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[News] ACTA is Killing Poor People

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Anti-Counterfeit Act Violates Right to Health, Say Patients

,----[ Quote ]
| Kenya's new Anti-Counterfeit Act will be 
| challenged on March 8 in the country's 
| Constitutional Court on the basis that it 
| violates the right to health.
| 
| The petitioners, three people living with 
| HIV, argue that the law confuses generics 
| with fake medicine.
| 
| This could cause a health crisis as generics 
| constitute 90 per cent of medicines used in 
| Kenya.
`----

http://allafrica.com/stories/200912221173.html

Kenya's Anti-Counterfeiting Act Challenged As Violating The Right To Health

,----[ Quote ]
| As a bunch of countries continue to 
| negotiate ACTA, the Anti-Counterfeiting 
| Trade Agreement, in secrecy, Kenya already 
| has its own Anti-Counterfeit Act. Michael 
| Geist points us to the news that that 
| particular law is now being challenged in 
| Kenya for violating peoples "right to 
| health." The issue is worth following, 
| because it will almost certainly become an 
| issue assuming ACTA moves forward. Whenever 
| we discuss ACTA, it's inevitable that 
| someone stops by to say that anti-
| counterfeiting is really, really important 
| to stop dangerous counterfeit drugs from 
| being sold, potentially harming people. Now, 
| I have no doubt that counterfeit drugs may 
| be a serious problem -- but if that's the 
| problem, we should target a narrow attack on 
| that problem alone, not some wider "anti-
| counterfeiting" effort. 
`----

http://techdirt.com/articles/20091229/1144137530.shtml


Recent:

ACTA as the (Fool's) "Gold Standard"

,----[ Quote ]
| I've noted before that at the heart of the
| ACTA negotiations there is a con-trick being
| played upon the world: insofar as the mighty
| ones deign to pass down any crumbs of
| information to us little people, it is framed
| in terms of the dangers of counterfeit
| medicines and the like, and how we are being
| "protected". But, then, strangely, those
| counterfeit medicines morph into digital
| copies of songs - where there is obviously no
| danger whatsoever - but the same extreme
| measures are called for.
`----

http://opendotdotdot.blogspot.com/2009/12/acta-as-fools-gold-standard.html


My artistâs manifesto

,----[ Quote ]
| This is the reason why I donât create single
| copies of my photographs or limited editions.
| I want people to enjoy my photography not
| because itâs scarce, but because they like it.
| I do sell signed and numbered copies
| (limitless editions only), but only for the
| people who voluntarily want to financially
| support my art. Donât buy it as an investment
| â buy it because you enjoy it and want to see
| more of it! Everyone else is welcome to just
| download and use (non-commercially) my
| photographs any way they like it â on your
| computer desktop, on your blog, by printing
| and hanging it on your walls!
`----

http://mat.su/my-artists-manifesto/


Senators Sanders and Brown ask White House to make ACTA text public

,----[ Quote ]
| The letter says "the public has a right to
| monitor and express informed views on
| proposals of such magnitude."
|
| Senators Sanders and Brown say the ACTA
| negotiations have not been conducted in a
| manner consistent with the President's
| January 21, 2009 Memorandum on Transparency
| and Open Government.
`----

http://www.keionline.org/node/698


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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