Wednesday, September 29, 2010

END OF FREEDOM (on the internet!)

Hey guys i stole this off of one of my friends blog because i thought his post was so interesting i'd have to share it on my own blog! so bam here it goes


ACTA, or the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, is a proposed trade agreement which is theorized by some to be the Final Boss of the Internet. Its proponents claim the treaty to be a response "to the increase in global trade of counterfeit goods and pirated copyright protected works." In other words, pirates, it's time to walk the plank.


ACTA is a ... large scale, criminal activity. It is ... about limiting civil liberties or harassing consumers.

—ACTA's website

SATURDAY, AUGUST 28, 2010

The specifics of the treaty are being kept secret from you, despite efforts to reveal information about it. Even FOIA requests have been stymied, due to 'National Security'. Thank you, Black Jesus. In case you didn't know, it's not on par with snitching, but denying FOIA requests is fucking bourgie. Here's what was released.
tl;dr The following is what we've been able to learn so far.


You have 10 seconds to comply.
ACTA member countries will be required to provide for third-party (Internet Intermediary) liability. This means ISPs will face heightened liability for websites that even link toallegedly infringing content. Websites would have to proactively police copyright on user-contributed material. This means that Flickr, YouTube or even our beloved ED would have to employ a phalanx of lawyers to ensure that the mountain of material uploaded every second isn't infringing on anyone's copyright. Or they could just shut down. ISP-level content filtering could boil down to spiders that scan and check your hard drives to ensure copyright compliance.


One of the more aggregious aspects of the ACTA is it's MPAA-sponsored Three Strikesamendment, wherein a user would face a year-long ISP-level ban after being accused of infringement three times by a copyright holder. No evidence would be required, only suspicion. See: DMCA trolls wet dream


The whole world must adopt US-style "notice-and-takedown" rules that require ISPs to remove any material that is accused - again, without evidence or trial - of infringing copyright. This has proved a disaster in the US and other countries, where it provides an easy means of censoring material, just by accusing it of infringing copyright.


Standards to be Employed by Customs for Uniform Rights Enforcement (SECURE) is the provision that requires customs officials to enforce international law. Now instead of just the usual cavity search for WMDs, you can fork over your iPhone and your Zune. Just kidding, no one owns a Zune.
 

The treaty suggests that customs officers should be given the right to search laptops and media players for pirated material.
 

 
Now, before you start twisting us up a tinfoil dunce cap, check out what's already on the books. The treaty would increase pressure on publicly paid customs officials to enforce what is essentially a private civil matter. Instead of paying their lawyers to go after copyright and trademark infringers, they're sculpting legislation to make the public pay for it.
 

PURPOSE. To provide guidance and standard operating procedures for searching, reviewing, retaining, and sharing information contained in computers, disks, drives, tapes, mobile phones and other communication devices, cameras, music and other media players, and any other electronic or digital devices, encountered by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) at the border, both inbound and outbound, to ensure compliance with customs, immigration, and other laws that CBP is authorized to enforce.

These searches are part of CBP's long-standing practice and are essential to enforcing the law at the U.S. border. Searches of electronic devices help detect evidence relating to terrorism and other national security matters, human and bulk cash smuggling, contraband, and child pornography. They can also reveal information about financial and commercial crimes, such as those relating to copyright, trademark and export control violations. Finally, searches at the border are often integral to a determination of admissibility under the immigration laws.
 

 
—U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION, CBP DIRECTIVE NO. 3340-049





32 comments:

  1. As far as I know, Europe didn't agree on ACTA and it was supposed to be a worldwide agreement and it had to go back to the drawing board... At least Europe seems to give a shit about people their freedom and privacy instead of the retarded USA...

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  2. I've been hearing a lot about ACTA, but I'm just not too sure how it's going to turn out.

    We'll have to wait and see.

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  3. Dang. Why do people have to ruin our fun!?

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  4. To hell with ACTA. If anything it just sets a bad precedent.

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  5. All I can say is, GO EUROPE! This is bullshit and I can't believe anyone in their right mind would agree to it.

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  6. If people view their children as "in harms way" because of the internet, they WILL pass this. Certain people are just poking the bear when they try to (and succeed to) take down the websites related to this bill. It will give them more reason to be more aggressive with the passing of it.

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  7. ACTA is the biggest pile of sh*t ever

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  8. what are they going to come door to door to check our laptops?

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  9. Yeah I read this earlier, kind of bullshit really. Scanning our hd's at their leisure is a violation of our privacy. They can try to justify it by saying 'LULZ BUT THINK OF ALL THE PEDO'S WE'LL FIND,' but that's not worth it enough to scrap our civil liberties.

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  10. >but that's not worth it enough to scrap our civil liberties.

    Ding ding ding, we have a winner.

    Also, I challenge everyone to find a bigger blanket statement than "national security".

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  12. if the acta gets passed I will be the first one to start protesting. When this bill gets introduced into the canadian parliment it'll have to go through a few votes. I will be sending my hate about the ACTA to every member or parliment. This shit can not get passed or we are screwed and the corporations win.

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  13. I doubt it will pass as it is... congress has a funny way of gutting controversial legislation when the heat is on... remember, Obama owes his election to the internets, so he won't want to piss us off until after he's re-elected...

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  14. Love the info, could use a darker text tho!

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  15. very nice blog
    i like your post!
    supportin & follow you ;)

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  16. very interesting. hope to see more soon :D

    also its kinda hard to read with the color of ur txt

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  17. you guys seriously think ACTA will fall through in all of this?

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  18. Reading stuff like this always makes me shake my head. You can't stop the internet!

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  19. Great post man. Keep in touch... Look forward to more.

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  20. This acta shit sucks, it needs to end

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  21. Yeah we are fuck'd and there is nothing we can do.

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  22. Final boss of the internet? There isn't one, because the designers are always creating new levels.

    Besides that, your font was too light to read. It hurt my eyes.

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