ACTA Negotiators Hold Closed Door Meeting To Say They Need To Be More Transparent
from the irony dept
One of our biggest complaints with ACTA, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement that was initially written by the entertainment industry, and is being used to effectively sneak through new copyright law requirements around the world (every time you hear an industry supporter claim that copyright laws must be changed to live up to "international obligations" you know they're leaving out the part where it was the same industry that wrote those international treaties), is that the whole thing is being negotiated in secret. So, it seems rather amusing that the latest (secret) negotiations resulted in a press release saying that they discussed how they need to be more transparent (found via Michael Geist). So, after holding a closed door meeting, they let everyone know that they discussed how it really sucks that they hold these closed door meetings? Here's a suggestion: instead of issuing a press release afterwards next time, why not open up the meetings?Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Filed Under: acta, copyright, secrecy, sunlight, trade agreements
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The Truth
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(Can't have Conspiracy withouth Piracy!)
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Its always nice
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@Adam Smith
IF that isn't a real Adam Smith quote, it should be.
Spot on, either way.
Non-googlingly,
Trollificus
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The "Grandfather" of international treaties regarding copyright is the Berne Convention, which went into effect on December 5, 1887. The US did not join that treaty until January 1, 1978, and in order to do so had to make wholesale changes to US copyright law.
Please correct me if I am wrong, but neither the RIAA nor the MPAA were around in 1887. For that matter neither were recording studios, movie cameras, etc.
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Re:
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US copyright law used to be replete with formalities, in much the same manner as patent law. Scrupulously follow the formalities or a copyright is invalid. Those formalities have been chucked out the window in order to harmonize US law with that of europe.
Yes, the US does now have a strong presence when it comes to international harmonization, but it is useful to keep in mind that much, of not most, of what we now have (sans the DMCA and Sonny Bono) did not have its genesis here in the US.
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Not a bad troll, but you can't blame the French for your cockup this time.
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European law was much more informal, and that naturally caused a problem when foreign authors had their works enter into the US. Foreign authors had to observe US formalities, but in many instances it was too late for them to do so. Thus, many foreign works that entered the US were by law not copyrighted and could be used within the US with relative impunity.
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Re: international treaties.
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Re: Re: international treaties.
Of course, my comments are merely general observations. I do, however, hew to the position that the move towards international harmonization was a major turning point in the development of US copyright law, and we are not the better for having done so.
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Interesting to read the founding fathers' thoughts on copyright.
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Re: Interesting to read the founding fathers' thoughts on copyright.
That said, I do believe even the staunchest supporter of such congressional power would roll over in his grave and slap himself on his forehead if he could see what copyright has become.
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ACTA
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