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Government Keeps ACTA Consultation Results Under Wraps
,----[ Quote ]
| Earlier this year, many Canadians were taken aback by reports of a secret
| trade agreement that conjured up images of iPod-searching border guards and
| tough new penalties for every day activities. The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade
| Agreement, currently being negotiated by Canada, the United States, Japan,
| the European Union, and a handful other countries, generated sufficient
| public concern such that then-Industry Minister Jim Prentice specifically
| denied any links between the treaty and proposed new legislation.
|
| While the ACTA debate has largely disappeared from the public radar screen,
| the negotiations continue. Over the summer, I reported about attempts to
| establish a private consultation committee composed of industry groups that
| excluded public interest organizations. The status of the consultation
| committee remains unknown, but my latest technology law column (Toronto Star
| version, homepage version) reports on newly obtained documents [13 MB] under
| the Access to Information Act that provide additional insights into the
| secretive nature of the negotiations as well as the results of a limited
| public consultation conducted by the Department of Foreign Affairs in the
| spring...
`----
http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/3489/135/
ACTA is a fuel for patent trolls?
,----[ Quote ]
| ACTA, a multi-lateral treaty currently being discussed secretly behind closed
| doors, might export the dangerous IPRED1 directive to the United States,
| which allow patent trolls in Europe to preventively freeze bank accounts of a
| company in case of "suspicion of infringement".
`----
http://stopsoftwarepatents.org/forum/t-101929/acta-is-a-fuel-for-patent-trolls
ACTA = ISP liabilities, Criminal sanctions for file sharing, and cheap guns for
Patent Trolls
,----[ Quote ]
| According to a leaked document authored by the European Commission DG Trade,
| the secret ACTA treaty will reopen the debate on the liabilities of Internet
| Service Providers (ISPs) over content, as well as trying to achieve criminal
| sanctions in the EU under the French Presidency Sarkozy. France has already
| criminal sanctions for file sharers, and a law project on file sharing
| and "graduated response" has been recently passed the Senate. ACTA might also
| export the dangerous IPRED1 directive to the United States, which allow
| patent trolls in Europe to preventively freeze bank accounts of a company in
| case of "suspicion of infringement".
`----
http://www.digitalmajority.org/forum/t-101919/acta-isp-liabilities-criminal-sanctions-for-file-sharing-and-cheap-guns-for-patent-trolls
The most important thing is to propagate the ACTA problems. Their next meeting
is in Brussels (early December). "According to Australian officials,
subsequent meetings in Geneva and Tokyo addressed statutory damages and
criminal provisions for unauthorized camcording. The next meeting is set for
Brussels in early December with Internet issues on the agenda."
FFII opposes stealth legislation, demands ACTA documents
,----[ Quote ]
| The Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII) has requested 12
| secret Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) documents from the EU
| Council. Behind closed doors, the EU, US, Japan and other countries are
| negotiating ACTA. The negotiating parties plan on making the ACTA text public
| only after the parties have agreed to it.
`----
http://press.ffii.org/Press_releases/FFII_opposes_stealth_legislation%2C_demands_ACTA_documents
Recent:
ACTA and other monsters discussed behind Council closed doors
,----[ Quote ]
| The Council is discussing measures to curb infringements of progress bars and
| others counterfeited shoes. ACTA and other monsters are discussed behind
| Council closed doors.
`----
http://www.digitalmajority.org/forum/t-94989/acta-and-other-monsters-discussed-behind-council-closed-doors
ACTA-ion and ReACTA-ion
,----[ Quote ]
| Basically, it is an attempt to bring in yet more punitive measures against
| alleged infringements of intellectual monopolies, with less judicial
| oversight and no pesky European privacy protection.
|
| But the trouble with these kinds of crude instruments, cooked up in haste
| without much deep consideration of their knock-on effects, is that they can
| backfire.
|
| Here, for example, is a letter to the US Trade Representative from a bunch of
| big names, including Amazon, eBay and Yahoo. They have noticed a few tiny
| probs with ACTA:
|
| 'We appreciate your objective of protecting the intellectual property of
| American rightsholders from infringement overseas. However, in light of these
| European decisions, there is a very real possibility that an agreement that
| would require signatories to increase penalties for “counterfeiting”
| and “piracy” could be used to challenge American companies engaging in online
| practices that are entirely legal in the U.S., that bring enormous benefit to
| U.S. consumers, and that increase U.S. Exports.'
|
| Is this rich, or what? Here we have a trade agreement that is essentially
| trying to export the insanely aggressive US system for dealing with alleged
| infringements to the rest off the world, but when it works the other way –
| with European norms exported to the US – suddenly, that's a problem.
