In early March, U.S. President Barack Obama spoke in favour of the agreement, saying it was necessary to protect American businesses and technologies.

The draft text of the treaty includes enhanced search powers for border-crossing guards, allowing them to comb through the personal computers and iPods of travellers.

Something I've heard Airport Customs already can do (and it includes searching for illegal mp3 downloads).

Anything tied to the WTO and the UN is never good....the Liberal Globalists may feel otherwise.....but I do not want the WTO or UN involved in anything in the USA

Republicans should come out strong against this... but I doubt they will... corporate america will want it...

Punishment for repeat offenders includes a ban from the using the Internet for up to 12 months.

Internet license, coming to your future soon, comrade.

David Fewer, director of the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic at the University of Ottawa, has been following the development of the treaty closely and believes it provides little benefit to anyone but large U.S. content producers such as record labels, software makers and technology companies.

Because nothing is going to force the corrupt Ahmet Engums of the world who ran the Atlantic Records of this world to actually PAY the Ruth Browns and Sam & Daves of this world. It's business. Collect money off other peoples' efforts and get rich. Settle after decades of lawsuits later.

Would the Bible fall under a copyright protected document? Any way the government could regulate that?

Maybe everything should become public domain after some reasonable length of time. I would hate to export our IP mess into a global mess.

The draft text of the treaty includes enhanced search powers for border-crossing guards, allowing them to comb through the personal computers and iPods of travellers.

And of course the government would NEVER impart any viruses, spyware, or upload your private information...

Intellectual property law is already about as corrupt constitutionally as the “health care reform” bill: the enumerated power under which Congress can pass patent and copyright laws reads

“To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.”

It says nothing about securing exclusive rights to commercial interests who neither wrote nor invented anything, nor to literary or scientific estates. The perpetual extensions of copyright terms make a mockery of “for limited Times”. And, objectively, the main effects of current patent and copyright law is to impede progress in science and the useful arts by making derivative works nearly impossible within the law, despite the supposed recognition of fair use.

the Canadian government would not sign on to the agreement unless it "reflects the best interest of Canadians."

Would that our own gov't felt this way.

Executive Fiat instead of laws - check.
Bills unread before passed - check.
Laws ignored because they are unreasonable - check.
Treaties drafted in secret - check.

The hits just keep coming...

Etc.

Secret copyright treaty leaks. It's bad. Very bad.

By Cory Doctorow at 2:13 PM November 3, 2009

The internet chapter of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, a secret copyright treaty whose text Obama's administration refused to disclose due to "national security" concerns, has leaked. It's bad. It says:

* That ISPs have to proactively police copyright on user-contributed material. This means that it will be impossible to run a service like Flickr or YouTube or Blogger, since hiring enough lawyers to ensure that the mountain of material uploaded every second isn't infringing will exceed any hope of profitability.
* That ISPs have to cut off the Internet access of accused copyright infringers or face liability. This means that your entire family could be denied to the internet -- and hence to civic participation, health information, education, communications, and their means of earning a living -- if one member is accused of copyright infringement, without access to a trial or counsel.
* That 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.
* Mandatory prohibitions on breaking DRM, even if doing so for a lawful purpose (e.g., to make a work available to disabled people; for archival preservation; because you own the copyrighted work that is locked up with DRM)

The ACTA Internet Chapter: Putting the Pieces Together

Next: More on secret copyright treaty: your kids could go to jail for noncommercial music sharing

Previously:

I believe the document has been on the internet since January.

Download the consolidated text of ACTA: http://www.laquadrature.net/files/201001_acta.pdf

ACTA is a multi-lateral agreement aimed at setting a standard for enforcing counterfeiting at the global level. The following document may not reflect the current state of the negotiations but it provides the public with an interesting overview of the whole agreement, background on the positions of the different parties, as well as more details regarding:

* The general scope of ACTA;
* Border measures;
* Criminal enforcement;
* International cooperation;
* Enforcement practices;
* The ACTA oversight committee (institutional arrangements chapter).

http://www.laquadrature.net/en/0118-version-of-acta-consolidated-text-leaks

The Copyfraud ping: copyright, patent and trademark law, mainly as applied to the digital age, especially their abuse.
If you want on or off the Copyfraud Ping List, Freepmail me.

Nice find (for your first thread)

Welcome to FRee Republic!

HA! The top-secret draft of a global treaty on Copyrights looks like it was stolen with a P2P file sharing program. LOL!

Punishment for repeat offenders includes a ban from the using the Internet for up to 12 months.

Bwahh! Ha! Ha! I would like to see them enforce that, since you can get on the internet with most cell phones or game systems and most coffee shops and restaurants provide free Wi-Fi.

PS, if you don't want border guards snooping through your files, encrypt them with a freeware program such as truecrypt, which prides it's self on being virtually uncrackable and NOT providing any form of back door to governemnt or law enforcement

ping

bump for later..........

Eventually copyright will become so draconian and disconnected from reality (not that it already hasn’t, mind you), that we’re all just going to completely ignore it. There is no legitimate reason for a copyright that extends beyond 30 years. Screw Disney and the rat.