We Need More Sunlight On ACTA: Where Is The Mainstream Press?
from the time-to-wake-up-and-demand-accountability dept
Last week, I wrote about how a little bit of sunlight on the so-called ACTA treaty was bringing out well-deserved anger towards the treaty. But the problem is that there's only been a "little bit" of sunlight -- mostly from Canadian newspapers, despite this treaty being suggested around the world. Copyright expert William Patry is ringing the bell to try to get everyone to demand a lot more sunlight on this awful proposed treaty, noting that the whole thing is being negotiated in secret (with tremendous help from the entertainment industry), and it's being pushed not by Congress (which is supposed to manage copyright law), but by the US Trade Representative who is under the faulty belief that stronger intellectual property rules are always a good thing.The attitude of USTR toward copyright is a blinkered, one-sided view that copyright is good and therefore as much of it as possible is even better. But a view is just that unless there is political muscle to implement it, and here lies the systemic danger, the fact that USTR is in the driver’s seat in initiating and negotiating agreements that are cast as trade agreements, but which are in fact agreements fundamentally reshaping substantive IP law. No trade official in any country, no matter how well intentioned, should have that authority. In the U.S., the power to make copyright policy vests exclusively in the Congress. We do not want our trade representatives to negotiate on their own agreements that require changes in domestic copyright laws and then present the agreement after signature to the legislature as a fait d’accompli.And while there were a flurry of articles last week in the Canadian press about this, it's pretty much died out, and the US press hasn't picked up on the story for whatever reason.
The overriding problem is not with any particular proposal (although there is lots wrong with the proposals) but with a secret process, run by trade representatives, trying to rewrite the laws on incredibly contentious substantive issues that were thrashed out in public previously, but are now being rewritten in secret and through the blinkered perspective of trade, not copyright policy. People usually work in the shadows because they are ashamed to work in the sunlight. It is up to us to open the windows, otherwise they will stay shut and we will be shut out from decisions that will seriously impact us, well beyond the search of our laptops and iPods at borders and airports often-cited as an example of how ACTA might work.Let's bring a lot more sunlight into what's going on here, as it's quite a dangerous proposition that could lead to dire economic results and the stifling of innovation if this "trade agreement" is allowed to move forward. It would effectively hamper nearly everyone, in a misguided effort to prop up one industry's obsolete business model. If it's "trade policy," it's the worst kind of protectionism that will seriously harm our economy. There is no way this discussion should be happening in secret.
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Filed Under: acta, copyright, sunlight, trade agreements
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We need to amend the Constitution
It doesn't need to be overly wordy, just enough legalese to state that all parts of the process need to be conudcted in public, and that everything has to have a healthy debate.
Maybe we also need to go to by name votes as well in both houses.
Woadan
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You can bet that bills would be a lot shorter and less items would "Slip through."
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RIAA MPAA
eleete
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Re:
eleete
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The Mainstream press...
Let's not hope for any coverage from CBS, or ABC and especially not NBC or FOX either. We all know the reasons why that is.
All that remains to spread the word are blogs. Anything that you might see in the mainstream press is some executive praising the treaty for its 'step forward in combating counterfeit goods.'
You won't see anything about ISP filtering, P2P squashing, or any other negative aspect of the treaty (negative from my point of view) until it has been ratified by a lame-duck congress - JUST LIKE THE DMCA.
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ACTA Roll
eleete
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action
yeah, yeah, i know: pissing into the wind, right? so's my vote then, but i still go and vote, so do you probably. same thing: accumulation of voices and details makes a difference.
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Re: reply to anonymous coward #2 post
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A low down dirty shame
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one more for the list
that is the only upside and it is a slim hope as most of the population cant seem to pull their collective heads out of whatever distraction they prefer . but then again another worthless ignored law only lets ppl know how pointless the gov is..oops got off on a rant
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one more for the list
that is the only upside and it is a slim hope as most of the population cant seem to pull their collective heads out of whatever distraction they prefer . but then again another worthless ignored law only lets ppl know how pointless the gov is..oops got off on a rant
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Re: RIAA MPAA
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mainstream press is busy being censored
Sheesh....and people wonder why this isn't kicking and screaming....I'm sure it is, just squelched just as fast.
