- ACTA spans virtually all of the developed world, threatening the freedom of the internet as well as access to medication and food. The threat is every bit as real for those countries not involved in the process as the signatories themselves.
- ACTA has already been signed by many countries including the US, but requires ratification in the EU parliament and the US Senate.
- The entire monstrosity has been negotiated behind closed doors and kept secret from the public. Technocrats, beholden to the deep pockets of the entertainment lobby, have masked the agreement behind the misnomer of “anti-counterfeiting” when in fact it goes much, much further.
Now that SOPA and PIPA are resisted so vigorously, it stands to reason that they'd up the ante by an even more oppressive bill. We must stay vigilant and aggressive. I'mma boycott the products and services of all those in favour of SOPA. As I'm not an American citizen, that's all I can do. Are you all ready for Round Two?
Now that SOPA and PIPA are resisted so vigorously, it stands to reason that they'd up the ante by an even more oppressive bill. We must stay vigilant and aggressive. I'mma boycott the products and services of all those in favour of SOPA. As I'm not an American citizen, that's all I can do. Are you all ready for Round Two?
This isn't a bill. This is an international agreement first developed in and the US for over 5 years now and has spread since. The US has already signed it.
If you're in the EU, huge protests going on as they've yet to do so.
I'm in Australia and we already signed it too. <_<
ACTA isn't new, the media just couldn't cover it. This is a product of many many years that was kept secret from everyone. The Pirate Bay had actually lifted a draft of it a couple years ago that no one would ever give out. No country could give out a copy, I remember everyone thinking this was their worst nightmare at the time... and for good reason.
Anyway, the US has already signed it last spring (oh BTW, ratification... doesn't really matter too much in this case since it's blocked from any kind of reveal of itself). But ACTA has failed so far because the EU didn't sign at the ceremony. The EU is a very key point in this treaty, because they consist of a lot of areas, and can influence some that are next to them... Russia for example, which is a popular place for certain servers from what I've seen.
I really don't understand why this ooooold thing is being covered now. Is it because "oh look SOPA/PIPA is gone and still popular. Let's move on the the next for the sake of popularity!" Or is it because of desperate negotiations to everyone else? It's pretty much over already, well... except it can be open until March '13, but the EU is very against it still from what I've been hearing.
Honestly, though... if they just kept to a unified copyright system ONLY, and get rid of the Internet parts not to mention let other countries enforce their own... I would honestly welcome this. It would take care of some instances outside of the Internet in places such as China, where some licenses aren't valid at all (example is GPL, which is why places like Hong Kong can release open source based things without revealing the source code). But sadly, this isn't about justice I guess.
EDIT:
Let me say right now, that I’m NOT exactly pro-ACTA or anything like that (however I was anti-SOPA/PIPA). I’m just watching each side fight it out right now. However there is a fair bit of misinformation going around.
Copypasting partially from something I read. I knew about it already, but this says it so much better than I can because I suck at legal mumbo jumbo. Well, actually ACTA doesn’t concern us at all. Well, not that much at all anyway. Here’s some facts, have you read the treaty lately?
Quote:
>ACTA is not legislation, its a trade agreement.
>It’s non-binding
>It doesn’t force governments to do anything more than they are doing
>It doesn’t target individuals, Article 2 (civil) and Article 4 (Criminal) specifically target organizations engaging in trademark violations for commercial purposes
>It makes no reference to surveillance, and explicitly states that signatories should not inhibit legitimate activity and should preserve “fundamental principles such as freedom of expression, fair process and privacy”
On the other hand, it also gives the government an excuse… but it’s really the government’s actions, not the people behind ACTA’s fault in the end. I realize that something you can’t see is damaging, I really do. However you’re letting judgement be obscured by bullshit being thrown in your eyes. Think before you act, and stop talking about it UNTIL YOU THINK.
ACTA isn't new, the media just couldn't cover it. This is a product of many many years that was kept secret from everyone. The Pirate Bay had actually lifted a draft of it a couple years ago that no one would ever give out. No country could give out a copy, I remember everyone thinking this was their worst nightmare at the time... and for good reason.
Anyway, the US has already signed it last spring (oh BTW, ratification... doesn't really matter too much in this case since it's blocked from any kind of reveal of itself). But ACTA has failed so far because the EU didn't sign at the ceremony. The EU is a very key point in this treaty, because they consist of a lot of areas, and can influence some that are next to them... Russia for example, which is a popular place for certain servers from what I've seen.
I really don't understand why this ooooold thing is being covered now. Is it because "oh look SOPA/PIPA is gone and still popular. Let's move on the the next for the sake of popularity!" Or is it because of desperate negotiations to everyone else? It's pretty much over already, well... except it can be open until March '13, but the EU is very against it still from what I've been hearing.
