Anti-Counterfeiting Deal Aims For Global DMCA 380
An anonymous reader writes "Negotiations on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement continue on Wednesday as the US, Europe, Japan, Korea, Canada, Australia, and a handful of other countries secretly negotiate a copyright treaty that includes statutory damages, new search and seizure power, and anti-camcording rules. Now the substance of the Internet chapter has leaked, with information that the proposed chapter would create a 'Global DMCA' with anti-circumvention rules, liability for ISPs, and the possibility of three-strikes and you're out requirements."
also have to be made law? (Score:5, Interesting)
wouldn't any signed treaty also have to be made law in each respective country?
I've never understood how countries can be bound by a treaty through ratification (Kyoto protocol?) without it going through a country's law-making body...
As far as Hollywood goes (Score:5, Interesting)
The brainiacs that run the movie houses continually fork over huge amounts of cash to persons who had one hit that made money, and who continually bomb after that.
In what other business realm is failure so grandiosely rewarded? In what business school would they teach this sort of practice?
Re:Meh, Not the problem. (Score:2, Interesting)
who cares? (Score:3, Interesting)
Every great new movement in any art (cinema, music, painting, etc.) is done by people who just do these things because they want to, not because they are looking for millions of dollars.
So the paid, restricted content will continue to suck donkey balls, as it has for years. And the next big thing will be given away or shared for free or for donations.
Sure, it will eventually be co-opted and sanitized by the corporate culture, but by then it will be time for the next new big thing.
So this is a good thing.
Open-source and unapproved software (Score:2, Interesting)
Kiss it goodbye.
This is so open to abuse (Score:4, Interesting)
Imagine some malware which randomly downloads a dozen copyright mp3's - instantly making millions of unsuspecting users instant criminals - potentially with a 3-strikes liability. Insane.
Re:didn't 3-strikes get striked out in... (Score:3, Interesting)
You'd be AMAZED at how far you could over-subscribe data connections if there were no multi-media files flying around. Funnel the music & video thru "approved" delivery channels and edge cache them at the mega-ISPs and you'll find that the rest of the Internet hums along nicely at 20-50:1 oversubscribed endpoints.
Look at hard drive usage. Take your average PC, remove any music, video and installed games and they'll probably have less than 2 Gb of total data. Probably FAR less. The same thing goes for network bandwidth. Get rid of a lot of the media flying around and EVERYONE can have a 100 Mbps link. Mostly because no one ever honestly USES a 100 Mbps link for more than a few seconds of burst.
Yes, there are exceptions. Think of the Bell Curve model. The vast bulk are in the middle, not on the far ends.
http://classes.kumc.edu/sah/resources/sensory_processing/learning_opportunities/sensory_profile/bell_curve.htm [kumc.edu]
Re:Ahem... (Score:4, Interesting)
Except that nasty old Constitution. The Congress can back out of a Treaty, the President can't.
True enough, they do it all the time. For instance, they did it when last they extended Copyright to essentially forever.
Other than the requirement that it can only be done by Senate and House acting in convert, with the appropriate super-majorities. Note that even now, neither Party has enough votes in House or Senate to do so, even if they were so inclined. (And neither would risk it, I think, for fear of retaliation during the next turn of the wheel).
BLOCKQUOTE>Anyone could levy a charge that signing secret Treaties with foreign powers is Treason, but that is a long shot at best.
They'd be wasting their time, since Treason is defined in the Constitution, and a Secret Treaty doesn't meet the definition in and of itself.
Re:Americans (Score:5, Interesting)
It's called "revolution". The founding fathers of the United States claimed that right for themselves, and they also extended that right to following generations.
Record away.
And, while you're recording, bear in mind that we've had several revolutions in the United States since the founding fathers. The most recent that I can point to was the "Taxpayer's Revolution", in which the IRS was harnessed - for awhile.
There are bloodless revolutions, and there are bloody revolutions. The potential for a bloody revolution depends on how well the politicians listen to the civil disobedience and other measures that lead up to violence.
Re:As far as Hollywood goes (Score:3, Interesting)
Banking and insurance? You have heard about bailout money going to bonuses for the very people who drove their businesses to the ground, haven't you?
Heh heh. So instead of letting them go bankrupt like they probably should have (unfortunately)... "the government" bails them out (with "their" money, I'm sure) and then tries to annex them to the government. That way they don't have to "bail them out" anymore; now it will just be a part of operating costs.
Of course, we all know that it'll save money by making it government run, because then they won't be driven by the need to get money/need to have a profit. And if you don't need a profit, you're much more efficient! After all, if you remove the incentive to produce a better product to make more money to stay afloat and expand, your product will both get better and your expenses will go down! It's amazing...
Maybe the bailout money was actually a reimbursement for campaign donations or something.
