statism watch

Related: Google attorney slams ACTA copyright treaty | Official ACTA Draft Released, Only Very Slightly Less Awful Than Expected | The Economist On Why Copyright Needs To Return To Its Roots | Big Content’s dystopian wish-list for the US gov’t: spyware, censorship, physical searches and SWAT teams | Thousands condemn secrecy of New Zealand round of internet copyright talks | ACTA Draft: No Internet for Copyright Scofflaws | Entire Text of ACTA Treaty Leaks to Online Rights Website | Revealed: ACTA to cover seven categories of intellectual property | New ACTA Leaks Complete Picture of Oppressive Global Copyright Treaty | EU Parliament votes down ACTA global copyright resolution by overwhelming margin | ACTA Internet Chapter Leaks: Renegotiates WIPO, Sets 3 Strikes as Model | ACTA Is Called An ‘Executive Agreement’ To Implement Restrictive Copyright With Less Hassle Than A Treaty | ACTA One Step Closer To Being Done; Concerns About Transparency Ignored | UK MPs frozen out of super-secret ACTA copyright talks | Reading Between The Still Secret Lines Of The ACTA Negotiations | Beyond ACTA: Proposed EU — Canada Trade Agreement Intellectual Property Chapter Leaks | New Leaks of Secret ACTA Copyright Law Reveal Oppressive ‘Global DMCA’ | MPAA Says Critics of Secret Copyright Treaty Hate Hollywood | ACTA Threatens Made-in-Canada Copyright Policy | More ACTA Details Leak: It’s An Entertainment Industry Wishlist | Six Days Left: Canadian Net Users Caught As Copyright Consultation Nears Conclusion | MP Charlie Angus on copyright: industry lobby pulling for ‘dead business model’ | Ottawa denies altering public’s ECopyright Consultation submissions | Security guards stop MPs, students from distributing fair use flyers at Toronto copyright townhall | Can The Public Be Heard On Copyright Issues? | Copyright Consultation Launches: Time For Canadians To Speak Out | Third stab at copyright law ‘reform’ to kick off with consultations | Time to slay Canadian file-sharing myths | Canadian copyright lobbyists leaned on “independent” researchers to change report on file-sharing | Think tank plagiarizes, pulls report on Canadian piracy | Obama Administration Claims Copyright Treaty Involves State Secrets | Latest Round of Closed-Door ACTA Copyright Negotiations Wrap Up | Digital rights groups sue for access to secret ACTA treaty | Critics waging a cyber offensive to fight copyright changes | Canadian Industry Minister lies about Canadian DMCA on national radio, then hangs up | The Canadian DMCA: Check the Fine Print | Government ready to drop copyright bomb | Transparency needed on ACTA | Revamped copyright law targets electronic devices | New Attempt to Align Canada’s Copyright Act with USA Coming Soon | Canadian DMCA To Be Introduced Tomorrow Morning?

Mike Masnick, Techdirt.com
June 1, 2010

While the various governments supporting ACTA continue to insist there’s nothing wrong with it, clearly more and more people are realizing that there are some massive problems with it, and we’re not talking about the usual group of activists. It seems that India — which is in the middle of reviewing its own copyright law — is quite worried about ACTA. It’s looking to team up with “like-minded countries” to oppose ACTA and to hold talks with countries who agree to ACTA to explain why they’re worried about it. India’s main concern appears to be over some of the proposals that would continue to allow the seizure of legal generic drugs passing through other countries, something that has been a huge problem for the Indian healthcare system.

Meanwhile, others elsewhere are seeing problems as well. Ray Dowd, a copyright litigator who writes an excellent blog on copyright issues, is getting himself up to speed on ACTA and seems horrified by what he’s reading. He admits that he expected that the scare stories online that he’d been reading would prove to be exaggerations, but he now thinks that people aren’t concerned enough about ACTA:

So when I finally got around to reading the text of ACTA, I thought that I would find the concerns I’d seen floating around the internet to be a little overblown.

In fact, I think that the concerns of the EFF are understated. I am not so concerned about confidential negotiations to give trade representatives some time to brainstorm. But the text appears to be so one-sided as to appear to have been spoonfed by certain aggressive Hollywood rights-holders who don’t think anyone can make fun of Mickey Mouse and that anyone crossing a border should be frisked for a fake Louis Vuitton handbag.

I am surprised that ISP’s and technology users seem to have had so little input into the process.

He notes that he’s all for a true anti-counterfeiting agreement, but he’s surprised that the government is using this to shoehorn in all sorts of things that have nothing to do with copyright:

What is counterfeiting? In my humble estimation, it is knowingly making large quantities of exact copies of a trademarked, patented, or copyrighted good with the intention of selling such large quantities to defraud consumers and the rights holders.

Thus, any anti-counterfeiting treaty would have the elements:

1. exact copies or copies intended to be so similar that a consumer could not tell the difference;
2. protected goods;
3. large quantities (500?) (2,000?);
4. intent to defraud consumers and rights holders.

Some kid copying stuff to his Ipod is not counterfeiting. Even 2,000 songs.

So anyone labeling a treaty “anti-counterfeiting” and that does not have the foregoing elements is trying to pull a scam on me.

His conclusion sums up what many of us have been saying for quite some time:

ACTA appears to be an attempt to tie Congress’s hands in terms of domestic copyright legislation, rather than a legitmate attempt to pursue counterfeiting.

