US And EU Still Clueless About What The SOPA And ACTA Defeats Really Mean
from the how-can-they-not-get-it? dept
In the wake of the recent defeat of ACTA in the European Parliament, the key questions are not just what the European Commission will now do, but what lessons the EU and US will learn from it, especially in the wake of the equally dramatic derailing of SOPA earlier this year. At the annual meeting of the Transatlantic Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Working Group in Brussels last week, both the EU and US agencies and rights holders let slip a few hints about what they are really thinking.
Here, for example, is how the EU views the post-ACTA situation, as reported by Intellectual Property Watch:
Where IP rights once was a field for experts, now it drives the masses to the streets, the European Commission said referring to recent protests against the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). Without a much stronger commitment from rights holders, the rejection of ACTA would just be the beginning, Commission representatives said according to observers.
This is extraordinary: rather than taking on board the concerns expressed by tens of thousands of European citizens about how ACTA was negotiated, and the way it sought to preserve outdated business models by weakening online privacy and freedom, the European Commission instead wants rights holders to fight back against this wave of protests. No sense, then, that maybe the Commission and copyright industries should possibly change their position to reflect the clearly-expressed wishes of European citizens, only a worry that without some kind of concerted action, things might swing slightly in the public's favor for once -- perish the thought.
The European Commission wasn't even prepared to consider splitting ACTA into two separate treaties -- one dealing with counterfeits, the other with online copyright issues:
Jean-Luc Demarty, the director general of the Trade Directorate of the European Commission, said at the meeting with regard to question of a potential split of counterfeiting and copyright piracy, IPR could not just be for bags and t-shirts.
This betrays a woeful -- or perhaps willful -- lack of understanding about why physical counterfeits and digital copies are fundamentally different, and need to be addressed with different means.
The US side was not much better:
George York, deputy assistant to the US Trade Representative for IP and Innovation, and Susan Wilson, director of the Office of Intellectual Property Rights in the US Department of Commerce, confirmed during the meeting that despite ACTA’s failure in the EU, the ratification process would go on in the US, despite concerns by some experts about potential inconsistencies with US laws.
Again, no hint that maybe ACTA was the wrong solution, or that it lacked legitimacy without the support of citizens in signatory nations. Just the insistence that the US would plough ahead, regardless of any inconsistencies with those tiresome laws.
As if that weren't enough, the meeting's participants went on to express that they are "highly skeptical" about open access to scientific knowledge -- despite the huge and growing support for it among scientists themselves. The old FUD that open access somehow undermines peer review was rolled out -- even though no one who understands open access even minimally could possibly make that absurd accusation.
The US and EU administrations also both said that India's compulsory licensing of Bayer's anti-cancer drug rang "alarm bells"; tellingly, the EU side added that the EU-India Free Trade Agreement currently being negotiatied "still needs work" -- presumably so as to limit India's freedom to issue more such compulsory licenses.
The nearest thing to a tacit admission that the defeat of SOPA and ACTA indicated something was seriously wrong with the whole system came from William E. Kennard, the US Ambassador to the EU, who boldly suggested that legislators still have not got the balance in this area "quite right". Such a laughable characterization of the chasm that separates what the law tries to impose and what the public now believes is reasonable shows just how little US and EU officials and rights holders have really grasped what this year's extraordinary events mean for copyright -- and for them.
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Filed Under: acta, eu, politicians, sopa, us
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They haven't put together that the anti IP demonstrations, Arab spring, Uber vs the DC taxi and limo commission, etc are all part of the same growing trend. A trend that is now breaking out of the Geek only stereotype and going more mainstream. Looking at the Stop Monsanto movement you have farmers, tree huggers, organic food types, and techies all working together, you can see this. Slowly the number of people under the curve of this change are increasing.
I can't wait for five years from now when groups like AARP start getting into the mix.
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Fun times to live!
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"If they ignore long enough the unsatisfied ppl will reach a critical mass beyond the point that doing one thing right will make them cool down"
The critical mass has already been reached to protect the internet. The techie, "Nerds", and w3 crowd are the ones fighting laws that would affect the internet.
The critical mass to actually change things will not occur for a coupe years. When AARP types point their gnarled fingers at the politicians and say that's a stupid idea stop it. We know we are there. :)
Kind of Ironic if you think about it. The government creates the internet, the geeks love it and protect it, the internet becomes the thing that screws business as usual politics.
"If I got your point then I think exactly the same."
Contact me at my blog or hit me up over at Google+
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IP & Internet Related will leave the Geek Arena and will come to Mr. Normal.