Re:Meh, Not the problem. (Score:1, Interesting)
>>>Personally as a Canadian if the PC government signs this in anyway then good luck on them ever being re-elected again
That implies that there's even the remotest chance that the majority of voters will both notice this, and care enough to have it sway their vote.
I'm a canadian, and I've already come to the conclusion that no matter what party we vote in, it'll screw us over harder than last year. Personally, I vote 'green party', purely for the sake that we will at least get screwed over slightly DIFFERENTLY than in the past. Gotta spice up life by letting someone who hasn't had a chance to rape us yet see how painfully they can do it.
Re:Americans (Score:3, Interesting)
You're sick, and if you're serious, you're a coward. Advocating violence while hiding in a corner? Well, here's another trick you may want to try before sending someone else off to get shot. Try to convince people to stop voting for corrupt politicians. Now, if all you want is to attempt to reduce the population, then by all means, put down your keyboard, and pick up a gun (We're gonna have a whole lotta fun...)
We shall never surrender (Score:4, Interesting)
Even though large parts of Internets and many old and famous trackers have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Ifpi and all the odious apparatus of MPAA rule, we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the ef-nets and darknets, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Internets, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the baywords.org, we shall fight on the
Signed
The Pirate Bay Crew – Now until needed.
Blatantly pirated from thepiratebay
Sure, why not. (Score:3, Interesting)
Just make everyone a criminal, search everyones houses on demand. We don't need any personal freedom or rights anyway do we? Some stupid *media company* is more important, right?
Re:Meh, Not the problem. (Score:3, Interesting)
According to the article, fair use would be eliminated because circumvention devices would be illegal. If you are allowed to make a copy, but the program to do it cannot be traded/sold/distributed, you essentially are barred from doing so. It's a nice loophole in the law that the media companies are quite happy with.
Re:Secret meetings. (Score:3, Interesting)
Exactly! The short version: Humans that are in power have a basic conflict: 1. Every human works only for himself, and everything he does either directly or indirectly (family, friends, etc) benefits himself.* And 2. He is supposed to work for the good of us all.
This is why communism failed. And it is why democracy is forced to fail. No exceptions.
The only thing that can comply with those rules, is a automatism (like a computer) that is a true combination of the ideas of the people that it governs over. More like a tool, than a separate entity. More like a superposition of all people than a specific standpoint.
And this is why, the bigger such a community gets, the worse problems will be. Because people will be more different, and nobody can tell anymore, what the definition for right and wrong, for that whole group, should be.
But we're far from fucked. The view that nothing works, is pathetic bullshit. The obvious proof for this is:
If nobody can change the world... then how the hell do those who do it right now, do it?? After all they are also just humans.
Fact is: Everybody can change the world. He just has to be very, very, very self-confident. With the strongest set of values compared to all others he meets. Even in the face of complete disagreement and even hatred. Never cave to the masses! Never cave to the views of those still more powerful. But instead pull them into his view of reality! Never giving up or letting others stop him. Fuck bombs! Psychology is they key weapon in this world!
___
* Most people reject this because of faulty social conditioning, and because they falsely assume, that that would mean anti-"social" behavior. But from a biological standpoint (we're all just expanding bio-mass, in a fight for resources), it's obvious that life works like this. In fact, most people don't even know what "social" means, and assume, that others exploiting you, would mean being "social".
Re:Open-source and unapproved software (Score:3, Interesting)
I've been hearing about stuff like that (scenarios of some future drmOS) for a long time. Years ago, I heard how Vista (then called Longhorn) was supposed to be totally locked down with all kinds of TPM-enabled features, but it didn't happen in the finished Vista and it didn't happen in Windows 7.
If you thought the Vista backlash was bad, just wait and see what happens when people have to put up with drmOS if it ever gets developed. People don't like it when their computer doesn't obey them. (I don't care if they're geeks or not) The company that eventually makes drmOS (apple or microsoft) will probably go out of business or be severely wounded if it manages to survive the debacle. The media companies and other software companies the BSA works for simply can't bring enough incentive to the table to make Microsoft or Apple take that kind of risk. Plus, I have a lot of faith in the doom9 guys to break something like that even should it be developed.
Re:didn't 3-strikes get striked out in... (Score:3, Interesting)
Take it a step further ; who can actually use that much data (again, with the exceptions). I see people whining on about being unable to use their 20Mbit/s connections at full speed 24/7 ; so let's try and extrapolate what they are using it for.
20Mbit/s 24/7 is 216GB per day.
Music? Even FLAC is only ~ 1.4 Mbit/s, so even if they have found an internet radio station founded by a generous billionaire who doesn't have to concern himself with his bandwidth charges, there's no way one domestic subscription needs to listen to 12 channels simultaneously.
Games? Most "big" games these days are around the 5GB ISO mark. I don't know anyone who could play 43 "Dragon Age" or "Mass Effects" per day. (and certainly no-one who could afford to pay for them).