But, of course, according to various folks at the USTR and the Copyright Office, now that ACTA’s been released, it’s proven that all the “fears” from online sources were misguided. Right?

Source | See also under Internet: Cyber Command: We Don’t Wanna Defend the Internet (We Just Might Have To) | Pentagon: Let us monitor your network or else | US appoints first cyber warfare general | Harper government secretly monitoring online chats about politics | Obama Czar Wants Mandatory Government Propaganda On Political Websites | Power Corp. open to charging for online content | NSA head confirmed as chief of US cyber command | Pirate Bay Appeal Judges Cleared of Bias | International Copyright Draft Release Was Apparently A One Time Deal: Now We’re Back To Secrecy | Industry Minister Clement invites input on Canadian digital economy | Google attorney slams ACTA copyright treaty | US regulators seek new network neutrality laws | CRTC approves usage-based internet billing | Red Alert: New Canadian DMCA Bill Within Six Weeks | Fox News Caught Aggregating Others Copyrighted Photographs… Something Murdoch Insists Is Illegal | Cybersecurity event seeks to spur international talks | Australian PM shelves web filter legislation until after election | China wants internet firms to inform on clients | Official ACTA Draft Released, Only Very Slightly Less Awful Than Expected | Big Content’s dystopian wish-list for the US gov’t: spyware, censorship, physical searches and SWAT teams | Danger Room What’s Next in National Security Prospective U.S. Cyber Commander Talks Terms of Digital Warfare | Thousands condemn secrecy of New Zealand round of internet copyright talks | Leading UK ISP Says It Will Defy Government’s Net Censorship Bill | Nikkei Restricts Links to Its New Web Site | Canadian researchers reveal another botnet in China, call for state cybersecurity | Internet linking rights case to go before Supreme Court | Isohunt Ordered to Remove Infringing Content | CETA worse than ACTA — EU Trade Negotiators Demand Canada Completely Overhaul Its Intellectual Property Laws | UK: Met Police launch net café spy operation | ACTA Draft: No Internet for Copyright Scofflaws | UK Budget 2010: Darling puts emphasis on broadband for all | Entire Text of ACTA Treaty Leaks to Online Rights Website | Google reroutes uncensored search to Hong Kong, raises stakes in row with China | Revealed: ACTA to cover seven categories of intellectual property | New ACTA Leaks Complete Picture of Oppressive Global Copyright Treaty | Net produces new generation of human rights activists in China | U.S. cybersecurity bill introduced in Senate | Copyright conviction raises privacy concerns | U.S. feds snooping on Facebook | MP Charlie Angus Introducing Private Copying Levy Bill, Flexible Fair Dealing Motion | Secret Document Calls Wikileaks ‘Threat’ to U.S. Army | Pot, Palin and prorogation: Stephen Harper gets grilled on YouTube | Government Internet Censorship Begins In Stealth In New Zealand | PM turns to YouTube — and takes questions | EU Parliament votes down ACTA global copyright resolution by overwhelming margin | Cyber-bullying cases put heat on Google, Facebook | Cyberattacks push CSIS to reach out to business | United States weighs massive expansion of Internet monitoring | Cyberwar Hype Intended to Destroy the Open Internet | UK: Open Wi-Fi ‘outlawed’ by Digital Economy Bill | Cryptome.org Leaks Microsoft Online Surveillance Guide, MS Demands Takedown Under Copyright Law | Italy Convicts Google Execs over Youtube Video of Downs Syndrome Boy | China launches interview requirement, licensing for personal websites | More Details Emerging About School Laptop Spying, And It Doesn’t Look Good | School Spycams Case Explodes As Feds Initiate Probe | ACTA Internet Chapter Leaks: Renegotiates WIPO, Sets 3 Strikes as Model | Pennsylvania schools spying on students using laptop Webcams, claims lawsuit | Google Books Fosters Intellectual, Legal Crossroads | Google Bans Sale of DVD Critical Of Obama Administration | EU Already Has A ‘Public/Private’ IP Observatory To Watch For Copyright Infringement Online | Google shuts down music blogs without warning | Activists Shut Down Australian Government Websites in Internet Filter Protest | ACTA Is Called An ‘Executive Agreement’ To Implement Restrictive Copyright With Less Hassle Than A Treaty | Swedish Justice Minister reluctant to store internet user’s data | Google, NSA may team up to probe cyberattacks | Hollywood loses landmark copyright case in Australia | Police want backdoor to Web users’ private data | Time Magazine Pushes Draconian Internet Licensing Plan | UN agency calls for global cyberwarfare treaty, ‘driver’s license’ for Web users | CBC’s new licencing plan: Pay to Print, Email, and Blog, and outsource enforcement to American Copyright Digital Rights Bounty Hunters | ACTA One Step Closer To Being Done; Concerns About Transparency Ignored | Internet companies voice alarm over Italian copyright law | UK MPs frozen out of super-secret ACTA copyright talks | China Google Hack Exploited Security Gaps Introduced By State Surveillance Provisions | Privacy watchdog wants public input on social networking sites | Obama Information Czar Calls For Banning Free Speech | Obama Information Czar Outlined Plan For Government To Infiltrate ‘Conspiracy Groups’ | China tells web companies to obey controls | Google Considers Leaving China If China Will Not Allow Uncensored Search | Reading Between The Still Secret Lines Of The ACTA Negotiations | Privacy no longer a social norm, says Facebook founder | For more, visit The Memory Hole — Internet

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 1st, 2010 at 3:00 pm and is filed under law, media, prohibitions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.