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Piracy Electronic Frontier Foundation Your Rights Online

Trans-Pacific Partnership Enables Harsh Penalties For Filesharing 154

Posted by Soulskill from the legislation-via-industry dept.
An anonymous reader writes: The Electronic Frontier Foundation went through a recent leak of the secretive Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, an international treaty in development that (among other things) would impose new intellectual property laws on much of the developed world. The EFF highlights one section in particular, which focuses on the punishments for copyright infringement. The document doesn't set specific sentences, but it actively encourages high monetary penalties and jail terms. Its authors reason that these penalties will be a deterrent to future infringement. "The TPP's copyright provisions even require countries to enable judges to unilaterally order the seizure, destruction, or forfeiture of anything that can be 'traceable to infringing activity,' has been used in the 'creation of pirated copyright goods,' or is 'documentary evidence relevant to the alleged offense.' Under such obligations, law enforcement could become ever more empowered to seize laptops, servers, or even domain names."
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Trans-Pacific Partnership Enables Harsh Penalties For Filesharing More

Trans-Pacific Partnership Enables Harsh Penalties For Filesharing

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  • NWO (Score:5, Insightful)

    by IWantMoreSpamPlease ( 571972 ) on Friday February 13, 2015 @07:56PM (#49051797) Homepage Journal

    So the NWO (once a tin-foil hat conspiracy theory) is coming true, only 25 years after it was predicted.

    It's well past time for https everywhere, constant VPNs and full encryption for everything

    • Re:NWO (Score:4, Interesting)

      by fustakrakich ( 1673220 ) on Friday February 13, 2015 @08:16PM (#49051915) Journal

      ... https everywhere, constant VPNs and full encryption for everything...

      Trivially blocked by your service provider. This continuing single point of failure is the obstacle to overcome. Not much can be accomplished before then.

      • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

        by Anonymous Coward

        ... https everywhere, constant VPNs and full encryption for everything...

        Trivially blocked by your service provider. This continuing single point of failure is the obstacle to overcome. Not much can be accomplished before then.

        More importantly those VPN logs are subject to seizure by law enforcement with the appropriate warrant or other legal instrument deemed valid by the Government and the Courts of Law. Show me a VPN service provider that is not subject to lawful access by law enforcement.

        • More importantly those VPN logs are subject to seizure by law enforcement with the appropriate warrant or other legal instrument deemed valid by the Government and the Courts of Law. Show me a VPN service provider that is not subject to lawful access by law enforcement.

          I wish that were true. Given US government track record of obtaining everyone's call records without any legal showing the more likely scenario is warrantless seizure of "any tangible thing" justified by invoking 3rd party doctrine or batshit insane abuse of Article II.

      • ... https everywhere, constant VPNs and full encryption for everything...

        Trivially blocked by your service provider. This continuing single point of failure is the obstacle to overcome. Not much can be accomplished before then.

        I invite them to try. Commercial companies which exist to make money can't just block something everyone uses and expect to remain a viable company with paying customers.

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by Anonymous Coward

          Centurylink is blocking most of my torrent traffic on DSL in Vancouver Wa.
          I had a open wireless router that is accused of downloading copyright material. I hope they charge the router with the crime.

        • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

          by fustakrakich ( 1673220 )

          Commercial companies which exist to make money can't just block something everyone uses and expect to remain a viable company with paying customers.

          With their protected monopolies they certainly can do what they want, and the voters will grumble and then dutifully reelect for the fifth time the crooked politicians that made the deal.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by s.petry ( 762400 )

          Commercial companies that continually receive money from the Governments sure can. In fact how do you think that commercial companies have stayed afloat after the NSA revelations last year? Government control of media, and government funding for data.

          • I have a feeling he's talking about ISPs, which got "bailouts" (not really, but I'm sure it could be spun that way) years before the banks made it fashionable (again).

            How is it that they got away with taking hundreds of billions of dollars (and not delivering) and the latest 3 towns to be 100% wired with fiber in New Zealand's UFB project came out with an averaged cost of under NZ$1,100 per premises passed (about half the average nationwide projection)?

            And don't even try the population density argument, tha

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by AK Marc ( 707885 )
          They can when they are a govenment-enforced monopoly.

    • Re:NWO (Score:5, Insightful)

      by UnknownSoldier ( 67820 ) on Friday February 13, 2015 @11:09PM (#49052803)

      The better long term solution is:

      * open source software
      * Creative Commons License [creativecommons.org]

      You can't pirate what you are legally allowed to share. :-)

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

        The better long term solution is:

        * open source software
        * Creative Commons License

        You can't pirate what you are legally allowed to share. :-)

        Yes you can, as piracy is copyright infringement.