Video? If it's raw DVD ISOs... 20. At about 90 minutes each, you'd have to double up some of the movies, and display a certain willingness to be catheterized and have your meals delivered by a nursemaid. Oh, and the benzamphetamines to stay awake so you could keep up would be pretty expensive.
Pr0n? Well, most people do skip through most of it, but then you lose interest after you get ... excited. It's a subset of video, and again, you really have to try hard to consume 20Mbit/s constantly watching it. And I think the catheter would chafe.
Text? You can download the entire Project Gutenberg archive in less than 2 days.
Software? The chunkiest meatiest Linux distributions are still a single-layer DVD ISO, 4.7GB. Oracle 11g is ~2.5GB. The entire MSDN reference is 2GB.
Combine all this with the necessity to sleep, work, and eat, and it becomes even more incredible. I'd actually like to see the figures for how much data the media industry actually releases in terms of DVD and CD each day ; and I'm willing to bet it's not an order of magnitude different from about 200GB a day.
Re:Americans (Score:3, Interesting)
Wikipedia reads:
American(s) may refer to:
A citizen or something of or from the United States (see also Names for U.S. citizens)
A citizen of one of the nations of the Americas
A person who considers himself/herself to be ethnically American (see American ethnicity)
The indigenous peoples of the Americas
To which Americas are defined as:
The Americas, or America, are the lands of the Western hemisphere or New World, comprising the continents of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions.
Don't come in here and try to act all high and mighty "correcting" someone on a term that they use, especially when they are right and you are wrong. And its not called the United States of Mexico, its the United Mexican States. You wouldn't want me running around saying you're from the UAS. Stop spreading misinformation.
Canadians and Peruvians are just as American as people from the United States of America, You insensative Clod.
Re:For A Modern (and almost anonymous) Sneakernet (Score:4, Interesting)
Have you seen footage of how a police state reacts to a lot of people in a park ect if they are doing something other than walking to work with their heads down?
An unmarked van or car picks up a spike in BT v 3.0
Too many people in one place just standing around?
The area will be surrounded and random people asked for ID, protest permits, bag searches.
Your in a park, children are around, you have a camera phone you might be a danger to others
"Can we see your media files?"
Then random snatches into buses and vans down side streets.
You drop your cellphone, is it found? Do they have your International Mobile Equipment Identity number and call record?
If you keep your phone on you, you where linking with bad people, if you drop your phone, your a terrorist.
When the van pulls up and your at booking, they will offer to look after your mobile too, real nice like.
http://tinyurl.com/y9lh6wq [tinyurl.com] [nydailynews.com] "NYPD tracking cell phone owners, but foes aren't sure practice is legal"
The best place to fight new this global DRM is in the courts before its passed in your country.
Expose any politician who supports it.
Go to their mall walks, town halls, sporting/community photo ops and be visual and vocal about their support for new search and seizure powers.
Have a few cams filming you, the supporters will get physical.
Then upload to yourtube a few 100 times.
Who owns culture? (Score:3, Interesting)
Who owns culture? That's what this is all about. The five global entertainment companies claim that they do. They own all the recordings. They own all the video, all the film, all the books, all the comic books, all the whatever. Sooner or later, they are going to claim to own the ideas and stories behind the 'product'. Then they will claim to own things like the C#minor chord or the plot device of a simple hero driven to vengence by a dastardly crime.
So their lawyers tell them. And their lawyers will have no trouble buying politicians to pass laws supporting these fantasies. Especially in countries that are totally corrupt and owned by corporations, like the USA.
But owning culture is like owning air. The ability to enforce ownership is dependent on the ability to use violence to force people to give you their money. Sooner or later, everyone will realize that all copyright is nothing but extortion. And they will realize that they have done nothing to morally justify the extremely harsh verdicts imposed upon them for so-called copyright crimes.
Historically in situations like this, people fight back. Someone gets a notice that they 'owe' $100000000 for being overheard humming a copyrighted tune in the park by a secret microphone. They track down the person who sent the notice, pay a fee to get background on this person and his family, and kidnap one or all of this bozo's children. Ransom being equal to the amount 'owed' for humming a tune in the park.
All you end up with is a lot of dead children and lawyers who aren't worried any more about making child support payments. What? You assumed that an entertainment industry lawyer had the ability to actually love somebody, like a family? No way.
All copyright is stupid with the technology available to us in the 21st century. Accept it. Don't let these assholes steal your money. Don't give them any of your money. And don't kidnap and kill their children because it's bad for your karma.
Stupidity passes in time: evil remains. Don't let entertainment lawyers trick you into transforming yourself into an evil person. I keep telling myself this over and over.
Hope that it works.
Re:Meh, Not the problem. (Score:3, Interesting)
but I'll just run down to the library and read a nice book while I download the newest movie
Libraries? Those all closed down in 2020.