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ACTA: The Internet Fight Goes International
Internet activists who are celebrating the apparent defeat of the SOPA and PIPA bills have found their party already interrupted by the appearance, or rather, re-appearance of a piece of legislation that could have an even more significant effect: ACTA, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. Whereas SOPA and PIPA were merely proposed US laws, ACTA is an international treaty, so its scope is much wider. It will become law for all signatory states and override any contrary provisions in US codes. On January 26, the European Union and 22 member states formally signed ACTA, and apparently it now goes before the European Parliament. Last, October, ACTA was signed by 10 nations, including the US which helped sponsor it. However, though the President signed it as an executive agreement, constitutionally the treaty must still be ratified by the US Senate. Mexico, Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands, Estonia, Cyprus, and Slovakia are some of the most important nations that have still not signed on. There is a huge amount of suspicion across the Internet surrounding the treaty because it was negotiated in secrecy by industry and government trade representatives of some of the richest countries without any input from anyone else. In fact, time after time, parliaments and interest groups around the world were told they could not see it while it was being worked on. For a long time the only information about the provisions of the proposed treaty came through diplomatic cables … Continue reading
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Tagged ACTA, copyright, privacy, Protect IP Act, SOPA
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What about the Stop Internet Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect-IP Act (PIPA)?
Recently, a customer wrote in for more information on these two important pieces of legislation. Here’s the response from SWCP President Mark Costlow, that we thought was so good, it deserved to be posted: SOPA and PROTECT-IP are both very bad ideas. They are attempts to address something that is a real problem (theft of intellectual property) but they do it in such a flawed way that the cure would be much worse than the disease. One can argue back and forth about how much of a problem piracy really is. Both sides tend to blow their positions out of proportion. But giving people the power to turn off (read: destroy) web sites at will, without due process, is irresponsible and dangerous. The existing mechanisms for removing infringing material from the internet already have “baby vs bathwater” problems, and these bills would make it worse. Here’s one example. DMCA Takedowns are routinely used to remove videos from YouTube which are deemed to contain a media company’s copyrighted material, when in fact the usage is in a news or commentary context and therefore covered under the Fair Use doctrine. The harmed party can protest the takedown and get it reversed, but that process is lengthy. For someone who makes their living commenting on current events, the takedown essentially nullifies the content. It’s almost useless when they restore it 2 weeks later. Here’s a write-up of a recent case of this, but it’s … Continue reading