Has Anyone Heard of ACTA

[hoshi23]

actually nvm me. :blush:

[brokenergy]

You know this treaty reminds me of the prohibition movement in the 1920's in some effect.

[TheTerminator2004]

This isn't actually a law as such - its a international treaty which the American foreign Office is trying to negotiate between a large number of countries (including most of Europe, Canada, and others IIRC). Whats so sinister about it is that they seem to be doing everything they possibly can to keep it top secret. They have refused to reveal any information about it, to anyone, and the only information gained so far are from a few leaks. Also, the only people or organisations they have consulted about it are mainly big corporations and their umbrella organisations, such as the MPAA and the RIAA. Which is instantly cause for concern, because you can be sure none of those have the best interests of the people at heart.

 

Anyway, what information has been discovered about it so far includes:

 

• A provision to force ISPs to hand over personal data of customers who infringe copyright, without a warrant. (link)
  
• The power for security officials at airports and other international borders to conduct random ex officio searches of laptops, MP3 players, and mobile phones for illegally downloaded or "ripped" music and movies.Travellers with infringing content would be subject to a fine and may have their devices confiscated or destroyed. (link, link)
  
• While negotiations are secret, a number of corporations are part of advisory committees of the USTR and have access to classified documents. These include Abbott Laboratories, Association of American Publishers, CropLife America, DuPont, eBay, Entertainment Software Association, FMC Corporation, General Motors Corporation, Generic Pharmaceutical Association, IBM Corporation, Independent Film & Television Alliance, Intel Corporation, Intellectual Property Owners Association, Johnson & Johnson, Merck & Co, Monsanto Company, Motion Picture Association of America, Oracle Corporation, Pfizer, Recording Industry Association of America, Sun Microsystems, The Dow Chemical Company, The Gorlin Group, The Procter & Gamble Company, Time Warner, and Verizon Communications. - Why exactly do they have access, when nobody else does? It seems like an ever so slightly biased advisory committee to me...
  
• It has been argued that the main thrust of ACTA is to provide safe harbor for service providers so that they may not hesitate to provide information about infringers; this may be used, for instance, to quickly identify and stop infringers once their identities are confirmed by their providers. Similarly, it provides for criminalization of copyright infringement, granting law enforcement the powers to perform criminal investigation, arrests and pursue criminal citations or prosecution of suspects who may have infringed on copyright. It also allows criminal investigations and invasive searches to be performed against individuals for whom there is no probable cause, and in that regard weakens the presumption of innocence and allows what would in the past have been considered unlawful searches. More pressingly, being an international treaty, it allows for these provisions—usually administered through public legislation and subject to judiciary oversight—to be pushed through via closed negotiations among members of the executive bodies of the signatories, and once it is ratified, using trade incentives and the like to persuade other nations to adopt its terms without much scope for negotiation.
  
• Link
  

 

Thats a summary of what I know, taken from various places around the web. Just google it to find plenty more opinions on the subject, and there are various leaked documents floating around (I think on wikileaks), but I don't want to get banned for linking to them.

[hoshi23]

Wikileaks is a good source of journalism. No one exposed more and no one ever should be banned for naming it.

[Christine777]

Ok. Let them do it here. I'm sure that the first line of millions fined will be our government establishments/offices. :tongue:

[TheTerminator2004]

I was worried I'd be banned, because the moderating team have a (perhaps understandably) harsh view of piracy here. As the ACTA documents are copyright, linking to them is piracy (and, logically, every bit as bad as linking to a torrent of a game), so they would be obliged to ban me.

 

I imagine, like everyone else I know, they're pretty selective as to what copyright infringement they count as 'piracy', but better safe than sorry.

[CommanderCrazy]

If you take music from a game file, then put it on your phone, is it against ACTA??

If so, i'm probably not going to take that phone with me again..... :mellow:

[Vagrant0]

Regardless of what the rule says, it must be something which is both enforcable and something which is worthwhile when it is enforced. At current, it is not enforcable, and would cost a rather excessive amount of money to even try. Instead of going after people who are making bootlegs and getting money from these illegal activities (and a decent part of some national economies (all things considered)), they are instead trying to do some sort of all-encompassing policy with a bunch of even more useless things tacked on. It's like the war on drugs all over again... Even a 5 year old knows how well that particular endeavor is going.

[evilneko]

Believe it.

 

It's here in all its Orwellian glory. http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/ACTA-Finally-Released-108003

 

I think the *AAs just had an orgasm.

[brokenergy]

Does this mean we can't post pics and videos without consent? Think of all the forum games that have been ruined because of this. I wonder how long this would last? :confused: