ACTA- Censorship of internet, Blocking the manufacturing of generic medicine, and allowing copyright
60 replies, posted
[release]ACTA NOW, 8 Countries Sign Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement
by Stephen JeneiOCTOBER 3, 2011
The United States along with Australia, Canada, the European Union and its member states, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, and Switzerland reaffirmed their commitment to the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) at a signing ceremony in Tokyo.
The agreement is meant to fight against the infringement of intellectual property rights (IPR), in particular the proliferation of counterfeiting and piracy on a global scale, providing a mechanism for the parties to work together in a more collaborative manner to achieve the common goal of effective IPR enforcement.
It includes provisions on civil, criminal, border and digital environment enforcement measures, robust cooperation mechanisms among the ACTA parties to assist in their enforcement efforts, and the establishment of best practices for effective IPR enforcement.
With respect to the legal framework, the ACTA establishes a strengthened standard that builds on the minimum standards of the World Trade Organization Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). It is said that this marks a considerable improvement in international trade norms for effectively combating the current global proliferation of commercial-scale counterfeiting and piracy.
Representatives of eight governments – Australia, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore and the US – signed the agreement. Representatives of the European Union, Mexico and Switzerland attended the ceremony and confirmed their continuing strong support for for the agreement but said they’d sign some other day.
Formal ACTA negotiations started in June 2008, with the final round of negotiations being held in Japan in October 2010. Following translation and technical work, the ACTA was opened for signature on May 1, 2011.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Global Intellectual Property Center (GIPC) applauded the conclusion of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement in a press release:
“The signing of the ACTA is a big victory for the American business community, workers, and IP-intensive sectors across our economy,” said Mark Elliot, executive vice president of the GIPC. “This accord raises the bar on enforcement by improving cooperation among partners, harmonizing how we confront IP theft, addressing IP theft online, and setting a positive example for nations that aspire to have strong IP enforcement regimes. We urge the negotiating countries to move quickly to complete the relevant domestic processes in signing and implementing the agreement to help protect IP jobs and spur economic growth.”
Not everyone thinks the agreement is great, though. Gigi B. Sohn, president and co-founder of Public Knowledge noted:
“Although the final version of the Agreement was an improvement from earlier versions, we continue to believe that the process by which it was reached was extremely flawed. ACTA should have been considered a treaty, and subject to public Senate debate and ratification or, in the alternative, debated in an open and transparent international forum such as the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Instead, public interest groups and the tech industry had to expend enormous resources to force the process open to permit public views to be presented and considered.”
But, ACTA no longer exports the worst parts of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act — the 1998 law that makes it a crime to unlock a DVD to back it up. Although it has a loosely worded ban on tools used to unlock “digital rights management” technologies, a footnote makes it clear that it is not required for manufacturers and software developers to ship products with DRM restrictions.
Second, ACTA no longer demands that countries hold Internet providers responsible for copyright infringement committed by their subscribers.
Some aspects of ACTA, however, remain controversial since the agreement does not mention “fair use” anywhere.
Critics say the biggest problem is that the eight signatory countries don’t include the main offenders in copyright disputes. Most agree that until you get China to sign this document, this probably won’t change much.
You can read the finalized text of ACTA here.[/release]
Source: [url]http://www.patentbaristas.com/archives/2011/10/03/acta-now-8-countries-sign-anti-counterfeiting-trade-agreement/[/url]
[release]"ACTA is one more offensive against the sharing of culture on the Internet. ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement) is an agreement secretly negotiated by a small "club" of like-minded countries (39 countries, including the 27 of the European Union, the United States, Japan, etc). Negotiated instead of being democratically debated, ACTA bypasses parliaments and international organizations to dictate a repressive logic dictated by the entertainment industries.
ACTA would impose new criminal sanctions forcing Internet actors to monitor and censor online communications. It is thus a major threat to freedom of expression online and creates legal uncertainty for Internet companies. In the name of trademarks and patents, it would also hamper access to generic medicines in poor countries.
The European Parliament now has an ultimate opportunity to reject ACTA."[/release]
Source: [url]http://www.laquadrature.net/acta[/url]
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=citzRjwk-sQ[/media]
form earlier this month but I've seen little notice of this anywhere.
Bye bye cheap prescription drugs in Canada
This bill will just make things worse for everybody, as if corporations didn't have ENOUGH power.
And nothing will happen.
This goes through, I'm going to hope for a wide-spread riot, Corporations and society should go hand in hand, one doesn't infringe upon another, this fucks everyone over.
[B]EVERYONE
OVER.[/B]
Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the worldwide web war.
There goes some more freedom.
I'm not even sure there is a thing to say about this. Several people need a 2x4 to the head.
[QUOTE=pyschomc;33018486]And nothing will happen.[/QUOTE]
People need to stop saying this, the more you say it the less people care about these laws and opposing them. It increases the chance of them actually having an effect.
[QUOTE=pyschomc;33018486]And nothing will happen.[/QUOTE]
You show what society doesn't need, and that is apathy, which runs rampant in the western world where we care more-so about vices instead of things happening across the country.
We need more empathy in the western world.
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Oh for fuck's sake... after all the complaints about stifling innovation and killing off perfectly valid industries, they're still going through with this? Any nation dumb enough to actually implement ACTA is signing a death sentence to their tech sectors.
[QUOTE=pyschomc;33018486]And nothing will happen.[/QUOTE]
It's that kind of attitude that put America in its current situation.
Well it was rejected in the EU once, hope it happens again.
What does it do to medicines? I dont want to have to read the entire bill to find out
[QUOTE=Tobba;33020590]What does it do to medicines? I dont want to have to read the entire bill to find out[/QUOTE]
protects big pharmaceutical companies by making the manufacture of generics harder, basically
ensures drug costs for the consumer are higher in order to pad the bottom line of big corporations at the expense of our health
Why would the US even sign something like this
[QUOTE=TheCloak;33021784]Why would the US even sign something like this[/QUOTE]
Corporate interest, obviously
This might not end well.
Money money money money...... MONEY, that is all that bill is about. And its disgusting.
This again?i remember reading this a year ago and nothing happened. Nothing will happen now
[QUOTE]
“The signing of the ACTA is a big victory for the American business community, workers, and IP-intensive sectors across our economy,”[/QUOTE]
And a big loss for everyone else in the same country as them
[QUOTE=Adarrek;33022072]This again?i remember reading this a year ago and nothing happened. Nothing will happen now[/QUOTE]
The fact alone that some countries are still considering it means that something could well happen, you don't look at the best option with this kind of thing, you look at the worst and decide if you would be willing to live in that kind of world.
I just don't get this world anymore. Isn't the government supposed to make the country as good as possible for people to live in?
I now want to pirate things on principal.
Isn't democracy dead yet? We need a new name for this type of governing.
[QUOTE=Chopstick;33022586]Isn't democracy dead yet? We need a new name for this type of governing.[/QUOTE]
"Corporatocracy" surely?