ACTA Information

[Aneko]

Enjoy reading the large amounts of text. I'm sure most of you have at least heard about this. If you haven't you can read some of it here or look it up on Wikipedia.

What is ACTA?
Written by Anti-ACTA
Jul 05, 2010 at 07:46 PM

ACTA is an abbreviation for the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement . It is an International Treaty that will be pushed to implementation by 2010. It has been discussed in secret since October 2007, and has been leaked by government officials who were against the unconstitutional, ineffective, inhumane, and unlawful nature of such a treaty.

Countries affected by this treaty include but are not limited to:

Australia, Canada, the European Union, Japan, The Republic of Korea, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, Switzerland and the United States

The official goal of the agreement is the international enforcement of strong intellectual property rights. Some of our concerns include the vague, amorphous manner in which ?counterfeit? is used in many of the public comments. These uses run the gamut from undisputedly illegal products to expressly legitimate generic products. We believe that ACTA holds the potential to restrict innovation, consumer choice and freedom on the Internet by it's many restrictions and its changes to the legal front on copyrights.

The scope of ACTA is includes counterfeit goods, generic medicines, Internet censorship, irrational new downloading laws and what is termed "piracy over the Internet", because it is in effect a treaty, ACTA would overcome many court precedents in your own country that defines consumer rights as to "fair use" and would remove any limitations on the application of intellectual property laws. This means that ACTA would overrule any laws in your own country, and deal harsher, unfair and ineffective punishment to anyone suspected of piracy, without a trial in court. If you are SUSPECTED, not even convicted, but SUSPECTED of listening to songs illegally, or uploading anything illegal, you may be dealt with harshly, against the laws of your own country.

ACTA also makes Internet Service Providers legally responsible for any of it's users downloaded content. ACTA gives recording industries more rights to enforce copyrights and officers of the law the right to search any digital device for copyrighted material. Did you pay for the songs in your iPod? Under the new law, that instantly classifies you as a criminal, and the same classification as murderers and rapists. You WILL get a criminal record. Even if you do not download songs into your iPod, you will feel the effects as millions, possibly billions of dollars in taxpayer's money will be poured in to catch these "criminals", money that can be used to save lives.

Part of ACTA deems anyone accused of copyright infringement to "compensate" for the loss in profit to recording companies. They want harsher punishments for these criminals. These recording companies, such as UMG, earn upwards of 1 billion dollars in 2009. However, the RIAA ( Recording Industries Association of America ) recently sued a 12 year old girl for downloading, as well as many other people. They are seeking $150 000 PER SONG, on allofmp3.com[1] How much harsher will they go?

Isn't there a point where they must stop?
Last Updated ( Aug 01, 2010 at 05:10 PM )
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Why should you care about ACTA?
Written by Anti-ACTA
Jul 06, 2010 at 12:51 AM

ACTA has several features that raise significant potential concerns for consumers privacy and civil liberties, for innovation and the free flow of information on the Internet, legitimate commerce, and for developing countries ability to choose policy options that best suit their domestic priorities and level of economic development.

Internet Service providers are forced to monitor everything you do online and to report to the government with anything that seen as suspicious. How are they going to pay for this? We will be forced to pay with much higher Internet bills, in order to allow this Invasion of Privacy.

But that is not all.

ACTA is dangerous because

1. It makes it more difficult to distribute free software: Without file sharing and P2P technologies like BitTorrent, distributing large amounts of free software becomes much harder, and more expensive. BitTorrent is a grassroots protocol that allows everyone to contribute to legally distributing free software.

2. It will make it harder for users of free operating systems, such as Linux-based to play media: Consumers are no longer allowed to buy media without DRM -- and DRM'ed media cannot be played with free software.

3. It allows your devices to be taken away without any explanation whatsoever as part of random security checks. Devices suspected of including Pirated Material and/or Copyright Infringements will also be confiscated and searched. Not only is this an invasion of Privacy, this could mean restricted to people carrying Digital equipment. This means that bringing an iPod or a Laptop through Airport Security could cost hours off your time. This is not only restricted to Digital Device Carriers. This extends the time required for the average check-in up to 70%, assuming 1 in 10 people receive a searched media Device.

4. ACTA requires that existing ISP no longer host free software that has the possibility of including copyrighted media; this would substantially affect many sites that offer free software or host software projects such as SourceForge and Download.com. Most software we use on our computers are free. Are we to pay the price because of a misleading treaty?