`----
http://www.computerworlduk.com/toolbox/open-source/blogs/index.cfm?entryid=1128&blogid=14
Research firm emails 20,000 addresses in the clear
,----[ Quote ]
| Today's doofus is investor research company Digital Look. It sent a mail
| yesterday morning which revealed 22,129 email addresses.
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/08/12/email_blunder_redux/
Stop the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement
,----[ Quote ]
| I just heard about the proposed ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement)
| over at Free Software Daily and from the Free Software Foundation. Right now
| the governments of the United States, the European Commission, Japan,
| Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Canada, and Mexico are
| secretly negotiating this new treaty which aims to increase the enforcement
| of intellectual property laws yet again.
`----
http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/community_posts/stop_anti_counterfeiting_trade_agreement
ACTA's Unspeakable Acts
,----[ Quote ]
| Since neither the EU nor the UK government has deigned to let us peasants
| know anything about the current ACTA negotations, I was interested to see New
| Zealand's government releasing a statement...
`----
http://opendotdotdot.blogspot.com/2008/08/actas-unspeakable-acts.html
Free Software leader slams NZ copyright
,----[ Quote ]
| “New Zealand’s law does not go as far as the DMCA in the US, but it is unjust
| nonetheless,” he says.
|
| “DRM is nearly always the result of a conspiracy of companies to restrict the
| technology available to the public. Such conspiracy should be a crime, and
| the executives responsible for it should be sentenced to prison.”
|
| Stallman’s other mission here is to promote the Free Software Movement. The
| creator of the GPL licence, under which most free software is distributed, is
| at pains to correct misunderstandings of what the term “free software” means
| and to draw a distinction between it and the open source movement.
`----
http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/news/0064FE274A08BA2CCC25749A00383CB3
Act Now on ACTA
,----[ Quote ]
| One of the things that has amazed me recently is the power of the letter –
| or, more specifically, the power of the letter when sent to an MP or MEP.
| Naively, I would have expected a deafening silence from these exalted beings
| in receipt of my ever so 'umble communications, but by and large they are
| astonishingly quick to respond, often with personal replies. From this I draw
| an important lesson: that it is always worth writing to your Mps/MEPs about
| things that matter to you.
|
| Against that background, over the next few weeks, I aim to present a few
| worthy causes to readers of this blog that they might like to take up with
| representatives. Remember, finding the latter – and sending stuff to them –
| is trivially easy thanks to the wonders of the WriteToThem site, so there's
| no excuse for not joining in.
`----
http://www.computerworlduk.com/toolbox/open-source/blogs/index.cfm?entryid=1084&blogid=14
http://tinyurl.com/5nbhw2
Sysadmins slam ACMA web filtering study
,----[ Quote ]
| The Guild also expressed concerns about the false positives encountered
| during the ACMA test. The most accurate filter tested incorrectly blocked
| three percent of requests, but when scaled up to the traffic volumes of a
| medium to large ISP this would mean over 3000 requests would be blocked every
| second.
`----
http://www.itwire.com/content/view/19763/1054/
IETF tackling P2P data traffic in Tokyo even though the same content is
available on a server in London.
,----[ Quote ]
| There are a number of possible solutions: The P4P working group at Yale
| University has conducted initial testing in the Verizon and Telefonica
| networks. On the other side of the pond, an EU supported research project is
| working on a solution called Network-Aware P2P TV Application Over Wise
| Networks. In spring, Berlin computer science professor Anja Feldmann
| presented the concept of an "oracle" server, which would deliver a rating
| list of the closest P2P nodes.
|
| [...]
|
| Another SIP expert, Henning Schultzrinne of Columbia University, raised the
| possibility of giving end users more control over data traffic costs.
| Currently, users face the disheartening possibility of risking a hefty bill
| for P2P traffic. At his university, it is standard operating procedure to
| block access to users who have exceeded their 252 gigabyte monthly volume.