        Want to violate GPLv2? Easy - release binaries without source. It's happened (inadvertent or not) many times already, and it IS copyright infringement - you don't have to agree to the GPL, but if you don't, the code reverts to All Rights Reserved and whatever limits copyright law gives you. (Hence why we call it "copyleft

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by rea1l1 ( 903073 )

      p2p wireless mesh based on %100 open source software and hardware

      Check this out

      http://www.freedomboxfoundatio... [freedomboxfoundation.org]

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by t_ban ( 875088 )
      You were probably expecting this, so let me be the first to ask - what is NWO?

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by s.petry ( 762400 )

        New World Order. The origins go back much further than 25 years. The first public use of the phrase (in context) to my knowledge was Reagan talking about aliens, but every US President after him has been quoted mentioning this "New World Order". Privately, you could read a book by Carol Quigley called "Tragedy and Hope" (I highly recommend this one). If that one is too long, try Gary Allen's "None Dare Call it Conspiracy" (free downloadable). Rockefeller's autobiography also talks about it, as does Hen

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by s.petry ( 762400 )

          Apologies for the double post, no Karma please.

          I should have warned you that any time someone mentions Gary Allen's books the sock puppets come out of the wood work to bash it, in hopes that you won't bother to read it. Do read it, and check every reference he gives in the book (which is an enormous amount) and you will see he is spot on with facts. He also discusses a lot of material covered in Carol Quigley's book in much fewer words, so it's a fast read. Once you are done, you can make up your own mind

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by X.25 ( 255792 )

      So the NWO (once a tin-foil hat conspiracy theory) is coming true, only 25 years after it was predicted.

      It's well past time for https everywhere, constant VPNs and full encryption for everything

      No. It took 25 years for people to wake up and see what's happening around them.

      Unfortunatelly, it is way too late now.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Livius ( 318358 )

      It's been coming true for all of those 25 years. People just didn't pay attention when it was merely about other people losing their jobs.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by s.petry ( 762400 )
      Your time span is way off, well over half a century if you count Carol Quigley's "Tragedy and Hope". Gary Allen makes similar predictions, George Carlin's comedy career in the 1970s made predictions, etc... I'm trying to think of what was release 25 years ago, how did you come up with 25 years? Was that just a plucked number, or when you first started noticing?
    • I agree that it looks like everything needs to be encrypted at this point. I don't see any other solution to stop these despots of law.

  • The Dangers of globalism (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Subxerox ( 1223638 ) on Friday February 13, 2015 @07:57PM (#49051799)
    You don't get a vote.

  • A right to trial by your peers (Score:5, Funny)

    by Jamie McGuigan ( 3609129 ) on Friday February 13, 2015 @07:57PM (#49051801)
    I wish this was America, I hear we would be tried by a jury of our peers and I've always seeded generously http://xkcd.com/553/ [xkcd.com]

  • Gotta keep that prison-industrial complex well-oiled somehow, right?

    • Re:Jail terms (Score:5, Insightful)

      by TheReaperD ( 937405 ) on Friday February 13, 2015 @08:01PM (#49051835)

      More like enshrining the outdated copyright cartels into law with their own legal enforcement powers so they can keep funneling money into political campaigns

      .

      • Why can't it be both?

        • Very true. There's nothing saying they're mutually exclusive. I'm in the U.S. so we have the fully private for-profit prison system here. Dirtiest business since nuclear waste dumping.

  • Thanks Ross Perot! (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    You were right about the sucking sound!

    It's just it is China now, not Mexico.

    • This.

      Reich, Robert not the Third, has a handle on this trade agreement being slipped right on by us.

      Always remember that government regulations are a feature of fascism (not a bug), and when corporations are allowed to write their own ticket (lobbying), they are interfering with the market in an unnatural way. Fascism is most accurately described as the preeminence of the needs of corporations and governments above the rights of the populace.

      • But without regulations, corporations can be just as oppressive and destructive - driving smaller competitors out of business with underhanded tactics or using exclusive deals to prevent entry into the market, suppressing any activity that harms their profits, manipulating academia with selective funding or threats of legal action to distort science in their favor, damaging the environment and silencing anyone who speaks out with frivolous lawsuits that cost millions to defend against.

        It isn't a simple matt

  • It's even worse than that .. (Score:5, Informative)

    by lippydude ( 3635849 ) on Friday February 13, 2015 @08:22PM (#49051947)
    It's even worse than that. Under TPP a corporation can sue sovereign governments in secret courts if such governments are deemed to have impinged on the corporations right to sell product. Laws such as those to protect against excessive toxins released into the environment. Or if a local government decides to make cheaper generic drugs, instead of buying the corporations more expensive patented product.

