Google Attorney Slams ACTA Copyright Treaty

Hugh Pickens writes "CNET reports that Daphne Keller, a senior policy counsel at Google, says ACTA has 'metastasized' from a proposal to address border security and counterfeit goods to a sweeping international legal framework for copyright and the Internet that could increase the liability for Internet intermediaries such as, perhaps, search engines. 'You don't want to play Russian roulette with very high statutory damages.' One section of ACTA says that Internet providers 'disabling access' to pirated material and adopting a policy dealing with unauthorized 'transmission of materials protected by copyright' would be immune from lawsuits but if they choose not to do so, they could face legal liability. Both the Obama administration and the Bush administration had rejected requests for the text of ACTA, with the White House last year even indicating that disclosure would do 'damage to the national security.'"

Industrial Last Gasp?

[headkase]

Why would ACTA have been vital to "national security"? Is this an admission of sorts that the US no longer makes actual things but instead the majority of its GDP is based on intangible products? So, piracy as the issue: what if the world doesn't play ball with the situation the US has worked themselves into? If the world does not recognize ideas as property, where does that leave the future revenue source of the US?

Re:Please, for the kids...

[thestudio_bob]

I started looking for some "independent" websites to help people become more informed. I'm not even sure there is an #1 source for this information, but if you have some independent websites, please list em.

All I know of are these two:

• http://www.newamericanindependent.com/
• http://www.gp.org/

On a side note, we need a catchy slogan. How about "Vote to Revolt"?

ACTA and the Overblown Threat of Piracy

[Presto Vivace]

Pruning Shears [pruningshears.us] has an excellent analysis of ACTA.

Re:"Intangible products"?

[FoolishOwl]

Not infinitely. Recording media are physical; pushing bits down a wire takes energy. Strictly speaking, it's not that there's no scarcity, but that scarcity need not be a problem anymore. The costs are not zero, but negligible.

This is an important distinction. Some people will treat information technology as if there were zero costs, and so it's incommensurable with other commodities. But it's not fundamentally different, just the leading edge of abundance. Take, by comparison, food, which is massively and wastefully overproduced, yet people still go hungry.

Re:Industrial Last Gasp?

[Shakrai]

It is appalling that the Obama administration is working so hard to best Bush II in the scope of this abuse.

:-| <--- This is my surprised face.

Seriously. Senator Obama went back on his word and voted for a bill that gave the telecom giants legal immunity for breaking the law and spying on American citizens. Anybody who believed he was any better than the 43 who came before him wasn't paying attention.