Honestly, though... if they just kept to a unified copyright system ONLY, and get rid of the Internet parts not to mention let other countries enforce their own... I would honestly welcome this. It would take care of some instances outside of the Internet in places such as China, where some licenses aren't valid at all (example is GPL, which is why places like Hong Kong can release open source based things without revealing the source code). But sadly, this isn't about justice I guess.
Perhaps SOPA and PIPA were products of ACTA since a bill is made to be in line with an agreement, I don't know much of the details in the US. Though the US did keep it a secret on purpose as they feared it would cause trouble. And websites like Google had a non-disclosure agreement when they got the draft.
Not a thing IMO, unless you lead a pirate organization, or a government happens to use this as an excuse to censor things on it's own accord. Basically, it's just an agreement that says "Hey, we'll use the tools we already have in this. And everyone else will too." Most of the major people against it are either overreacting, or participating in Astroturfing.
All in all, I would sugest that everyone read it and be informed before picking a side.
Last edited by Projectwolfie; 01-28-2012 at 04:00 AM..
Copyright on generic medicine is usually bad. ACTA is to complement TRIPS, and that agreement barred access to generic medicine to many in 3rd world nations, leaving them for dead. While they amended it some year later, it could end up as a mess again.
On that note, there are two situations where I would say it's worth worrying about for the sake of far into the future: The medicine where you mentioned (because there is a lot of competition there, once something goes generic most times the main medicine might as well say goodbye), and the part where it mentions Open Source technology being prohibited from opening DRM stuff.
The first, I can see as a major problem in general only if and when third world countries and the poor in general end up making more money. Major medicine makers, I could see causing a mess with this in the future if it's possible. I really don't know why they would deprive generic medication from third world countries now unless they would give them away for free (note: they will never do this), because it would result in a major money loss all across the board.
The part with DRM... that's not even possible for them to be separated nowadays (remember, this was years in the making), so I doubt that it'll even be enforced effectively (the Steam browser and Safari run on webkit for example). But I guess it's all about pirating major mainstream games, because I'm pretty sure anything Indie or Freeware sure wouldn't have to worry about it. But the weird one out with that is Linux, mainly Wine... which I used to use on my Mac. I don't see how letting linux users run Windows games make them less money, maybe they're just getting greedy there. But Microsoft could use it to pin down Linux, and Apple could use it to go after Android faaaaar down the line. Though the backlash would be enormous. Think SOPA protests x1000.
Last edited by Projectwolfie; 01-28-2012 at 04:30 AM..
they can't cut down our freedom of speech, it's in the amendments, they do that and I bet all this other stuff follows. So in simple words, "All hell is going to break loose" sorry for those who don't like my choice of words.
So is this about pirate control or controlling the population (reproducing?) Give less food = less population. More food = population increase, is that right?
The people who came up with ACTA are idiots, so stuck in their own world they don't even know the annoyance and trouble they've created. As if things weren't already ridiculously hard. Can't even have privacy anymore. We might as well all live in glass houses and stare at each other. >:U
they can't cut down our freedom of speech, it's in the amendments, they do that and I bet all this other stuff follows. So in simple words, "All hell is going to break loose" sorry for those who don't like my choice of words.
*Points to my statement of what the treaty actually says*
Quote:
>It makes no reference to surveillance, and explicitly states that signatories should not inhibit legitimate activity and should preserve “fundamental principles such as freedom of expression, fair process and privacy”
It didn't say a thing about limiting that, in fact it says that nothing will be effected about freedom of expression or speech.
Quote:
The people who came up with ACTA are idiots, so stuck in their own world they don't even know the annoyance and trouble they've created. As if things weren't already ridiculously hard. Can't even have privacy anymore. We might as well all live in glass houses and stare at each other. >:U
To be fair, we never were supposed to have piracy. That's why it's called piracy. And the thing already said it's not aiming for individuals, most of the pirates have prepared for this years ago anyway when the feds started monitoring IPs and ACTA rumors started. We never were safe from this monitoring thing, and from the looks of it this will still be on the same exact basis as it is now.
Last edited by Projectwolfie; 01-28-2012 at 06:28 PM..
On that note, there are two situations where I would say it's worth worrying about for the sake of far into the future: The medicine where you mentioned (because there is a lot of competition there, once something goes generic most times the main medicine might as well say goodbye), and the part where it mentions Open Source technology being prohibited from opening DRM stuff.
The first, I can see as a major problem in general only if and when third world countries and the poor in general end up making more money. Major medicine makers, I could see causing a mess with this in the future if it's possible. I really don't know why they would deprive generic medication from third world countries now unless they would give them away for free (note: they will never do this), because it would result in a major money loss all across the board.
When the TRIPS was introduced, the prices of generics went up to the point 3rd world governments could no longer afford to help subsidies it and/or the general populace to afford it. The companies were like, either you pay or you don't. It wasn't meant to impact those nations intentionally, but it happened anyway.