  • Next step destruction of public libraries (Score:5, Insightful)

    by GoodNewsJimDotCom ( 2244874 ) on Friday February 13, 2015 @08:30PM (#49051989)
    Libraries have too long been a place where people could share information, books, movies, and games. This senseless devaluation of media hurts content producers. You've done society a disservice for too long libraries. Your time is coming.

    • No need. Libraries are already in decline.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by jtgd ( 807477 )
      Then the publishing corporations should just sue all the libraries in the world for lost profits from books not being sold.

      • "Then the publishing corporations should just sue all the libraries in the world for lost profits from books not being sold."

        Well, they do.

        Don't know in USA but in Europe there *is* a canon to be paid by libraries because of the "lost sales" which were created by the lobbying pressure of the publishing corporations and at least Spain had to pay a fine because not wanting to abide.

  • Cool (Score:5, Interesting)

    by DMJC ( 682799 ) on Friday February 13, 2015 @08:31PM (#49051991)
    So big media is finally going to off itself, or cause an uprising, one way or the other. So either everyone who was pirating and consuming more content will stop, and their sales will plummet. Or the people who can't afford media, due to unemployment/low wages are going to have even less stuff to keep them entertained. Should be fun to watch the crime increase as these people have to leave their homes for entertainment. Personally I think it'll just cause a shift away from film/tv back to gaming. Games last longer, are replayable, and cost less than films.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tepples ( 727027 )

      Personally I think it'll just cause a shift away from film/tv back to gaming. Games last longer, are replayable, and cost less than films.

      Anybody can make a short film and post it to YouTube. The same used to be of short games back in the days of Newgrounds, but Flash Player has since been deprecated. So where can someone make a game and post it for the world to play? In other words, Netflix is to YouTube as Steam is to what?

  • Worked for drugs (Score:5, Insightful)

    by hawguy ( 1600213 ) on Friday February 13, 2015 @08:56PM (#49052167)

    Harsh penalties have virtually eliminated illegal drugs, right? it's gotten to the point where I could purchase methamphetamine on the street far easier than purchasing legal Sudafed at the drug store.

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward

      I'm not sure methamphetamine is a direct replacement for Sudafed. You might want to double check that.

      • Re:Worked for drugs (Score:5, Informative)

        by hawguy ( 1600213 ) on Friday February 13, 2015 @10:46PM (#49052677)

        I'm not sure methamphetamine is a direct replacement for Sudafed. You might want to double check that.

        The point isn't that Sudafed is the same as meth, but that it is restricted because it can be used to make meth, yet I can buy the meth directly easier than I can buy Sudafed.

        http://www.forbes.com/sites/da... [forbes.com]

        Also, this war on meth has resulted in the pharmaceutical industry selling what is essentially a placebo in the form of a "meth-resistant" Sudafed PE:

        http://consumer.healthday.com/... [healthday.com]

        Seven other studies, according to the authors, found that phenylephrine didn't work better than a placebo.

        "It does nothing," Hendeles said. "Clearly the 10 milligram (dose) does not work."

        So consumers are being guided into buying a product that doesn't work by a drug policy that also doesn't work.

        • The government made pseudoephedrine hard to get, and phenylephrine isn't significantly better than a placebo. So I switched to oxymetazoline nasal spray (Afrin, Sudafed OM, etc.), in one nostril at a time so I don't become dependent.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dryeo ( 100693 )

      But my government keeps going on about how making drugs legal means the children will have an easier time acquiring them.
      Same government keeps going on how these free trade agreements are going to make us rich.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        But my government keeps going on about how making drugs legal means the children will have an easier time acquiring them.
        Same government keeps going on how these free trade agreements are going to make us rich.

        The children already have an easy time acquiring drugs... act up a bit, Ritalin and a host of other drugs can be theirs totally legally.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by dryeo ( 100693 )

          The children already have an easy time acquiring drugs... act up a bit, Ritalin and a host of other drugs can be theirs totally legally.

          Not so much in my country but it is sure easy for kids to get the illegal ones compared to the regulated alcohol and tobacco.

  • So they have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that you are doing copyright infringement. They may be able to lock you up pre trail but the jails are filled up and there are much more violet people to put in them pre trail.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mbone ( 558574 )

      Yeah, that sure does stop the marijuana laws.

      • that is legal in some places.

