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Posted this in the other thread, but its more relevant here:
| quote: | Secret ACTA treaty may include ISP filtering
ISP filtering of "pirated" material is a controversial measure that would be tough to push through a national legislature in the US, EU, Japan, Korea, or Canada, what with all those pesky "voters" with their concerns about privacy, fair use, and false positives. But sneaking the provision into a trade agreement? Much easier.
The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) has been negotiated in secret by trade negotiators from rich countries around the globe. Despite the recent leak of a four-page memo on possible ACTA provisions, no draft text (or details of any kind, really) have emerged from the process. Google's William Patry, a top US copyright lawyer, now says that anonymous sources close to the ACTA process have slipped him more details on the plan, and they don't sound good.
Bring on the filters
Writing on his blog yesterday, Patry noted that two separate sources talked about filtering. "The rumors of what is in the draft are pretty much all bad and the scope is growing, not shrinking," said one. "It is even said that the latest version has filtering language in it."The second report was similar.
ACTA negotiators are meeting in Geneva this week to hash out more details of the proposed deal, but their work is already generating furious online opposition from people like Patry, who thunders, "The attitude of USTR [United States Trade Representative] toward copyright is a blinkered, one-sided view that copyright is good and therefore as much of it as possible is even better."
A shroud of secrecy
Critics are blasting the secret nature of the proceedings, which they see as a way to negotiate and sign a "trade" deal which will then be presented to national legislatures as something already done.
"This 'patriot act' for intellectual property 'crimes' may be one of the late legacies of the Bush Administration," writes James Love of the Consumer Project on Technology. "It would be nice to have more transparency about such a far-reaching and important global trade agreement."
Patry agrees that "we do not want our trade representatives to negotiate on their own agreements that require changes in domestic copyright laws and then present the agreement after signature to the legislature as a fait d'accompli."
Alan Story, a Senior Lecturer in Intellectual Property Law at the UK's University of Kent, objects not just to the secret process behind ACTA but also to the idea that stronger copyright is better copyright.
"Where do we read about how copyright blocks access to books or leads to ever greater commodification and sameness in our culture?" he asks. "Instead, we are regularly carpet-bombed by the latest revelation, accompanied by statistically unreliable surveys, as to how piracy is, one week, killing the music industry, and the next week, the film industry. Lock ‘em up, cut off their Internet access forever, piracy funds terrorist cells: the articles never cease in this steady drip after drip."
Because of the secrecy, though, it's hard even to criticize ACTA; no one yet knows what it might say. But if Patry's sources are correct, the agreement may go far beyond "fighting fakes" (as the USTR said last year) and could attempt to force new, tougher IP provisions on everyone who signs up.
Such a policy, negotiated at institutions like the World Trade Organization (WTO), would require more transparency and would be certain to raise more objections from countries and civil society groups. By forming its own club and including only select countries in the draft, ACTA can remain both secret and totally pro-copyright. That's a bad combination.
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/pos...provisions.html |
| quote: | Copyright bill faces obstacles
TORONTO and OTTAWA — The federal government is on the verge of tabling new copyright legislation, but already sources in Ottawa say there is little chance the proposed changes will be passed under a minority government.
Industry Minister Jim Prentice told reporters yesterday that he will not table the legislation until he is satisfied it contains "the appropriate balance." Meanwhile, Ottawa insiders were told yesterday the legislation will not be tabled until next week.
With Parliament set to break soon for summer, however, two sources close to the matter indicated the legislation is expected to be left to die by the minority Conservative government, rather than attempting to implement any controversial rules or penalties for illegal downloading.
"It's not going to see the light of day," said one Ottawa lobbyist. "Copyright legislation is so contentious in its nature, that for any minority government it is extraordinarily difficult to find a balance that is actually going to have a chance of adoption."
The government has promised a number of organizations, including the Canadian Independent Record Production Association (CIRPA), that the new legislation would be tabled before the House of Commons breaks for the summer.
"We've been assured that something will emerge in this session," said Duncan McKie, president and chief executive of CIRPA. "But it's obvious that even if the bill were introduced now there's clearly little time before the summer break to deal with it, so I expect that we won't get to the serious business of discussing the specific issues until this fall."
The government is under pressure from foreign governments and a number of lobby groups to update the aging Copyright Act of Canada with legislation that would make it easier to track and punish consumers who infringe copyrights by burning CDs and ripping movies.
This isn't the first time the Conservative government has tried to update Canada's copyright legislation, which was last overhauled in 1997.
In December, 2006, new legislation was derailed and eventually scrapped after a grassroots Internet campaign protested against the new rules amid fears they too closely resembled the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which has been criticized as being unfairly stacked against consumers.
Reports suggest that the updated Canadian legislation, which Ottawa insiders say is likely to surface either Tuesday or Wednesday next week, could lead to consumers facing fines of as much as $500 for every illegal file they download from the Internet. It could also make it illegal to unlock cellphones, transfer music from CDs to digital music players such as iPods, or copy time shifted television programs.
Last week a leaked document revealed that the Conservatives are also negotiating with a number of other governments, including the U.S. and the European Union, to establish a new international copyright agreement, dubbed the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA).
The new agreement would allow border guards and other security officials to inspect devices such as laptops and iPods for music, videos and other media that violates copyright laws. Any devices found to contain copyright-infringing material could be confiscated, or even destroyed, leading to fines for their owners.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/serv...Technology/home |
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