Secret copyright treaty leaks. It's bad. Very bad.

[chanel]

The internet chapter of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, a secret copyright treaty whose text Obama's administration refused to disclose due to "national security" concerns, has leaked. It's bad. It says:

* * That ISPs have to proactively police copyright on user-contributed material. This means that it will be impossible to run a service like Flickr or YouTube or Blogger, since hiring enough lawyers to ensure that the mountain of material uploaded every second isn't infringing will exceed any hope of profitability.

* * That ISPs have to cut off the Internet access of accused copyright infringers or face liability. This means that your entire family could be denied to the internet -- and hence to civic participation, health information, education, communications, and their means of earning a living -- if one member is accused of copyright infringement, without access to a trial or counsel.

* * That the whole world must adopt US-style "notice-and-takedown" rules that require ISPs to remove any material that is accused -- again, without evidence or trial -- of infringing copyright. This has proved a disaster in the US and other countries, where it provides an easy means of censoring material, just by accusing it of infringing copyright.

* * Mandatory prohibitions on breaking DRM, even if doing so for a lawful purpose (e.g., to make a work available to disabled people; for archival preservation; because you own the copyrighted work that is locked up with DRM)

Secret copyright treaty leaks. It's bad. Very bad. - Boing Boing
__________________________________________________________

Fact or fiction?

 

[California Girl]

That's all I can say.

 

[xotoxi]

Did you say that...

the whole world must adopt US-style "notice-and-takedown" rules that require ISPs to remove any material that is accused -- again, without evidence or trial -- of infringing copyright???

 

[California Girl]

Did you say that...

the whole world must adopt US-style "notice-and-takedown" rules that require ISPs to remove any material that is accused -- again, without evidence or trial -- of infringing copyright???

A true "WTF" moment, is it not?

 

[xotoxi]

Did you say that...

the whole world must adopt US-style "notice-and-takedown" rules that require ISPs to remove any material that is accused -- again, without evidence or trial -- of infringing copyright???

A true "WTF" moment, is it not?

This is troubling to the Dramatic Gopher.

I'm thinking that the newspaper and the encyclopedia lobbies are behind this!

 

[California Girl]

Did you say that...

the whole world must adopt US-style "notice-and-takedown" rules that require ISPs to remove any material that is accused -- again, without evidence or trial -- of infringing copyright???

A true "WTF" moment, is it not?

This is troubling to the Dramatic Gopher.

I'm thinking that the newspaper and the encyclopedia lobbies are behind this!

In part. Personally, I think this is far more about governments wanting to control and limit information.

Not just ours, but ours is definitely one of them - and not just the current Administration.

This is seriously, seriously, seriously bad.

 

[Si modo]

Transparency? Bullshit. This administration even says we'll tell you what's going on in these global negotiations, but only if you keep your mouth shut about it.

Broadband's Impact
Wednesday, November 4th, 2009
Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement Talks Continue Amid Controversy Over Leaked Draft
By Winter Casey, Reporter, BroadbandCensus.com

WASHINGTON, November 4, 2009 – While representatives of countries were scheduled to begin meeting today in Seoul, South Korea, to negotiate a confidential international anti-counterfeiting trade agreement, some public interest and consumer groups continue to press for more transparency of the negotiations.

On November 3 a number of groups signed a letter addressed to President Obama and carbon copied to other key administration officials calling for greater transparency of the talks.

The list of signatories included Knowledge Ecology International, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Public Citizen, Sunlight Foundation, Lawrence Lessig of Harvard Law School, Peter Suber of Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society, and Laura DeNardis of the Yale Information Society Project, among many others.

“While we agree that the enforcement of intellectual property rights is very important, it is also a complex area where the “solutions” to the enforcement issues are often controversial, and it is important to balance a variety of competing interests, and to ensure that measures to enforce private intellectual property rights do not undermine civil rights and privacy, or unduly impede innovation,” reads the letter.
....

Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement Talks Continue Amid Controversy Over Leaked Draft | BroadbandCensus.com

One of our fundamental freedoms is being sold down the river and we don't even get to know about it.

 

[chanel]

I put this in conspiracy theories because I can't believe this is true. But if it is, this should be the headlines on every newspaper don't you think?

Uh oh Sounds like another job for Glen Beck - the only govt investigator left in America. Lol

 

[Si modo]

I put this in conspiracy theories because I can't believe this is true. But if it is, this should be the headlines on every newspaper don't you think?

Uh oh Sounds like another job for Glen Beck - the only govt investigator left in America. Lol

That's why I checked on it, but other sources seem to be confirming it.

Absolutely this should be on every headline and absolutely someone should get on this in the MSM.

Whoever leaked this is a hero, IMO.

Thank you, Chanel.

And, in combination with the administration selling our control over domains to the EU last month *sniff* something is rotting.

 

[California Girl]

"Internet Czar"

Guess who's leading the charge to turn the Internet into one big, government utility?

Phil Kerpen - FOXNews.com - October 05, 2009

If you thought Washington—which already took over banking and autos, and is fast-tracking attempts to take over health care and energy—would leave the Internet alone, you were dead wrong. The Internet (perhaps our greatest free market success story in recent years) is squarely in the cross-hairs of the administration and it’s not waiting for Congress to act. The charge is being led by an eager, ideologically committed White House staffer named Susan Crawford. Officially, she is the Special Assistant for Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy. Wired Magazine calls her, "the most powerful geek close to the president." In recent weeks, bloggers and online activists have begun calling Crawford the "Internet Czar." The shoe fits.

Obama and Internet Czar Susan Crawford Want to Control the Web | Americans for Prosperity

I'm sure the libs will be along shortly with a "oh, look - it's Faux News" but facts are facts. Btw: I think Susan has resigned but I can't find confirmation or new name. Anybody?

 

[Si modo]

"Internet Czar"

Guess who's leading the charge to turn the Internet into one big, government utility?

Phil Kerpen - FOXNews.com - October 05, 2009

If you thought Washington—which already took over banking and autos, and is fast-tracking attempts to take over health care and energy—would leave the Internet alone, you were dead wrong. The Internet (perhaps our greatest free market success story in recent years) is squarely in the cross-hairs of the administration and it’s not waiting for Congress to act. The charge is being led by an eager, ideologically committed White House staffer named Susan Crawford. Officially, she is the Special Assistant for Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy. Wired Magazine calls her, "the most powerful geek close to the president." In recent weeks, bloggers and online activists have begun calling Crawford the "Internet Czar." The shoe fits.

Obama and Internet Czar Susan Crawford Want to Control the Web | Americans for Prosperity

I'm sure the libs will be along shortly with a "oh, look - it's Faux News" but facts are facts. Btw: I think Susan has resigned but I can't find confirmation or new name. Anybody?

Aaaaaaand, she is a former board member of ICANN, the same corp from which the administration took domain assignment duties and signed them off to corps in the EU last month.

*sniff*

 

[chanel]

Where's Gunny? This could shut down all message boards.

 

[Si modo]

Free speech is too fundamental to our freedom.

 

[California Girl]

"Internet Czar"

Guess who's leading the charge to turn the Internet into one big, government utility?

Phil Kerpen - FOXNews.com - October 05, 2009

If you thought Washington—which already took over banking and autos, and is fast-tracking attempts to take over health care and energy—would leave the Internet alone, you were dead wrong. The Internet (perhaps our greatest free market success story in recent years) is squarely in the cross-hairs of the administration and it’s not waiting for Congress to act. The charge is being led by an eager, ideologically committed White House staffer named Susan Crawford. Officially, she is the Special Assistant for Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy. Wired Magazine calls her, "the most powerful geek close to the president." In recent weeks, bloggers and online activists have begun calling Crawford the "Internet Czar." The shoe fits.

