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Microsoft Gets in on the ACTA
,----[ Quote ]
| Now it looks like Microsoft is joining in:
|
| a common tactic of intellectual
| property holders is to blur the
| distinction between counterfeit and
| pirated goods (and even legal generic
| goods, in the case of the
| pharmaceutical industry). Microsoft's
| press release exemplifies this,
| talking about "counterfeit Microsoft
| software purchased at resellers" and
| the "black market for pirated
| software" as if the two were
| synonymous. In fact, most consumers
| who obtain pirated goods on the black
| market realise that they are not
| original. Whilst Consumers
| International discourages consumers
| from using pirated goods, in many
| countries they have little choice,
| because originals are either
| unavailable or are priced far beyond
| their means.
`----
http://opendotdotdot.blogspot.com/2009/12/microsoft-gets-in-on-acta.html
Canadian Proposal for ACTA Secretariat
,----[ Quote ]
| The indispensable Jamie Love has posted a
| much more convenient version of an earlier
| leaked ânon-paperâ from Canada which
| proposes an ACTA âCouncilâ, i.e.
| secretariat, that would stand apart from
| WIPO and the WTO.
`----
http://excesscopyright.blogspot.com/2009/12/indispensable-jamie-love-has-posted.html
Asian Tech Firms Buy Up Patents
,----[ Quote ]
| The days of U.S. technology companies
| wielding patents to block Asian
| competitors from the market or collect big
| royalties may be waning. Ron Epstein, the
| chief executive and co-founder of
| IPotential, a San Mateo, Calif.-based
| patent broker, says South Korean and
| Taiwanese technology companies have been
| contacting him to purchase patents. Their
| goal? To ward off potential intellectual
| property disputes before conflicts flare.
|
| The trend mirrors a path U.S. companies
| took several years ago when they first
| began buying patents defensively, say
| Epstein, who calls patents a "competitive
| tool." "Asian companies have seen the
| success U.S. companies have had with
| patent purchasing and are doing it
| themselves," he says. He estimates that
| Asian firms are two to three years behind
| their Western counterparts in this regard.
`----
http://www.forbes.com/2009/12/08/ipotential-korea-taiwan-technology-cio-network-patents.html?feed=rss_technology
Recent:
Ambassador Kirk: People would be âwalking away from the
tableâ if the ACTA text is made public
,----[ Quote ]
| I said that it was untrue that IPR
| negotiations are normally secret, mentioning
| as examples that drafts of the other IPR
| texts, including the proposed WIPO treaty
| for disabilities and the climate change
| agreement language on IPR, as well as
| several drafts of the FTAA text and the 1996
| WIPO copyright treaties had been public.
| Kirk said that ACTA âwas differentâ and the
| topics being negotiated in ACTA were âmore
| complex.â
|
| I brought up to Kirk that the USTR had shown
| ACTA text to dozens of corporate lobbyists
| and all of its trading partners in the ACTA
| negotiation, and the text was only secret
| from the public. Kirk did say USTR was
| discussing this issue with the White House
| and its trading partners, but that was about
| all he could say at that moment.
`----
http://keionline.org/node/706
MPAA Says Copyright-Treaty Critics Hate Hollywood
,----[ Quote ]
| Dan Glickman, the MPAAâs chairman, informs
| lawmakers that millions of film-related
| jobs are in peril because of internet
| piracy. Simply put, those who donât back
| the proposed Anti-Counterfeiting and Trade
| Agreement donât support intellectual
| property rights, he wrote.
`----
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/11/mpaa-acta-letter/
No, ACTA Secrecy Is Not 'Normal' -- Nor Is It A 'Distraction'
,----[ Quote ]
| A second point they make is that if the end
| result is really bad, countries can simply
| decide not to sign it and not to
| participate. Yes, stop laughing. It's as if
| they think that we're all idiots who
| haven't seen how lobbyists have
| historically relied on the line "but we
| must live up to our international
| obligations" to push through all sorts of
| laws the public does not support.
`----
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20091119/1904177017.shtml
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
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