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US Trade Rep weasels and squirms when cornered on an airplane
and questioned about secret copyright treaty
,----[ Quote ]
| Read this account of James Love's
| conversation with Ambassador Ron Kirk, the
| head US Trade Representative, on the
| question of why the Draconian Anti-
| Counterfeiting Trade Agreement is taking
| place in secret. Love cornered Kirk on a
| United Airlines flight from Geneva to DC
| following a WTO Ministerial meeting. Love
| asks Kirk why the treaty isn't public, and
| Kirk's answers are -- at best -- total
| weaselling and at worst fabrications.
`----
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/12/05/us-trade-rep-weasels.html
Out of control monopolies......
"So, Verizon, about those doubled early termination fees..."
,----[ Quote ]
| The FCC wants a "more complete understanding"
| of why Verizon Wireless recently doubled its
| early termination fees on smartphones. Is it
| really just about recouping costs? And if so,
| why would people on a two-year contract still
| owe $120 after 23 months?
`----
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/12/so-verizon-about-those-doubled-early-termination-fees.ars
Recent:
More ACTA Leaks; Still Looking Really Bad
,----[ Quote ]
| Yet again, despite all the secrecy and
| bogus claims of "national security," the
| details behind what's being proposed in
| ACTA have leaked, and they don't look good
| at all. It's basically an attempt to force
| the worst of the DMCA on much of the rest
| of the world, with a few carefully chosen
| modifications. While there are lots of
| issues, it's worth noting the most basic of
| all, found in the first paragraph that
| contains the "general obligations" of
| participating countries.
`----
http://techdirt.com/articles/20091130/0813357132.shtml
EU ACTA Analysis Leaks: Confirms Plans For Global DMCA, Encourage 3 Strikes Model
,----[ Quote ]
| The European Commission analysis of ACTA's
| Internet chapter has leaked, indicating
| that the U.S. is seeking to push laws that
| extend beyond the WIPO Internet treaties
| and beyond current European Union law (the
| EC posted the existence of the document
| last week but refused to make it publicly
| available). The document contains detailed
| comments on the U.S. proposal, confirming
| the U.S. desire to promote a three-strikes
| and you're out policy, a Global DMCA,
| harmonized contributory copyright
| infringement rules, and the establishment
| of an international notice-and-takedown
| policy.
`----
http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/4575/125/
One Misguided Tweet Is 'Indisputable' Evidence That Piracy Harms Movies?
,----[ Quote ]
| From this, Captain Kibble alerts us to an
| accurately described "rant" at
| ScreenRants.com about how this is
| "indisputable" evidence that piracy harms
| movies. The basis of that claim? Reese's
| heat of the moment claim that this could
| impact the making of a sequel. According to
| the ScreenRants folks, this suggests it's a
| fact that movie piracy is harming movies.
| Of course, there's no actual evidence that
| there is any decreased interest in making a
| Zombieland sequel. In fact, since the
| highest grossing movies almost always
| correlate to the most shared movies online,
| it seems that being a top pirated movie
| also likely has extremely high correlation
| with movies that get sequels.
`----
http://techdirt.com/articles/20091125/0954147086.shtml
Mininova pulls in its shell, but is it down for the count?
,----[ Quote ]
| I keep reading about the big brother of
| copyrighted content going all gun ho on
| doing whatever it can to shut down torrent
| web sites. The latest victim is the
| www.mininova.org torrent site which has
| been forced to limit itself to content
| distribution serviced according to a recent
| court ruling.
`----
http://www.locutus.us/mininova_site_shutdown
EU competence to conclude Free Trade Agreements under the Lisbon Treaty
,----[ Quote ]
| On Dec. 1, 2009, the European Union Lisbon
| Treaty will enter into force. (provisional
| consolidated text) On this page we present
| a draft analysis of the EU competence to
| conclude ACTA and other trade agreements.
|
| Generally speaking, the European
| Parliament's role becomes more important,
| the member states loose some of their veto
| power.
`----
http://action.ffii.org/acta/lisbon
Ãsa Torstensson visits Washington on ACTA transparency
,----[ Quote ]
| Let me add that 1st of December Art 15 of the
| Treaty of the Functioning of the EU is set
| into force. In my German language
| âconfirmatory applicationâ for an ACTA
| document access to the European Council I
| argued recently that this takes effects for
| the ACTA document access regime as well.
`----
http://arebentisch.wordpress.com/2009/11/29/asa-torstensson-visits-washington-on-acta-transparency/
Will secret copyright treaty restrict your digital rights?