5. Part of the ACTA treaty states that import generic medicine are to be restricted and controlled. This could have disastrous effects that cost lives, especially in developing countries. The majority of Medicinal Companies do not supply medicine to 3rd world countries. This is because more profit can be made by selling it to the richer countries where WE live. Most medicine received in 3rd world countries are imported by concerned people and charity groups. If ACTA is to be approved, these medicine would be confiscated for "security" reasons (In order to maintain a monopoly). Should these people die because of our current inaction and unwillingness to act against ACTA?

6. If ACTA is implemented, privacy on the internet is no longer a given. Internet Service Providers will be forced to monitor what websites you visit and what you type, search and do. People have a basic right to privacy that this treaty clearly ignores. Are you willing to pay this price?

7. ACTA gives governments and ISP?s the right to block websites deemed ?Unsuitable? There are no clear guidelines as to what is deemed suitable or unsuitable. Do you honestly believe that this power will not be abused for Political and Economical Gain ? China has used the same excuse to censor the internet. Concurrently, China has far banned facebook.com, youtube.com and blogspot.com. Does this seem like national security?

8. This treaty WILL NOT prevent Piracy. This is an ineffective and ridiculous agreement that will only harm the common people, not Pirated goods. Again, China is an example. Most websites and Peer to Peer networks are blocked. Yet China has one of the most rampant Piracy industries in the world. Why? Because Piracy will always find another medium. Only we will suffer.

We cannot sit by and watch this happen. The Internet is a tremendous source of genuine free speech where ideas and criticisms are not limited by the whims of other people. We must stop this now, before it passes. Before it's too late.

Everything mentioned above is true. Verify it for yourself. here.

Editor's note:

There was a three strikes rule was present in a January 2010 draft of ACTA, but was cut from the April release after the European Union complained.[1] It would have mandated that ISPs deny your house access to the Internet if you did certain things that ACTA didn't like. Things such as copying music from a CD you own onto your iPod or well as watching fan made music videos with copyrighted music playing in the background.
Last Updated ( Aug 01, 2010 at 09:34 PM )
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What can you do to help?
Written by Anti-ACTA
Jul 06, 2010 at 09:03 PM

You are helping to prevent ACTA right now! By clicking the 'RELOADER' link at the top of the page, you are helping to push "Threat to internet privacy thanks to ACTA" to the top of google trends. This will increase our publicity. As long this page is open, you will continue to help. You can also help in many other ways.

* Spread awareness of this website - Tell your friends and family, post on internet boards and Facebook or MySpace!
* Hand out fliers in the local area - Fliers for you to use will be coming soon.
* Send emails or Letters to local news stations, local government, large media stations, etc. (View Links Below)
* Sign the Stop-ACTA Petition.

Links

Local Government:

Find Your Labour MP (Britons)
Find Your Conservative MP (Britons)
Find Your MP (Canadians)
Find Your Congressman (Americans)
Find Your Senator (Americans)
Find Your MP (New Zealand)



If you really want to stop this treaty, join our IRC and tell us you want to join the Internet Freedom Movement. You will be interviewed. Our irc

If you don't want to read the large amounts of text here you can go here and read at your own leisure: http://anti-acta.com/

Apparently this is a very serious matter. Your thoughts on this?

[Shikari]

Pirates will never die! >:o

Anyways dunno how related it is (TL;DR most of it) but for example, some PC games now require a constant internet connection to be able to play them, I'm guessing its to keep tab of people who download games illegaly.

I've heard of something similar before, but pirates always find a way to survive and continue to provide free services to people :3

Also, as much as they want to do random security checks most people will usually get away and theres too many people with pc's, ect. as to keep track of them all.

Also, welcome to the truth of the world, no matter how democratic something can seem, its always a dictatorship if you look deep enough. At least in dictatorships you expect it to happen though.

[Incarn]

The UK or Britain or something said "no gtfo" to this. But that's because they thought the punishments were too harsh.

I disagree completely with this treaty on the sole principle that they felt they had to instigate it in secrecy. That smacks of illegitimate intentions no matter who you are. + all the other legal jargon stuff like the courts and whatever that I'm too lazy to agree with appropriately.


Edit: Also, when it comes down solely to America, it's the big businesses. lol. They can't stand the thought that they lost money on a franchise that's already raking in too much money for 'em and they make sure to tell the politicians they're funding that. Let's say grrrreedy, kids.

[Herman]

Korea will never allow this to happen in their country.??There are literally dozens of knockoffs of "Starbucks" with the only difference being a change in spelling or a space.??I have seen "Starbuks" "St@rbucks" "Starsbucks" you name it.. lol.

Also, this is just one example.. they do this in every sector of sales.

Country depends on it too much to let something like this happen. haha.