ACTA

[Scramasax]

I made a topic for this earlier, but it must have been eaten by the recent site crash.

ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement) is an agreement being discussed by many countries in secret regarding intellectual property and copyright enforcement.  All we really know about it comes from leaked documents.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Counterfeiting_Trade_Agreement

The latest leak points to specific countries and their involvement.
http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/4829/125/

I thought peopel might find this interesting/scary.

[RoyMoy]

I already had a similar thread on this. It mainly seems to me that the big American entertainment companies are the ones mainly pushing this. Before this lobbying nonsense happened, I was already disgusted by RIAA's mass litigation campaign that I've sworn them off completely (they're not even worth pirating/bootlegging).

ACTA's precursor, the DMCA has proven to be highly controversial and has caused all sorts of censorship issues.

Here's a nice laundry list of problems caused by the DMCA (and will be caused worldwide by ACTA)

http://www.eff.org/wp/unintended-consequences-under-dmca

[RoyMoy]

Looks like ACTA got curb stomped by the EU parliament the moment the moment it tried to show it's face in the light of day. A resolution on ACTA passed nearly unanimously (633 favor, 13 against, 16 abstain). The resolution includes a condemnation of the secret nature of the negotiation process and an explicit rejection of a "three strikes" (getting disconnected from the internet on 3 accusations of copyright infringement) law.

http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/4857/125/

[Scramasax]

And on the other side of the lake, Obama is still trying to support it.  Unfortunately, even if I could go back and change my vote, McCain would probably be even more tech-clueless.

[RoyMoy]

http://publicacta.org.nz/wellington-declaration/

Please read and sign.

[RoyMoy]

Well they finally released the text though the leaked version of the treaty has been out for several weeks.

ACTA arrives (still bad, but a tiny bit better)

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/04/acta-is-here.ars