`----
http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/113590/from/rss09
Why We Must React to ACTA
,----[Quote ]
| The name of the “Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement” – ACTA – is indicative
| of the overall approach being taken. First, this is a trade agreement, which
| means that it by-passes many of the more open processes for drawing up
| international agreements. This has allowed it to be discussed in secret,
| amongst a cosy club of interested parties and their chums – notably, those in
| industries based on exploiting intellectual monopolies.
|
| Moreover, this is an invitation-only club, which has led to the exclusion of
| most developing countries, and hence most of the world in terms of
| population. It is nothing less than cyber-imperialism by the rich countries
| that for so long have imposed their agendas on the rest of the globe, but
| which finally see their traditional hegemony threatened by the rise of new
| powers – and new ideas. ACTA is a last-ditch attempt to lock the world into
| an old and outdated mindset.
`----
http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/why-we-must-react-acta
Related:
Senators Plan To Unveil New IP Bill
,----[ Quote ]
| Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy and ranking member Arlen
| Specter will join Sens. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., and George Voinovich, R-Ohio, on
| Thursday in unveiling new legislation intended to boost government efforts to
| crack down on counterfeiting and piracy.
`----
http://techdailydose.nationaljournal.com/2008/07/senators_plan_to_unveil_new_ip.php
FSF organizes against Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement
,----[ Quote ]
| "At the moment, the campaign's mostly information," Lee says. "What we want
| to do is get more people involved who can help us build public awareness and
| also build up the information on ACTA."
|
| Other ways that free software users can help the FSF campaign, Lee suggests,
| include local campaigns that contact your elected representatives and
| starting grass root organizations to help create a world-wide action network.
| Lee also stresses the importance of translating information from English to
| help resistance to ACTA in non-English speaking countries.
|
| "It's early days for the campaign," Lee says. "It's an ongoing battle, but
| ultimately we're going to ride this through and see ACTA defeated. But we
| need people to get involved to help us do this."
`----
http://www.linux.com/feature/142403
ACTA threatens free software
,----[ Quote ]
| 1. It makes it more difficult to distribute free software: Without file
| sharing and P2P technologies like BitTorrent, distributing large amounts
| of free software becomes much harder, and more expensive. BitTorrent is a
| grassroots protocol that allows everyone to contribute to legally
| distributing free software.
| 2. It will make it harder for users of free operating systems to play
| media: Consumers will no longer be able to buy media without DRM -- and
| DRMed media cannot be played with free software.
| 3. It increases the chances of getting your devices taken away: Portable
| media players that support free formats are less common than devices which
| support DRM, such as the iPod. Will this make them suspicious to border
| guards?
| 4. It creates a culture of surveillance and suspicion, in which the
| freedom that is required to produce free software is seen as dangerous and
| threatening rather than creative, innovative, and exciting.
`----
http://www.fsf.org/campaigns/acta
The right to peer inside your iPod
,----[ Quote ]
| An agreement on intellectual property rights to be ratified by the G8 heads
| of government highlights conflicts between ownership and privacy
`----
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/jul/10/intellectualproperty.law
Microsoft could force your mobile into silence
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft is developing a new technology that could force mobiles into silent
| mode, or even prevent calls from being made.
|
| [...]
|
| Phone jammers, which work in small spaces, are banned in the UK and come with
|| a hefty fine for use.
`----
http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/microsoft-could-force-your-mobile-into-silence-393006
Digital copyright: it's all wrong
,----[ Quote ]
| The ACTA draft is a scary document. If a treaty based on its provisions were
| adopted, it would enable any border guard, in any treaty country, to check
| any electronic device for any content that they suspect infringes copyright
| laws. They need no proof, only suspicion.
|
| They would be able to seize any device - laptop, iPod, DVD recorder, mobile
| phone, etc - and confiscate it or destroy anything on it, merely on
| suspicion. On the spot, no lawyers, no right of appeal, no nothing.
`----
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/news/technology/digital-copyright-its-all-wrong/2008/06/09/1212863783566.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1
http://tinyurl.com/6ylvpx
Embattled ACTA Negotiations Next Week In Geneva; US Sees Signing This Year
,----[ Quote ]
| Criticism from NGOs
|
| Canadian law expert David Fewer, staff counsel at the University of Ottawa’s
| Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic, told the Ottawa Citizen
| that the discussion paper was very close to a potential Christmas wish-list
| by Hollywood companies.
|
| Knowledge Ecology International (KEI), in an earlier statement filed to USTR,
| warned against a lack in differentiation and clearness of core terms, like
| counterfeiting, infringement or piracy. “Is Microsoft a “pirate” for
| insisting on the right to continue to infringe the z4 patents in order to use
| an infringing DRM technology to protect Microsoft software itself from
| infringement by unauthorised uses?” KEI asked in its statement.
`----
http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/index.php?p=1071
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