        • Recreational pot is technically illegal in all parties to the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs. So "some places" must refer to the non-parties, namely Afghanistan, Chad, East Timor, Equatorial Guinea, Kiribati, Nauru, Samoa, South Sudan, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu. But these don't appear to be highly developed countries.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dryeo ( 100693 )

      Why the hell would they want violent people in prison? Cuts into profits as you need more guards, more secure prisons and can't rent out their labour as easy.

  • cut off the lifeline that generic drugs provide for people living with HIV/AIDS and many other diseases.

    So they can just that part to kill this.

  • Secret Agreements, bah. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by mbone ( 558574 ) on Friday February 13, 2015 @09:11PM (#49052279)

    I personally don't care what the TPP terms are, the process is irredeemably corrupt. It is an attempt for corporations to obtain in secret negotiations what they could never obtain through actual democratic processes, and should be opposed by anyone who supports our system of government.

    If they want to enact this, publish it, and submit it as a Treaty to the Senate for ratification. We have a Constitution for a reason, quit trying to do an end-run around it.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      If they want to enact this, publish it, and submit it as a Treaty to the Senate for ratification. We have a Constitution for a reason, quit trying to do an end-run around it.

      But think of the corporations! With fast track there is only one person that will need bribing.

  • Can get less time and have less BS to deal with then you have with shoplifting.

    Let's see 1-2 years for downing a movie vs a fine (Maybe some very soft time for shoplifting the blue ray from best buy) hell you can sneak into a movie and they likely will not call the police. I also most did that accidentally did that one (walled in did not see the place to buy tickets at first and I don't think any one would even tried to stop me from just not paying and going right into the show.

  • expropriation? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 13, 2015 @09:55PM (#49052501)

    "destruction, or forfeiture of anything that can be 'traceable to infringing activity,' has been used in the 'creation of pirated copyright goods," So we can get the mpaa's members' equipment, cameras, sound stages and whatnot destroyed or forfeited because all the pirated copyright goods trace back to where the material was created and distributed?

    Sounds like a recipe for government confiscation of private property.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by dryeo ( 100693 )

      Heard Randy Bachman bitching about politicians using his music for campaigning, seems they really like the song Taking Care of Business. In particular the American ones who create a shell company to run their campaign which goes bankrupt after the election so it's not even worth suing.
      My government recently changed the copyright laws due to some media not allowing them to use their copyrighted stuff in their attack ads so they made an exemption for themselves as they're the tough on crime party and can't be

  • Personally I'm looking forward to the shit storm of global, coordinated backlash against TPP when the politicians are done jerking off.

  • Corporations overruling countries (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    This is bullshit! Corporations are something that we allow. They shouldn't be writing government policy or law. And yet here we are. The TPP is a piece of crap. Canadian Prime Minister Steven Harper is all in. There are a million reasons why this guy has to go. But this reason alone means his entire political party should be gone yesterday.

  • Individuals, not corporations. Think photographs as an example: if you copy a corporation's picture and put it on your web site - you will be hammered; if a corporation copies one of your pictures and uses it - nothing will happen; you can complain and will just be ignored.

  • So if a media corporation were to steal someone else's art (like that YouTube rapper whose name escapes me), does that mean that under the TPP the board members of said media corporation would be doing hard time and paying millions in fines?

    Or should I go ahead and create a craigslist ad for the Brooklyn Bridge?

  • When will they finally learn? (Score:3)

    by kheldan ( 1460303 ) on Saturday February 14, 2015 @02:14PM (#49055619) Journal

    You can't stop the signal, Mal.

    Those iconic words from Serenity have always embodied the obvious reality that corporations are apparently deeply in denial over: People will find a way, and they're not going to stop. The tighter corporations and governments squeeze, the more slips through their grasp. They're wasting time and money trying to stamp out a problem that really isn't a problem, making everything cost more for everyone, which just incentivizes filesharers even more. This 'agreement' isn't going to change anything, other than hurting individuals who really aren't harming anyone or anything, ruining their lives because they wanted to hear a song or see a TV show. The organized criminals and terrorist groups who are mass-producing pirated movies and other content to fund their activities won't be any more affected by this than they're prevented from having firearms in places where it's been made illegal for people to own firearms, they'll go right on with their operations without so much as blinking. Memo to media corporations: The more draconic you make things for everyone, the more everyone is going to hate you and not want to pay for your content. It's time for you to retire your 19th Century business model and get into the 21st Century with the rest of us: Stop screwing us over for your content, stop destroying people's lives with gigantic judgements against individuals, accept the fact that some filesharing is going to happen and move on already.

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