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$470 billion in exports down the drain without copyright
I'm tired of the "innovation" excuse as IP faces annihilation. There are limits to what innovation can achieve in a lawless society. Don't believe me? Go read about the dark ages.
You can't keep shooting fish in a barrel and expect them to grow legs in order to climb out and avoid the bullets. If you condone stealing, eventually you will shoot all of the fish and the barrel will not continue to house any living fish. In simpler non-metaphoric terms, if creators are constantly assaulted by lawlessness, how do you expect them to carry on making what it is that you're happily stealing?
How long would the new car market continue if door locks weren't an available option and it wasn't illegal to drive off at will in somebody else's car?
So why are governments making these "NASTY STIFLING LAWS"? They know that if we lose the IP industry, you techno free-love hippies will have contributed to the collapse of the world's economy. So much for "victimless" crime you retards.
Follow the money, morons...
www.gao.gov/new.items/d08177t.pdf
"According to the U.S. Intellectual
Property Rights Coordinator, industries that relied on IP protection were
estimated to account for over half of all U.S. exports, represented 40
percent of U.S. economic growth, and employed about 18 million
Americans in 2006. However, the economic benefits that copyrights,
trademarks, and patents bring are threatened by the fact that legal
protection of IP varies greatly around the world, and several countries are
havens for the production of counterfeit and pirated goods. The global
illicit market competes with genuine products and it is difficult to detect
and take actions against violations. Although the public is often not aware
of the issues and consequences surrounding IP theft, counterfeit products
raise serious public health and safety concerns, and the annual losses that
companies face from IP violations are substantial. The Organization for
Economic Cooperation and Development recently estimated that
international trade in counterfeit and pirated products in 2005 could have
been up to $200 billion."
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Re: $470 billion in exports down the drain without copyright
Nice of you to take this debate seriously. You're much more credible when you start off with a pure insult.
I'm tired of the "innovation" excuse as IP faces annihilation. There are limits to what innovation can achieve in a lawless society. Don't believe me? Go read about the dark ages.
Or, maybe, go read actual economic history and research that shows that it's not IP that leads to innovation. Go read Eric Schiff's work or Petra Moser's work. They present actual research about those so-called "dark ages" where countries had no patent laws. And, you know what? Plenty of innovation occurred.
Then go read Bessen & Meurer's research and look at how patents have actually held back innovation.
Then you can come back and make a comment where someone might take you seriously.
You can't keep shooting fish in a barrel and expect them to grow legs in order to climb out and avoid the bullets. If you condone stealing, eventually you will shoot all of the fish and the barrel will not continue to house any living fish. In simpler non-metaphoric terms, if creators are constantly assaulted by lawlessness, how do you expect them to carry on making what it is that you're happily stealing?
Well, you might have a point if anyone were talking about stealing. But no one is, so your point doesn't exist.
Would you care to try again?
How long would the new car market continue if door locks weren't an available option and it wasn't illegal to drive off at will in somebody else's car?
Again, we're not talking about stealing. Please try again.
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remember this?
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Re: $470 billion in exports down the drain without copyright
I would love to compel psychological evaluations on the individuals running these companies and lobby groups. They think they somehow profit when I can load a disk into my car and tv but not my computer or when they use the DMCA to dictate the design of products in unrelated economic sectors.
They campaign for the abolition of the internet, but either through ignorance or intellectual dishonesty engage in this game of cognitive dissonance by claiming otherwise, seeking to eliminate "facilitation of unauthorized information exchange".
That's what the internet fundamentally is though, a medium designed to allow anyone to exchange any information with a minimum of friction. They may as well climb the pulpit and preach: "I don't want to abolish water, I merely want to dehydrate it"
There is no such thing as the "information economy" of "selling bits". This idea was yet another dot-bomb business idea which was all glamour and no substance. Instead of ending up on the charter of a late '90's startup with an office stocked with aeron chairs, it was adopted as long term trade policy by people with the economic competence of a pepper shaker.
It would be really funny to watch their delusional rants on stage on comedy central. Unfortunately these people seem to be embedded so far up the (explative deleted)-holes of certain politicians there is no hope of recovering the person people once elected, and like the citizens of Jonestown, their brains have been washed so clean at this point theyre not only drinking the poisoned cool-aid, theyre forcing it down our collective public throats as well.
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Re: We need to amend the Constitution
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