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What Really Happened At the ACTA Talks in Mexico?
,----[ Quote ]
| With the conclusion of the 7th round of ACTA
| negotiations in Guadalajara, Mexico last
| week, participating countries issued the
| now-standard boilerplate statement that
| merely repeats the agenda items and provides
| no real insight into the progress of the
| talks. While the statement is does little
| to advance the desire for greater
| transparency, reports from New Zealand and
| Sweden shed far more light on where things
| stand.
`----
http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/4755/408/
ACTA Negotiators Report No Breakthroughs On Transparency
,----[ Quote ]
| [Updated:] The Chamber issued a statement
| last week supporting transparency within
| limits and describing the talks as trade
| negotiations. âGiven the importance of this
| agreement to our economy and to consumers,
| we must not allow ACTA to be derailed by a
| minority opposed to protecting the rights of
| artists, inventors, and entrepreneurs,â it
| said. âThe US Chamber has also been
| supportive of greater transparency in these
| talks. We recognise the constraints of
| international trade negotiations; however we
| urge the administration to ensure the
| congressional committees of jurisdiction -
| as representatives of the American people -
| are fully briefed on the scope of the ACTA
| negotiations and why concluding this
| agreement expeditiously is in the countryâs
| best interests.â
`----
http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/2010/01/31/acta-negotiators-make-no-breakthroughs-on-transparency/
But, Wait, Didn't The Entertainment Industry Insist ACTA Wouldn't Change US Law?
,----[ Quote ]
| It's been amusing watching the entertainment
| industry lobbyists try to come up with
| talking points in support of their most
| favored trade agreement du jour, ACTA. A
| popular one is that nothing in it can or
| will change US law. But, of course, if you
| talk to the folks who know how these things
| work in DC, you quickly learn that's
| hogwash. There wouldn't be any ACTA at all
| if it wasn't out to change the laws, and it
| wouldn't be so secretive if it was just
| designed to keep the status quo.
`----
http://techdirt.com/articles/20100201/1822517995.shtml
USTR: A Lot Of Misperception Over ACTA, But We Won't Clear It Up Or Anything
,----[ Quote ]
| Via Michael Geist, we're pointed to a short
| interview with a representative from the US
| Trade Reps office, where the issue over ACTA
| concerns is raised, and the response is
| almost comically ridiculous. Stan McCoy, the
| assistant US Trade Representative for
| intellectual property and innovation,
| responds to complaints by saying that there
| has been a lot of misrepresentation about
| ACTA and that it really has a lot about
| counterfeiting and isn't just about
| copyright. And....? Well, that's it.
`----
http://techdirt.com/articles/20100202/0216227999.shtml
ACTA absurdity continues, may only get worse
,----[ Quote ]
| The saga of the misleadingly named "Anti-
| Counterfeiting Trade Agreement" has only
| gotten more ridiculous since I decried it in
| November.
|
| For those of you whose eyes (understandably)
| glaze over at any mention of multilateral
| trade agreements, ACTA is an attempt by the
| United States and dozens of other countries
| to write new rules to combat counterfeiting
| of trademarked goods, as its name suggests,
| and to stop copyright violations as well, a
| goal left out of its moniker. (If you've got
| a spare 90 minutes, you can watch a video of
| a panel discussion I led about ACTA at
| Google's Washington offices last month.)
|
| [...]
|
| That level of secrecy has begun to draw
| criticism from groups that were early
| proponents of ACTA. For example, in November
| the Motion Picture Association of America
| wrote a letter to U.S. Trade Representative
| Ron Kirk requesting greater transparency and
| public participation. And at the end of
| January, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce voiced
| similar thoughts in a press release --
| sentiments that went unsaid in a June 2009
| endorsement of ACTA.
`----
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/fasterforward/2010/02/acta_absurdity_continues.html
ACTA Goes on the Charm Offensive sans Charm
,----[ Quote ]
| Sorry to rattle on about ACTA, but it seems
| there's something of a concerted campaign to
| "counter" all the noise we little people are
| making. Here's a line that might sound
| familiar, this time from Stanford McCoy,
| "Assistant United States Trade
| Representative for Intellectual Property and
| Innovation":
|
| Intellectual property protection is
| critical to jobs and exports that depend
| on innovation and creativity. Trade in
| counterfeit and pirated products
| undermines those jobs and exports,
| exposes consumers to dangerous knock-
| offs from toothpaste to car parts, and
| helps fund organised crime.
`----
http://opendotdotdot.blogspot.com/2010/02/acta-goes-on-charm-offensive-sans-charm.html
EU Official Caught in the ACTA
,----[ Quote ]
| Ah-ha: what this reveals is that the reason
| ACTA won't "rewrite" the rules is because
| the rules are *already there*, according to
| this interpretation: ACTA will simply
| foreground them. It's tacitly admitting that
| there are latent ACTA-like provisions in the
| eCommerce laws; the big difference is that
| ACTA will activate them, so to speak.
`----
http://opendotdotdot.blogspot.com/2010/02/eu-official-caught-in-acta.html
Recent:
Brussels denies rumours of secret anti-piracy treaty
,----[ Quote ]
| But Koehler added that the Parliament will be
| expected to endorse ACTA as it would be a sign
| of mistrust in the European Commission if it
| did not.
|
| "It is crystal clear that ACTA will go
| through," Koehler said.
`----
http://www.euractiv.com/en/infosociety/brussels-denies-rumours-secret-anti-piracy-treaty
The digital economy versus the Digital Economy Bill
,----[ Quote ]
| I was at an Open Rights Group event in Edinburgh yesterday,
| about lobbying MPs regarding the DE Bill. One of the attendees,
| Hugh Hancock, pointed out that he will likely be harmed by the
| DE Bill, even though he is a creative person who is part of the
| digital economy, one of the very group of people this bill is
| ostensibly intended to help. (Of course, we all know that the DE is
| really there to protect the content distribution industry, not creative people).
`----
http://www.pirateparty.org.uk/blog/2010/jan/25/digital-economy-versus-digital-economy-bill/
Anti-Piracy Scheme âA Scam & Legal Blackmailâ Say UK Lords
,----[ Quote ]
| Several UK Lords have criticized the
| practices of law firms that send out
| warning letters to alleged copyright
| infringers demanding big payments. These
| schemes have been labeled a scam, and the
| lawyers operating them accused of
| âharassment, bullying and intrusionâ and
| âlegal blackmailâ in the House of Lords.
`----
http://torrentfreak.com/anti-piracy-scheme-a-scam-legal-blackmail-say-uk-lords-100128/
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