,----[ Quote ]
| Most Americans expect that their laws are
| only passed after some period of public
| debate between Republicans and Democrats or
| their news-channel proxies. However, the
| Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA)
| may be an exception to this rule, and if it
| is signed, many United States laws
| concerning the Internet and ownership of
| data may become substantively different.
`----
http://www.macworld.com/article/143986/2009/11/acta_treaty.html
No, ACTA Secrecy Is Not 'Normal' -- Nor Is It A 'Distraction'
,----[ Quote ]
| Over the last few weeks people who are
| actually concerned about individual rights
| have done a decent job sounding the alarm
| about the problems with what little we've
| seen of the ACTA negotiations. In the last
| week or so, those who work for the
| entertainment industry have suddenly started
| scrambling to respond, after realizing that
| more and more people are starting to pay
| attention and to worry about ACTA. However,
| it's been pretty funny to watch the
| desperate attempts by industry lawyers to
| try to paint this all as much ado about
| nothing (with gratuitous swipes at those of
| us who have called attention to what's going
| on).
`----
http://techdirt.com/articles/20091119/1904177017.shtml
Stopping the ACTA Juggernaut
,----[ Quote ]
| The ACTA juggernaut continues to roll ahead,
| despite public indignation about an
| agreement supposedly about counterfeiting
| that has turned into a regime for global
| Internet regulation. The Office of the
| United States Trade Representative (USTR)
| has already announced that the next round of
| Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA)
| negotiations will take place in January â
| with the aim of concluding the deal "as soon
| as possible in 2010."
|
| For the rest of us, with access to only
| leaks and whispers of what ACTA is about,
| there are many troubling questions. How can
| such a radical proposal legally be kept so
| secret from the millions of Net users and
| companies whose rights and freedoms stand to
| be affected? Who decides what becomes the
| law of the land and by what influence? Where
| is the public oversight for an agreement
| that would set the legal rules for the
| knowledge economy? And what can be done to
| fix this runaway process?
`----
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/11/stopping-acta-juggernaut
USA Treaty Priorities?
,----[ Quote ]
| Maybe the only explanation for the US being
| the last holdout from this worthy sounding
| treaty that even Somalia will ratify is that
| it is just too busy protecting the obsolete
| business models of the RIAA and MPAA through
| the secret ACTA treaty process and doesn't
| have enough time or resources to worry about
| lesser priorities, such as protecting
| children.
`----
http://excesscopyright.blogspot.com/2009/11/usatreaty-priorities.html
Question on ACTA and the Telecoms Package
,----[ Quote ]
| Here is a draft for the question:
|
| In the recently concluded conciliation
| on the Telecoms Package, it was decided
| that no measures restricting end-usersâ
| access to the internet may be taken
| unless they are appropriate,
| proportionate and necessary within a
| democratic society, and never without a
| prior fair and impartial procedure that
| includes the right to be heard and
| respects the of presumption of innocence
| and the right to privacy.
|
| Are the proposals currently being
| discussed in the Anti-Counterfeiting
| Trade Agreement (ACTA) negotiations
| fully in line with the provisions that
| were agreed in the conciliation on the
| Telecoms Package? If not, when and how
| will the Commission redress any
| incompatibilities of the ACTA?
`----
http://christianengstrom.wordpress.com/2009/11/15/question-on-acta-and-the-telecoms-package/
Positive outcome reached at WIPO Advisory Committee on Enforcement
while ACTA looms in the East
,----[ Quote ]
| The three day meeting of the WIPO ACE
| concluded on a positive note with the
| Committee requesting the WIPO Secretariat
| to ramp up its work on undertaking an "an
| empirical assessment of the nature and
| extent of intellectual infringements" given
| the paucity of reliable data detailing the
| value of "international trade in IPRs-
| infringing goods".
`----
http://keionline.org/node/681
NZ should not sign international piracy agreement
,----[ Quote ]
| This comment comes after the anti-
| counterfeiting trade agreement (ACTA)
| returned to the drawing board last week in
| Seoul, to further discuss how to implement
| and police global copyright and counterfeit
| matters, and to sign an international
| treaty.
`----
http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/nz-should-not-sign-international-piracy-agreement-114686
Copyright Treaty Is Policy Laundering at Its Finest
,----[ Quote ]
| The blogosphere is abuzz over an apparently
| leaked document showing the United States
| trying to push its controversial DMCA-style
| notice-and-takedown process on the world. But
| since Threat Level already lives in the land
| of the DMCA, or Digital Millennium Copyright
| Act, weâre more bothered by the fact that the
| U.S. proposal goes far beyond that 1998 law,
| and would require Congress to alter the DMCA
| in a manner even more hostile to consumers.
|
| At issue is the internet section of the Anti-
| Counterfeiting Trade Agreement being
| developed under a cloak of secrecy by dozens
| of countries. The leaked document is a three-
| page European Commission memo written by an
| unnamed EU official, which purports to
| summarizes a private briefing given in
| September by U.S. trade officials.