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I would say that the RIAA/MPAA "education" program has worked. More people know about copyright and are pissed off at the laws than ever.
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The trend is for more Mr. Normal's to use the tools of the Geeks and cause disruption.
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The noose is tightening.
Around the world the people should note, their governments are not afraid of them, but rather snooping on them, SWAT-ing their domestic homes looking for joints, molesting them at airports looking for illicit MP3s and underwear bombs, all the whilst colluding with cartels ranging from at best dubiously self entitled and anti democratic monopolists through to the outright criminals and their colluders who control our very money and happily crashed the globabl economies to keep their short sighted economy-gobbling, cocaine fueled party going.
The military industrialists at least know no recession. The lawless rogue police state now claims the "authority" of the POTUS includes summarily executing United States citizens. And this is the alleged leader of the "free world"?
What difference will "opinion" no matter how massed make against the fearful surveilance state and domestically deployable military grade force at the governments' disposal?
There's no one else to vote for anyway.
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(which will go the same way within a decade or two, but whatever.)
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Willful Blindness
The old guard is willingly blind to it--as the need for despotic/fascist republics is coming to an end. Of course they don't see it! It is the death knell of the old means of governance.
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Re: Willful Blindness
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Re: Re: Willful Blindness
Wait that's not good news at all.
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how-can-they-not-get-it? It may be you that doesn't get it.
It is shocking that you are surprised that these same toadies would express the articles stated viewpoints about the public and our input into SOPA, ACTA, TPP, and etc.
Until the toadies and the recording industry are removed from any positions of influence, we are going to continue to see these same out of touch views expressed over and over.
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Re: how-can-they-not-get-it? It may be you that doesn't get it.
THE WORLD HAS ALREADY CHANGED!
Newer laws have expanded openness in governance internationally and the dealings in backrooms are getting communicated to the public or is getting willfully disrupted to protect the last few bastions of "confidential" governmental dealings.
The floodgate has already opened and it is not possible for the "toadies" to stem the tide without getting slammed by their proposals "restricting fundamental human rights". The true problem in the new system is the dealings done by people denying this reality, which is mostly oldschool conservative lawyers and politicians + whoever they can convince of the need for closedness in governance (mostly industries needing a very strong lobby to fight for unpopular laws. You mentioned some, but there are others).
I applaud this development and see it as a necessity for a more stable future. However, it is poison for the economic advantage in the western world, if the IPR-laws get too relaxed since wages are such a big chunk of doing business in the western world.
Where the line should be drawn is difficult to say. A constitution of the internet will be a necessity to have something against the "but, but... Piracy" arguments! I do not see it in the near future though and untill we see that, we will have one horrible law after another trying to push the "toadies" agenda at the cost of freedoms on the internet!
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Re: how-can-they-not-get-it? It may be you that doesn't get it.
So I don't think "removing the toadies" will ever work as the only thing you can replace them with is other amphibians. What has to happen is that the positions themselves have to be removed as being unnecessary. But that will never happen because govt bureaucracy always grows, never shrinks. Bureaucrats always add positions beneath them to increase their own power and influence. This is why large organizations always become bloated with middle managers.
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Re: Re: how-can-they-not-get-it? It may be you that doesn't get it.
those tree climbing fish, for example.
or... newts, i think?
yes! turn them into newts!
(no need for them to get better, either.)
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Full employment is not allowed because it is deemed to cause inflation. There is an assumed level of unemployment that it is deemed undesirable to drop below. Greenspan caused everyone go nuts once when he refused to enact monetary measures to slow economic growth when employment was viewed as getting dangerously high. Nothing bad happened; inflation did not spiral out of control.
But that has not materially changed the notion that employment is a market where the government should interfere to keep prices low and to prevent the free market from doing its thing.
It's one of the most evil hypocrisies of the free market movement; the premise that the one thing anyone can sell faces open competition for a price race to the bottom, but will be interferred with to depress prices if the competition starts to favour the sellers.
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Nuclear Option
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Re: Nuclear Option
get an actual person in place who could hook it up to the internet and there's your nuclear option...
terrible idea, mind you, but then, nuclear options generally are.
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For example, orphan works. The founding fathers already had a solution: if the author was dead before 14 years were up the copyright expired early instead of having 28 years copyright.
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MAFIAA ignores us at their peril
"We gladly feast on those who would subdue us.
Not just pretty words...
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Re: MAFIAA ignores us at their peril
'cept with a bloody Zombie horde on the front..
in quite a few ways the internet is like a Zombie....to the AA's
(Arrgh us pirates are the zombies)
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Re: Re: MAFIAA ignores us at their peril
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Oh yeah, the movie and music industries are just so lackadaisical when it comes to pushing for stronger monopoly rights. They've really got to step up their game.
