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)
Well, it's 40 countries involved whch want to keep it secret, not just the Obama adminstration. Plus the corporations involved and groups such as the Chamber of Commerce want to keep it secret.
I can understand why so many are asking for transparency regarding this, but I can also see why companies want to protect their intellectual property. As for the part about US-style rules, I'm all for it. Copyright infingement is theft, pure and simple. Are you with the something for nothing crowd?
Since it's secret where did you get the information you posted?
Originally posted by brianatwood: Well, it's 40 countries involved whch want to keep it secret, not just the Obama adminstration. Plus the corporations involved and groups such as the Chamber of Commerce want to keep it secret.
I can understand why so many are asking for transparency regarding this, but I can also see why companies want to protect their intellectual property. As for the part about US-style rules, I'm all for it. Copyright infingement is theft, pure and simple. Are you with the something for nothing crowd?
Since it's secret where did you get the information you posted?
