Proposed Treaty Turns Internet Into a Virtual Police State
Written by Ben Jones on May 24, 2008Leaked documents are one of the banes of modern western politics. They reveal exercises and actions being proposed that are generally objectionable to the public. Such a leak occurred with the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) which seeks to turn the internet into a virtual police state.
Again, it’s one of the few bastions of anti-corruption, Wikileaks, that has spilled the beans on this unsavory topic. Yesterday the site revealed a document proposing a treaty that will significantly limit the privacy and rights of Internet users, to the benefit of multimillion dollar companies.
“ACTA” is basically an attempt to criminalize the Internet, thus allowing a virtual police state to occur by the selective prosecuting of crimes. In short, it’s an international treaty, or hopes to be, that will greatly increase already draconian copyright measures, in a poor attempt to appease the copyright and patent industries.
The proposal is based on the assumption that ‘intellectual property rights’ (a term used nine times on the first page of the proposal, and 24 times over the entire 3 ½ page document) trump personal privacy, data protection, probable cause, and lots of other important principles in western democracies.
The measure which has received wider publicity is the so-called ‘Pirate Bay killer’. At the end of page two, there is a list of things that should be included in a signee’s legal framework, and in the section about criminal sanctions it states “significant willful infringements without motivation for financial gain to such an extent as to prejudicially affect the copyright holder (e.g., Internet piracy)”. Think non-profit, personal use file-sharing.
Of course, this could go two ways, as the MPAA, for instance, has been guilty of ‘Internet piracy’ in the past, with it’s university toolkit.
Worst of all though, are the following two points speaking of “establishment and imposition of deterrent-level penalties” and “ex-officio authority to take action against infringers”. It is argued that the current level of penalties aren’t harsh enough (“people are still doing it, so they’re no deterrent”), so there should be room for harsher punishments. Combine this with the ability to prosecute without a rights holder complaint, which means that people could be liable for millions, or imprisoned (they are talking about CRIMINAL enforcement) for sharing Steal this Film, or Paulo Coelho’s books. So, these people actively want you to share would have no say in any such prosecution.
There are some other pure gems proposed, such as “ex officio authority for customs authorities to suspend import, export and trans-shipment of suspected IPR infringing goods”. Given that copyright law is so complex and convoluted, and that judges make mistakes in the cases they hear, this is worrying.
Unsurprisingly, the US patent office is backed up beyond belief and dominated by patent trolls that wait until a successful business is established, before pouncing to clean up. This would mean the death for any new and innovative products, or art. If that wasn’t bad enough, there is a further provision for rights holders to prod customs officials into suspension. Thus, a company can make an allegation, forcing a competitors products to be held in limbo until sorted.
Protest has been swift. TorrentFreak occasional contributor Jamie King wrote on his own blog: “In the form that it currently appears to exist, ACTA would ratchet-up further the rights of Hollywood and Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) at the expense of all of our civil liberties. It provisions to criminalize information use practices currently allowed under U.S., European, and international law are completely disproportionate to the ‘problems’ it claims to address.”
Andrew Norton, chairman of the American Pirate Party was much less restrained: “The very existence of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) – be it in policy or just planning, sends one definite message to people around the world; Corruption is rife in the interested countries. There can be no other reason for yet another ‘intellectual property’ (itself a misnomer) law aimed at protecting business interests and expanding government intrusion into the private affairs of it’s citizens, in the name of ‘protection’.”
Of course, the other area most affected by this would be whistle-blower sites like Wikileaks itself. The owner of any leaked document can claim copyright infringement on its publication, and have it pulled. In this, ACTA is a very effective censorship tool. For some reason, though, this aspect has not been widely reported, or even mentioned.
Previously: Bell Opens Video Download Store, but Continues to Throttle BitTorrent
Next: BitTorrent Tracker Insider Infiltrates Anti-Piracy Lobby
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If this goes through
the world is screwed.
New World Order
“slaves of Big Companies” end of “democracy”
Revolution ..
If that document is real (ACTA) then there is no hope for “the people” to be free from the money hungry bastards who are in charge :(
scary. but does the every day joe even have the ability to try and stop it? sadly i don’t think so.
Ok, ok.. So, lets say we set copy right on a torrent, should be legal like a newspaper can have copyright on a review. Then, add following Terms of use agreement:
1. Torrent is free to use for private use and sharing only.
2. It’s not allowed to be used in any form of economical way, that be in any way of suing or econimical pressure.
Etc…
Well, look at the good thing that came of this… its been leaked! It didn’t come up behind all of us and suddenly handcuff us then pull our pants down and screw us… but thats exactly what its going to do unless people stand up, make a noise about it… blogs, voices, talk, rally, email… get the word out.
