden has questioned the constitutionality of that move on the part of the administration.

 

Cory Doctorow describes the agreement as “a secretly negotiated copyright treaty that obliges its signatories to take on many of the worst features of SOPA and PIPA. The EU is nearing ratification of it. ACTA was instigated by US trade reps under the Bush Administration, who devised and enforced its unique secrecy regime, but the Obama administration enthusiastically

 

This was probably done in parliaments of other countries.

 

Worse, it appears to go much further than the internet, cracking down on generic drugs and making food patents even more radical than they are by enforcing a global standard on seed patents that threatens local farmers and food independence across the developed world.

 

 

http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2012/...-you-meet-acta/

 

This is much more than just internet,putting control on medications and food patents,which would give control over food to few corporations who could then decide price of food we all eat.That could induce even worse situation in third-world countries.

Here is some more links for more info:

EFF’s International Issue Page on ACTA: https://www.eff.org/issues/acta

 

European Digital Rights’ (EDRi) coverage here: www.edri.org/stopacta

 

La Quadrature du Net’s coverage here: http://www.laquadrature.net/en/acta

 

Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure’s (FFII) blog on ACTA http://acta.ffii.org/

 

Twitter hash tags: #ACTA

 

Twitter accounts:

 

@StopActaNow

 

@ffii

 

@EDRi_org

 

@laquadrature

 

~

[Viperman]

Take this with a spoonful of salt here, because I genuinely don't know much in terms of copyright laws blah blah. And in all fairness, I don't use pirated software. A few tunes here and there yeah, but that's it.

 

Anyways, point of my post is even with all these bills and laws trying to be passed, surely out of brute force and huge numbers, there will always be a way to get around them no?? Hacking passed the barriers. I mean, some random folk managed to get in, and bring down the ps network.

 

Like I said, my knowledge on the subject is next to none, and I am against it.

[shotGTA]

acta even sound eviler lol

 

POEPLE ! WE CANT LET THE GOVERMENT F*CK OUR INTERNET . THE INTERNET IS BY POEPLE , FOR POEPLE ! ITS JUST LIKE THE BATHROOM WE CAN DO WATHEVERF WE WANT ! DO YOU WANT A CAMERA IN YOUR BATHROOM ? NO ! SO WHY ON THE INTERNET ! GOD BOMB AMERICA GOVERMENT ! (rofl)

*Speech ending*

 

serieusly

[Creed Bratton]

It seems that nothing short of gunning down every single one of those involved in these bills in cold blood is going to stop them from f*cking up the internet.

That was originally my idea. If you use it I'll sue you for copyright infringement.

[lil weasel]

acta even sound eviler lol

 

POEPLE ! WE CANT LET THE GOVERMENT F*CK OUR INTERNET . THE INTERNET IS BY POEPLE , FOR POEPLE ! ITS JUST LIKE THE BATHROOM WE CAN DO WATHEVERF WE WANT ! DO YOU WANT A CAMERA IN YOUR BATHROOM ? NO ! SO WHY ON THE INTERNET ! GOD BOMB AMERICA GOVERMENT ! (rofl)

*Speech ending*

 

serieusly

Yes... you are a troll, or you wouldn't have to ask.

 

Your rant reveals a need for a spell checker.

 

Remember the guy with knife who stabbed his bully 12 times? When you threaten, you need to expect a reply. Next time make it a Voo Doo Curse.

 

It is the legislature that makes the laws, become a citizen and vote them out.

Be sure the government of your own country doesn't appease the U.S. by enacting a law, or repeal it.

 

[Creed Bratton]

Wow, you have a lot of faith in democracy. That's pretty naive.

[Oakshaft]

sh*t like this makes me want to be a politician, lie about fixing the economy, then when im voted into power, actually do that stuff.

 

Like christ why does no one stand up and voice their opinion anymore? like sure staging protests and stuff is good but stuff liking flipping a couple cars and throwing some molotovs is how you really get attention on a subject.

 

Maybe 2012 really is the end...

[Dingdongs]

Take this with a spoonful of salt here, because I genuinely don't know much in terms of copyright laws blah blah. And in all fairness, I don't use pirated software. A few tunes here and there yeah, but that's it.

 

Anyways, point of my post is even with all these bills and laws trying to be passed, surely out of brute force and huge numbers, there will always be a way to get around them no?? Hacking passed the barriers. I mean, some random folk managed to get in, and bring down the ps network.

 

Like I said, my knowledge on the subject is next to none, and I am against it.

I'm with you for the most part. I think that these bills are ridiculous, and I'm against them - but not because I am a pirate or anything. I really despise the people that try to make arguments that a song belongs to the people and not the company that copyrighted it. Sorry friend, but it's not yours to steal. Buy it or suffer the consequences. The worst I've done is take a leaked Katy Perry song off of youtube and make it an mp3 so I could put it on my iPhone.

[Tsuroki]

I've been following the whole SOPA/PIPA/ACTA thing for a while. The legislation boils down to protecting old business models, and the companies that rely on them.

 

 

[darthYENIK]

 

I've been following the whole SOPA/PIPA/ACTA thing for a while. The legislation boils down to protecting old business models, and the companies that rely on them.

Definitely. It's been happening for a hundred years.

 

Newspapers are pissed at radio.

Book publishers are pissed at movie studios.

Radio and movie studios are pissed at TV.

Movie studios, the music industry and TV networks are pissed at home video and recordable home cassette tapes.

Terrestrial radio is pissed at satellite radio.

 

You know what happened? They all adapted. But now they all want to team up against the digital revolution. All of their businesses are facing destruction. And it's not pirates or bootleggers, or anyone's fault but their own for not adapting fast enough. It's absolutely consumer Darwinism. We all know newspapers cannot survive. We get all of our news from the internet. Radio will be dead, probably within the decade, because cars will all be connected to the internet through Pandora and podcasts. Movies will survive, but the same model they've been using for decades wont cut it down the road. They'll make money, but definitely not the amount of money they want to make, unless they change.

 

Music and TV, I think have the best grip on the fact that they know they need to change, and do so through digital downloading. Thanks to the genius of iTunes. They will probably never make the same money they made pre-Napster, but they'll survive.

[Dingdongs]

 

I've been following the whole SOPA/PIPA/ACTA thing for a while. The legislation boils down to protecting old business models, and the companies that rely on them.

Absolutely. I study political science, and I, as well as my professors, fellow students, etc. all predicted that these bills would both pass due to the influence of the "old guard" i.e. Time Warner, News Corp, Warner Bros, and all of the entertainment/media corporations. It was truly a shock to see the domination of the newer companies like Google, Facebook, Wikipedia (not really on the same scale as Google/Facebook but regardless), etc. rise over the established corporate lobbies and appeal directly to the people to get these bills shut down.

 

I actually submitted a paper just 2 and a half hours ago (little before midnight, procrastinated) on how a huge reason for the failure of each bill is due to the youth and internet savvy of the Obama White House. You have a lot of people in their 20s and 30s in positions there, especially ones with respect to the internet, who definitely played an influential role in convincing the cyber security office, technology office, OMB's intellectual property office, I mean all three most certainly employ young, aspirational interns, along with younger full time employees, as compared to say, someone employed in the Drug Policy Coordinator's office. It's clear that the use of the bully pulpit to kill SOPA/PIPA due to the influence the internet had on these individuals growing up.

Edited January 26, 2012 by Irviding

[lil weasel]

They will probably never make the same money they made pre-Napster, but they'll survive.

? Is that an admission that piracy does steal the money?...

[Marlowe.]

They will probably never make the same money they made pre-Napster, but they'll survive.

? Is that an admission that piracy does steal the money?...

It's money not being made, not money being stolen.

[acmilano]

They will probably never make the same money they made pre-Napster, but they'll survive.

? Is that an admission that piracy does steal the money?...

It's money not being made, not money being stolen.

Industry do suffer from piracy but Megaupload case shows that already existed laws cover this area already.This agreement from the other hand is more aimed to total control that could be mis used by the governments to blockpolitical protests and to have situation like in China with 'Great Firewall Wall'.

[Creed Bratton]

 

They will probably never make the same money they made pre-Napster, but they'll survive.

? Is that an admission that piracy does steal the money?...

It's money not being made, not money being stolen.

Industry do suffer from piracy but Megaupload case shows that already existed laws cover this area already.