Obama and Internet Czar Susan Crawford Want to Control the Web | Americans for Prosperity

I'm sure the libs will be along shortly with a "oh, look - it's Faux News" but facts are facts. Btw: I think Susan has resigned but I can't find confirmation or new name. Anybody?

Aaaaaaand, she is a former board member of ICANN, the same corp from which the administration took domain assignment duties and signed them off to corps in the EU last month.

*sniff*

Why would they have handed it to the EU? Think that might have something to do with the EU's tighter control over 'freedom of speech', etc?

Call me a conspiracy theorist if you want but I smell a very big rat.

 

[editec]

Your copyrights are only as good as your ability to defend them in a court of law, folks.

I know this as one of the internet's more prolific publishers, from very bitter experience.

 

[California Girl]

Your copyrights are only as good as your ability to defend them in a court of law, folks.

I know this as one of the internet's more prolific publishers, from very bitter experience.

Thanks for stating the fucking obvious.

That is not a justification for any government - particularly ours - to sieze control.

Sheep really piss me off.

 

[xotoxi]

Where's Gunny? This could shut down all message boards.

They would probably have a Federal board administrator assigned to this board who would oversee Gunny and the mods.

In fact, most likely USMB would become Federal property and each of our posts would be reviewed by Federal employees prior to being visible on the forum.

 

[candycorn]

The internet chapter of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, a secret copyright treaty whose text Obama's administration refused to disclose due to "national security" concerns, has leaked. It's bad. It says:

* * That ISPs have to proactively police copyright on user-contributed material. This means that it will be impossible to run a service like Flickr or YouTube or Blogger, since hiring enough lawyers to ensure that the mountain of material uploaded every second isn't infringing will exceed any hope of profitability.

* * That ISPs have to cut off the Internet access of accused copyright infringers or face liability. This means that your entire family could be denied to the internet -- and hence to civic participation, health information, education, communications, and their means of earning a living -- if one member is accused of copyright infringement, without access to a trial or counsel.

* * That the whole world must adopt US-style "notice-and-takedown" rules that require ISPs to remove any material that is accused -- again, without evidence or trial -- of infringing copyright. This has proved a disaster in the US and other countries, where it provides an easy means of censoring material, just by accusing it of infringing copyright.

* * Mandatory prohibitions on breaking DRM, even if doing so for a lawful purpose (e.g., to make a work available to disabled people; for archival preservation; because you own the copyrighted work that is locked up with DRM)

Secret copyright treaty leaks. It's bad. Very bad. - Boing Boing
__________________________________________________________

Fact or fiction?

Buzz out loud (a CNET podcast) reported this earlier this year.

Since nothing has come of it yet, nothing will come of it. Impossible to enforce.

The problem is that the Newspapers who bother to copyright their stuff do not get paid when someone like you or me cuts and pastes their words on a site like this.

I have done that more than just a few times...most recently when I anhilated the "flu-ther" on the thread about how the swine flu was supposed to kill us all.

Anyway, the Toronto Sun article I copied was read, by I assume, two people. The Sun, rightly so, wants some sort of compensation for that or some sort of way to track who is cutting and pasting.

It gets sticky when, for example, I had cut-and-pasted the article on ABCNEWS.com's blog, the readership is monumentally higher than it is on usmessageboard.com (for now--just wait). So is the Sun able to charge a higher ad rate because their stuff is cut and pasted on ABC News as opposed to it being cut and pasted on USMB?

I doubt it.

Technology could solve the whole issue by not allowing any cut and pasting. If you want to re-type it word for word, you could do that; you could also do it to the Gutenberg Bible; I doubt Adolfus Gutenberg (if that was his name) will be coming back from the dead to collect his royalties.

Its an interesting topic.

Personally...and I'll likely catch hell for it..I think they should amend the 1st amendment to refelct reality such as electronic media, and have some sort of stringent libel laws in it to make sure there is some responsibility that goes along with the freedom.