`----
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/11/policy-laundering/
The ACTA Internet provisions: DMCA goes worldwide
,----[ Quote ]
| New details about the Internet section of the
| Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA)
| have leaked, and critics are already claiming
| that they mandate "three strikes" policies
| and will put an end to Flickr and YouTube.
| The reality is less sensational but just as
| important: ACTA is really about taking the
| DMCA global.
`----
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/11/the-acta-internet-provisions-dmca-goes-worldwide.ars
Europe only goes half-way in protecting Internet rights.
,----[ Quote ]
| "Despite its lack of clarity and ambition,
| this text does provide legal ammunition to
| continue the fight against restrictions of
| Internet access. The agreed text does not
| meet the challenge of clearly preserving a
| fundamental right of access to the Net.
| Threats to Internet Freedom still loom, with
| the intense lobbying of the entertainment
| industries to push the ACTA treaty, which
| endangers Net neutrality and seeks to impose
| the liability of the technical
| intermediaries." concludes JÃrÃmie
| Zimmemrmann, co-founder of the citizen
| advocacy group La Quadrature du Net.
`----
http://www.laquadrature.net/en/Europe-only-goes-half-way-in-protecting-internet-rights
No ACTA from the Swedish Presidency for me
,----[ Quote ]
| The General Secretariat has weighed my
| âinterest in being informed of progress in
| this area against the general interest that
| progress be made in an area that is still
| the subject of negotiationsââ âAs there is
| no evidence suggesting an overriding public
| interest to warrant disclosure of the
| document in question, the General
| Secretariat has concluded that protection
| of the decision-making process outweighs
| the public interest in disclosure.â
`----
http://arebentisch.wordpress.com/2009/11/04/no-acta-from-the-swedish-presidency-for-me/
WIPO Boss: ACTA Should be Open, Transparent
,----[ Quote ]
| If even the head of WIPO is saying ACTA
| needs to be drawn up as part of an open,
| transparent process, isn't it time for the
| relevant governments to listen?
`----
http://opendotdotdot.blogspot.com/2009/11/wipo-boss-acta-should-be-open.html
More ACTA Details Leak: It's An Entertainment Industry Wishlist
,----[ Quote ]
| The latest round of "negotiations" over the
| ACTA treaty continue in secret due to as yet
| unexplained national security reasons
| (despite the fact that the entertainment
| industry lobbyists have had full access to
| the document) are kicking off in Korea. Once
| again is becoming clear that the claims by
| US trade reps that ACTA did not represent
| any kind of major change in copyright law,
| and thus didn't require public scrutiny, are
| nothing more than a myth. Despite ridiculous
| efforts to keep the document secret (some
| countries were given only physical,
| watermarked, copies of the latest drafts),
| some of the details are leaking out and it's
| not pretty at all.
|
| The plan is modeled on the ridiculously
| misnamed "free trade agreement" between the
| US and South Korea from a few years back.
| It's misnamed because it wasn't about free
| trade at all, but massive protectionism for
| the American entertainment industry.
`----
http://techdirt.com/articles/20091103/1308526784.shtml
The ACTA Internet Chapter: Putting the Pieces Together
,----[ Quote ]
| The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement
| negotations continue in a few hours as
| Seoul, Korea plays host to the latest round
| of talks. The governments have posted the
| meeting agenda, which unsurprisingly focuses
| on the issue of Internet enforcement [UPDATE
| 11/4: Post on discussions for day two of
| ACTA talks, including the criminal
| enforcement provisions]. The United States
| has drafted the chapter under enormous
| secrecy, with selected groups granted access
| under strict non-disclosure agreements and
| other countries (including Canada) given
| physical, watermarked copies designed to
| guard against leaks.
`----
http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/4510/125/
Leaked ACTA Internet Provisions: Three Strikes and a Global DMCA
,----[ Quote ]
| Negotiations on the highly controversial
| Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement start in
| a few hours in Seoul, South Korea. This
| weekâs closed negotiations will focus on
| âenforcement in the digital environment.â
| Negotiators will be discussing the Internet
| provisions drafted by the US government. No
| text has been officially released but as
| Professor Michael Geist and IDG are
| reporting, leaks have surfaced. The leaks
| confirm everything that we feared about the
| secret ACTA negotiations. 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.
`----
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/11/leaked-acta-internet-provisions-three-strikes-and-
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