So ... how do you feel about ACTA?

FluffyMcDeath

FluffyMcDeath

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What do you mean "what's ACTA?"

Surely everyone has heard of it - it's been all over the news 24/7 because it's so interesting and good for you.

Or maybe it hasn't.

So what is it and why do you care? Well, it's a so far mostly secret negotiation whereby the big copyright holding companies get together to decide how to stop naughty copying on the net by any and all means, no matter what the cost to service providers or civil liberties.

No, I'm not really kidding. Already the DCMA has been abused to extort money from ordinary citizens and to shut up people with the "wrong" message. Fair use and commentary have been trampled. Now we get to do it bigger and worser and, it seems, nobody even gets a vote on it. Is this the way laws are supposed to be made?

ACTA
 
This is something I've known about for some time.

Fluffy, I'm sure you've heard of Michael Giest. If not, check out his blog: ACTA Posts. He's got a Facebook group as well.

The EFF has today published an info page about ACTA: Stopping the ACTA Juggernaut

And on a related note: Report Says Canadian DMCA To Include $500 Fine Per Download

Looks like Harper is bent on repeating all the mistakes made by our neighbors to the South. I can't believe people vote for that POS.

  • EDIT:I just realized the above article is over a year old. That explains why I couldn't find anything else on that. Well, that's good news then isn't it? :pint:

As for the lack of ACTA news... Well, fact is it's not an emotionally charged issue mostly because people just don't fully understand the inner details of copyright law. And even worse, they're likely to believe the lies from the RIAA, MPAA and CRIA that p2p is stealing money from the artists. Wrong, it's the RIAA and CRIA that is stealing money from the artists, the fans are the only ones who give them money. But I digress. Fact is, ask the random person on the street and they'd bound to tell you that p2p is costing artists millions and it should be stopped - despite the research that was conducted by our own government that said the exact opposite. :roll:

But in a nutshell, you're right, this is severely under reported and there should be no one who actually supports this kind of secrecy.
 
Just to keep pounding the issue....

ACTA draft leaks: nonprofit P2P faces criminal penalties

Rightsholders, especially in the music and movie businesses, have been upfront about what they want, and it's a long and sometimes scary list. But it has been hard to know if any of these ideas are actually moving forward in the ACTA negotiating sessions, since none of the countries involved have seen fit to release much in the way of useful information on the process—To the public, anyway. Based on sources and leaked documents, Knowledge Ecology International now asserts that ACTA drafts are in fact "formally available to cleared corporate lobbyists and informally distributed to corporate lawyers and lobbyists in Europe, Japan, and the US."

And all this time I thought democracy was all about "by the people for the people", not for the corporations. Hmmm... Funny that.

This is nothing but a clear sign that our highly treasured Western liberal democracy is broken and needs fixing.
 
Another week, another ACTA leak:

Current ACTA drafts ban DRM interoperability laws

What does that mean? It means any country that would sign on to ACTA would not be allowed to pass laws which ban locking of content to a specific device via DRM. And why is this so bad? It would be like if we lived in a world where GM cars only ran on GM gas and Toyota cars ran only on Toyota gas and not because of any technical reasons but purely to lock people into a specific brand. It's not so much of who would not want to live in such a world, it's who would want to live in such a world where we couldn't outlaw such crooked deals?

I'd say that any government that would want such a clause in the ACTA treaty definitely has the interests of big content ahead of the interests of the voting public.

And why is it that only the "Lefties" have replied to this thread? So far all we've seen from the right side of this forum is:
solocomolauna0uo.gif


(Btw Wayne, may I suggest adding that emoticon to the standard set? I feel it could be useful and it's damn funny! :mrgreen: )
 
Glaucus said:
And why is it that only the "Lefties" have replied to this thread? So far all we've seen from the right side of this forum is:
solocomolauna0uo.gif


(Btw Wayne, may I suggest adding that emoticon to the standard set? I feel it could be useful and it's damn funny! :mrgreen: )
Click to expand...

Sorry, as I'm sure you know, I've been caught up in the drama that is Amiga as of late. :)

Wayne
 
And what do we have here? Oh, it's another ACTA leak:

World, get ready for the DMCA: ACTA's Internet chapter leaks

The oddest thing about the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) secrecy is that, whenever we see leaked drafts of the text, there's nothing particularly "secret" about them. That was also the case with this weekend's leak of the "Internet enforcement" section of the ACTA draft; as we've noted in the past, ACTA appears to be a measure to extend the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) to the rest of the world, and that's exactly what the Internet section tries to do.
Click to expand...
Wow, now who could have seen this one coming???

Well, at least now we know why it's all so secret. The Europeans and Canada don't want to look like they're just sitting there taking orders from the US, which of course they are.
 
Another week, another ACTA leak:

New ACTA leak shows major resistance to US-style DRM rules

Well that's good news. It seems most nations don't dig US style DMCA and DRM circumvention laws. In fact, it almost seems like non of the nations are interested in changing their laws at all, least of which the US (which plans to treat this as an executive agreement and not push it through congress). Every other nation however would need to make changes to their laws, dictated to them of course by the US. Luckily, there's a lot of resistance to that, but I suspect the longer this drags on the more ways the US will find to $weeten the pot.
 
Yet another thread brought back from the dead: Wikileaks cables reveal US pressuring Canada on IP enforcement

"Embassy Ottawa remains frustrated by the Government of Canada's continuing failure to introduce—let alone pass—major copyright reform legislation that would, inter alia, implement and ratify the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Internet treaties." That's the opening line of a United States embassy dispatch sent to Washington, DC in February of 2008, now published by Wikileaks.

"Given the continuing failure of the GOC [Government of Canada] to introduce a copyright bill into Parliament," the missive continues. . . "Post reluctantly recommends that Canada be elevated to Special 301 Priority Watch List in 2008."
Click to expand...
The world's self-anointed defender of democracy illustrates exactly how to circumvent it. Brilliant.
 
Wayne said:
Glaucus said:
And why is it that only the "Lefties" have replied to this thread? So far all we've seen from the right side of this forum is:
solocomolauna0uo.gif


(Btw Wayne, may I suggest adding that emoticon to the standard set? I feel it could be useful and it's damn funny! :mrgreen: )
Click to expand...

Sorry, as I'm sure you know, I've been caught up in the drama that is Amiga as of late. :)

Wayne
Click to expand...

Whoooooosh!

I've been asleep at the wheel.
OT, I know, but What's been happening Amiga-wise, sir?
 
Robert said:
Whoooooosh!

I've been asleep at the wheel.
OT, I know, but What's been happening Amiga-wise, sir?
Click to expand...
How time flies. Wayne's post was from Nov 2009. I believe back then Wayne was going through the sale of Amiga.org. As to what's going on with Amiga today? Probably nothing.
 
Glaucus said:
. As to what's going on with Amiga today? Probably nothing.
Click to expand...

That depends on your definition of "Amiga".
 
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