Not really. Megaupload closure wasn't entirely legal. They bypassed a lot of legal procedures to get it done. And they didn't even send them any warning notices. They just seized everything and closed it without any regard to legal subscribers whatsoever. Megaupload wasn't an illegal site. Just because it had users who used it for illegal means doesn't give anyone the right to close the whole thing. It's like closing banks because some users keep illegal stuff in their lockers. Or because some of their users are in organized crime. Or like closing and prosecuting gun manufacturers because their guns were used to commit crimes. Double standards and all that.

Edited January 28, 2012 by GTAvanja

[acmilano]

Then the authorities will be kicked in a head and US and New Zealand tax payers will need to pay few Billions of dollars of retribution zo Megauoload owner in few years.

 

One more thing:now even Google changing their privacy policy,this is what i get on my e-mail:

 

 

 

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View it in your browser.

 

Dear Google user,

 

We're getting rid of over 60 different privacy policies across Google and replacing them with one that's a lot shorter and easier to read. Our new policy covers multiple products and features, reflecting our desire to create one beautifully simple and intuitive experience across Google.

 

We believe this stuff matters, so please take a few minutes to read our updated Privacy Policy and Terms of Service at http://www.google.com/policies. These changes will take effect on March 1, 2012.

 

 

One policy, one Google experience

   

Easy to work across Google

Our new policy reflects a single product experience that does what you need, when you want it to. Whether you're reading an email that reminds you to schedule a family get-together or finding a favorite video that you want to share, we want to ensure you can move across Gmail, Calendar, Search, YouTube, or whatever your life calls for with ease.

 

Tailored for you

If you're signed into Google, we can do things like suggest search queries – or tailor your search results – based on the interests you've expressed in Google+, Gmail, and YouTube. We'll better understand which version of Pink or Jaguar you're searching for and get you those results faster.

 

Easy to share and collaborate

When you post or create a document online, you often want others to see and contribute. By remembering the contact information of the people you want to share with, we make it easy for you to share in any Google product or service with minimal clicks and errors.

 

Protecting your privacy hasn't changed

Our goal is to provide you with as much transparency and choice as possible, through products like Google Dashboard and Ads Preferences Manager, alongside other tools. Our privacy principles remain unchanged. And we'll never sell your personal information or share it without your permission (other than rare circumstances like valid legal requests).

 

Got questions?

We've got answers.

Visit our FAQ at http://www.google.com/policies/faq to read more about the changes. (We figured our users might have a question or twenty-two.)

 

Notice of Change

March 1, 2012 is when the new Privacy Policy and Terms will come into effect. If you choose to keep using Google once the change occurs, you will be doing so under the new Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.

 

Please do not reply to this email. Mail sent to this address cannot be answered. Also, never enter your Google Account password after following a link in an email or chat to an untrusted site. Instead, go directly to the site, such as mail.google.com or www.google.com/accounts. Google will never email you to ask for your password or other sensitive information.

 

 

Click here to Reply or Forward

 

News portals already report on this:

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/tec...JHOQ_story.html

 

This is realy ridiculous;every move online is getting controlled,what's next subdermal chips?

 

[spaceeinstein]

Why bring Google into this? I thought it's their business model to track everything you do.

Edited January 28, 2012 by spaceeinstein

[acmilano]

Becouse it looks like general attack,i mean SOPA/PIPA,ACTA,Facebook,EA's Origin,Facebook and now Google,everybody wants to know everything about you(general population).As a Eastern European its to much reminder on Communist era and state controlling everything.That's maybe overreaction but its always start with small and next thing you know you are on your way to Goli Otok(Old Yugoslav's Guantanamo).

[Creed Bratton]

What Google is doing has nothing to do with this SOPA/PIPA/ACTA crap. If you read their new privacy policy it's not really a big deal. I always thought that how they operated anyway. They only track you when you log into those sites.

[acmilano]

They could at least take out this part:

 

 

User communications – When you send email or other communications to Google, we may retain those communications in order to process your inquiries, respond to your requests and improve our services. When you send and receive SMS messages to or from one of our services that provides SMS functionality, we may collect and maintain information associated with those messages, such as the phone number, the wireless carrier associated with the phone number, the content of the message, and the date and time of the transaction. We may use your email address to communicate with you about our services.

 

 

http://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/privacy/

 

To be honest,i did go off topic in my own topic.