BSA Falsely Claims ACTA Is A Treaty That Has Already Been Signed By 37 Countries
from the do-they-get-anything-right? dept
Many ACTA supporters get very upset any time anyone refers to ACTA as a "treaty." That's because, technically, it's an "executive agreement." Of course, in reality, it is a treaty. The only real difference is one requires Congressional approval and the other does not. Even the State Department seems to admit that. Of course, technically speaking, a treaty can carry the weight of law in the US, while an executive agreement, by itself, cannot. And yet, in reality (again), there is little difference, as lobbyists will point to executive agreements, often calling them treaties, insisting that we need to "comply with our international obligations" and get lawmakers to change the law anyway.Still, given how incredibly careful supporters of ACTA have been to scream "it's not a treaty!" every time anyone calls it a treaty, it's quite amusing to see the BSA, an active ACTA supporter, flat out call it a treaty and falsely claim that 37 countries have already signed on and agreed to imposing criminal penalties for software infringement. That's not true. No countries have signed on yet. 37 countries may have been involved in the negotiations, but that's no guarantee that any of them would sign on and some of the text is still very much in flux (thanks to Jamie Love for pointing out the BSA announcement).
Given the BSA's track record on accuracy, it should be no surprise that they would be so sloppy here as well. But, it does show how those involved view ACTA. To them, it's a treaty, and it's a done deal. In this case, perhaps the BSA is being a lot more honest than others in admitting what's really going on...
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Filed Under: copyright, executive agreement, treaty
Companies: bsa
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"Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement also commits signatories to set statutory damages
Washington, October 6, 2010 —
Negotiators representing 37 countries that together account for more than half of world trade this week agreed to impose criminal penalties for software license infringement and other forms of copyright piracy carried out for commercial advantage."
There has been no such agreement and in fact many countries are having issues with the language contained in ACTA.
"ACTA’s signatories include the United States, Australia, Canada, the European Union and its 27 member states, Japan, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea and Switzerland."
Since no one has yet to sign the unfinished document this is a blatantly false and misleading statement.
It would be greatly appreciated if you would correct the factual errors in your article rather than project your personal and/or commercial wishes for the future.
Sincerely,
Ron Rezendes
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Corruption Test For Politicians
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Re: Corruption Test For Politicians
Ye of little faith. I've met officials from local (mayor) to state (state rep). They're smart at double talking and how to raise money for the next campaign, but dumb to giving a fuck about the places they represent.
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"it requires a simple majority vote of the House and Senate."
and
"Congress can express its opposition to any particular executive agreement by withholding the necessary implementing legislation."
your quote:
"one requires Senate approval and the other does not."
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Re:
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mexican seante opted out of ACTA now
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Re: mexican seante opted out of ACTA now
Really very cool in my opinion. Think of it as a race.
On one side you have old media trying to maintain a monopoly by creating laws meant to protect them. Laws that will not come fully into effect until 5-10 years down the line.
1) Digital sales of music going flat this year and beginning to tank with in the next 6 to 12 months.
2) No further ways to monetize old content.
3) Fewer artists being signed to the labels.
4) CD sales diving towards 0.
On the other hand you have business evolution in action that will take roughly the same 5-10 years to iron out the kinks in promotion and business models.
1) CC being used more and more.
2) More artists trying newer and better business models with out the support of the labels.
3) Free music being used as a promotional tool.
In the end its pretty neat. Who reaches the finish line first and takes the prize?
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It's a treaty!
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8000 $ autocad man speaks
@6 ya and im thinking us canucks are the dudes in empire strikes back on the planet hoth.....
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What have the Boy Scouts of America to do with this?
Anyway, I assure you, it's a treaty in practice, a done deal, and we'll soon hear the old lie that "treaties supersede the Constitution", and that the gov't is enforcing it as if it that were true and it was legally ratified too. The gov't no longer pays attention to laws.
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Re: What have the Boy Scouts of America to do with this?
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Re: What have the Boy Scouts of America to do with this?
And a writer who doesn't want to insult his regular readers knows they're smart enough to know what commonly state acronyms mean.
I've discussed this in the past. Redefining acronyms that most readers know is annoying. I assume a certain level of knowledge (or the ability to use Google) on this site.
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Re: Re: What have the Boy Scouts of America to do with this?
Of course, some of these /are/ more common. DRM tends to appear here more often, whereas BSA is fairly rare in Techdirt articles.
Then we can nitpick about acronyms versus initialism :)
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Re: Re: Re: What have the Boy Scouts of America to do with this?
Techdirt and MPAA gets 8,800 results
http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Atechdirt.com+MPAA
techdirt and DRM gets 9,390 results
http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Atechdirt.com+DRM
techdirt and BSA gets 4,520
http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Atechdirt.com+BSA
techdirt and BSA and software gets 3240 of those
http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Atechdirt.com+BSA+AND+software
techdirt and BSA and scout gets only 132
http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Atechdirt.com+BSA+AND+scout
I think that in comparison, BSA frequently enough to denote the software group that the smart reader can assume that unless otherwise noted BSA does NOT mean the scouts and that they are able to tell the difference and infer from the situation if there is any confusion. I think I also showed somewhat loosely that Mike tends to spell out the acronym often enough that we don't need to harangue him when he doesn't.
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Re: Re: Re: What have the Boy Scouts of America to do with this?
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=what+does+BSA+stand+for+
The second result lists Boy Scouts of America and Business Software Alliance. I didn't even need to click through.
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Re: Re: What have the Boy Scouts of America to do with this?
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Re: Re: What have the Boy Scouts of America to do with this?
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Re: Re: Re: What have the Boy Scouts of America to do with this?
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Re: What have the Boy Scouts of America to do with this?
I would agree to spelling out acronyms in other types of publications, but spelling them out here every time (especially if they are common acronyms) would quickly become annoying and would only serve to clutter the article.
Unless the Techdirt crew wants to implement some sort of "tooltip" (I don't know what YOU call them, I call them tooltips) that shows relevant information (including spelling out the acronyms and perhaps some background story?) when you hover the mouse over the acronyms/relevant text. However, I personally find that EVEN MORE annoying.
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Please define these things for me next time!
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