Seriously, what the #*$&* does that even mean?! The "rights holders" are the only people pushing for increasing monopoly rights.
Was that a subtle request for the copyright maximalists to give them more money? To use their resources to squash the dissent in the media?
I've often wondered whether copyright laws would become so draconian that eventually the average person would turn against it. It is my sincere hope that we've reached that point.
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All legislation is essentially fundraising. -Rubberpant's Law
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Rights-Holders, Lets Ratchet It Up Even Further
To suggest that the answer is for rights-holders to ratchet it up even further is only going to continue to inflame the public.
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Re: Rights-Holders, Lets Ratchet It Up Even Further
Isn't that just wonderful? Lets just throw more gasoline on the fire ...
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Re: Re: Rights-Holders, Lets Ratchet It Up Even Further
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Ratification Process?
Wait. I thought the President already signed ACTA and said that the Senate didn't need to ratify it.
Are they implying that ACTA really does need Senate approval?
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Re: Ratification Process?
I interchange those terms sometimes, even when I know better.
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Re: Re: Ratification Process?
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Wait, ratification?
Hasn't the USTR and Obama administration been claiming until now that ACTA doesn't require ratification by Congress? Are they finally admitting it does?
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Re: Wait, ratification?
"Ratification" in this case, has to do with writing a lot of papers of how the US laws are in compliance with ACTA and choosing somebody for the "IPR overlord council".
They are saying to the EU IPR maximalists that they should not worry: The US will get it ratified and what the experts are pointing out are mere speculating (hence "potential inconsistencies") and irrelevant for "getting it done".
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Hmmm
Of course the reasons for both of these are the same - once upon a time, IP rights didn't affect "the masses", only corporations (and creators). The world and IP laws have changed so that now all sorts of things that we want to do in the privacy of our own homes break some IP law or other.
Surprise, surprise - when IP rights start to restrict "the masses", "the masses" start to push back against them. The solution, of course, is to change the law so that IP rights once again only affect people making money from them, but it's going to be a long time before they start to realize that (if the reaction doesn't lead to no IP rights at all first).
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Bring it! Most rights holders are spindly things who need the advantage monopolies grant them to get anything accomplished, my potsmoking grandma with 20 cats living under her trailer could kick their ass.
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Highly unlikely. Having a transparent, inclusive, totally vetted process would probably automatically weed out most if not all unreasonable attempts to protect against piracy. Hence the absolute secrecy involved in ACTA, for example, and its colossal failure once the public became involved.
Having jettisoned the unreasonable attempts to protect against piracy, we'd be left with discussions over reasonable attempts. Unfortunately, despite many good suggestions on how to deal with the issue that have been proposed on this site and others, having serious discussions about reasonable attempts to protect against piracy is the last thing the MPAA/RIAA wants to encourage, since that would require them to get much too close to 21st century reality for their comfort zone.
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You're just mad that people are catching on to how laws like these are passed.
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Each and every single measure which could work to protect against piracy would involve either the routine presumption of guilt, or the issuing of search-warrant-level governmental investigations as part of routine business; all of which is unreasonable.
The only measure which can be taken which is actually reasonable is to remove government-mandated anti-piracy measures entirely and thereby force IP-producers and consumers to engage with each other, rather than continue to escalate the current ludicrous government-granted-monopoly-vs-human-rights situation we have going at the moment.
You people cannot win this argument because you're asking people to vote in a rod for their own back, and it's just never going to work.
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Worldwide public contempt will kill the MAFIAA
This trend is bound to continue, as it is the only recourse left to ordinary people against the ever-increasing destruction of their intrinsic freedoms by corporate and criminal controlled gangs. These gangsters (and there is no other name for them) must be taught that any sign of them trying to enslave the people will be spotted by someone somewhere on the internet and the whole world will be alerted. And long gone are the days when the public is prepared to listen to their convoluted, legally deceitful lies. Anything that stinks of the world-wide MAFIAA conspiracy against the people will be slung out or ignored, quite automatically. And even the MAFIAA's political toadies cannot imprison everyone in the world for listening to a crappy pop song.
Quite simply, if copyright can only be 'protected' by turning the whole world into a totalitarian state controlled by the criminal MAFIAA, then copyright must go. And the only thing that will get rid of it is worldwide public contempt. Then natural evolution can replace it with something a whole lot better able to deal fairly with this rapidly changing world.
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