Sadly, looking at history even that may not do as these scum are just too powerful… what may happen even if all the above is done is, a water ed-down version will pass with most of the meat still in there, first in the US of course (as thats the MAFIAA’s base) and then in a lot of the world.
Oops, long post, will continue the rest on my blog as I need to follow my own advise about blogging and making a noise about this :)
Cheers!
Jag
http://www.ezee.se
The international civil liberties group IP Justice has published a White Paper analyzing ACTA and much more information about the proposal. Check out: http://ipjustice.org/campaigns/acta
Ok. I got only one question: what are they smoking?
sure, harsher punishments, let’s put people against the wall
nice democracy
do we feel sorry for the law makers and controllers of this crap when someones life is totally screwed up by them and his family leaves him because of finacial troubles etc and he starts to think whats the point of living and thinks a eye for a eye ? but i hope the anti pirating lawyers etc that probably read this it wont be you, but at the end of the day when your home at night and you hear a little noise out side, it could just be that persons life you distroyed coming to get even….Have you checked the children ? but dont worry, when they make a movie of it you’ll be remembered when everyones downloading it :-D
US meh.
“Fewer than 0.1% of documents that pass initial triage fail subsequent analysis” - http://www.wikileaks.com
We sooo need a new internet not controlled by the gov.
This world is in dire need of a couple of anti-corporate superheroes - either that, or a few determined nutjobs replete with AKs, Glocks, etc…
[q]We sooo need a new internet not controlled by the gov.[/q]
wrong. we need new goverment, that is not fucked up
Wikileaks promotes transparency and is anti-corruption, so Implidely it can be read into Fundamental / basic rights enumerated in the constitutions of various countries.
Hence it can to some extent put up a good defence
“We sooo need a new internet not controlled by the gov.”
Got one already, it’s called Freenet.
Isn’t this old news (not the actual contents, but the proposal)? I googled it, and its been about in blogs since October of last year.
“This world is in dire need of a couple of anti-corporate superheroes”
Try Marx, Benn, Negri, Pilger, Klein, Monbiot, J. Gray, C. Hill, and Chomsky.
There are a few such superheroes you might like in that Lot.
If they ruin my life (internet) ill ruin theirs for sure..
There are thousands of proposals in the works at all times all over the world in every Government, some far less harsh than this, and only about .05% of all of them go through in one way or another.
I’m not to worried about it.
get out of my world fascism!!!!!!!!
@17 While people were aware of the document, attempts to obtain it through Access to Information Act only resulted in an entirely blacked-out document. The news is that it’s now been leaked entirely.
While the fact that only a small part of proposed laws actually make it, this one seems to be different since it seems to be a proposal that is being worked on together by all the G8 nations, specifically for the next G8 summit. I’m still not worried, not only the agreement ridiculous, even if some bizzare circumstances it was accepted, they’d still drag their feet to implement it.
For those who read the document, I urge you to re-read it and notice what *is not* being said. While you might think some of the proposals are already in effect in many contries, they still have to be done through the regular law system. However the proposal makes no mention of law. In fact, it specifically implies that this would be a system above regular courts.
I’m not worried about that fact that this might pass more about the fact that they are even thinking about it.
What kind of world do we live in?
Everything is copyright…how long will it be before we have to pay for the air we breath?
You know there is 1 way to defeat the NWO. Every 1 quit there jobs and plant seeds.Thats right lets do what we where doing before this whole shitfest called “the industrial revolution”
Mankind has survived hundreds of thousands of years w/o this bullcrap.And once it has fallen away mankind will still survive,hell I say then it will Thrive.
The entire system depends on the Majority keeping there slaves “employees” in there dead end Just Over Brokes (jobs).No one work = no taxes collected=system FAILS.
We can go hungry now for a bit,or we and our children can starve to death later.
Your choice.
Birth is free and death is free the lies in between enslave us for this life. Wake up and realize that Business is nothing more than the justification of greed.How many times have you been told “Nothing personal its just business”while a supposed friend or family member SCREWS you over in there greed?
This world and all therein Truly belongs to ALL PEOPLE UNDER THE SUN.
It is the acceptance of lies that we pass to our children that enslave us all!
Yes you and every 1 you <3 is under an illusion of lies.
We the people GIVE THEM THEIR POWER!
Its time we STOP!
Either we the people force the change ,or change will be forced upon us the people!
If one would like to know what the future holds ,all one must do is understand the past,lest they repeat it,like we are now.
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