Say NO to ACTA

[panopticon]

G'day All,

I can not express in words my feelings on this.

The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Counterfeiting_Trade_Agreement) (ACTA) is supposedly about forming an international treaty (two words that always worry me) to allow for cross border protection of intellectual property and copy rights. But it has been negotiated in secret, it is manipulative and has many other applications outside of video and software piracy.

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If an ISP is made legally responsible for user activity then it is in the interest of the ISP to monitor and control (censor) user activity and access to material (think "Great Firewall Of China (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Firewall_of_China)").

If a seed provider (like Monsanto) can "prove" contamination of crops with its GM seed then everybody's food supply is by de facto controlled because of the "rights" of the patent holder of the GM seed.

You're a clever bunch, think what this means to your children and grand children.
Imagine what this could begin and then say something.
Don't walk the streets, or rampage against the machine, just say no.

Read more here:
http://www.laquadrature.net/ACTA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Counterfeiting_Trade_Agreement
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number9.20/acta-ep-legal-service-opinion

Only thread on this at Avalon I could find related to the passing of this in the UK april 2010:
http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?1119-Unprecendented-Censorship-Bill-Passes-in-UK-ACTA

If you're in the EU then contact the appropriate representatives and just say no.

Kind Regards, :yo:
Panopticon

[panopticon]

G'day All,

Just a bit more back ground information and then I'll leave this alone.

ACTA provides a way for interested parties (corporations) to police their intellectual property rights.
To quote Dave Neal from his Inquirer article (http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2113254/europe-sign-acta-copyright-treaty):

ACTA is voluntary and hands over the policing of copyright infringement to rights holders, which is a bit like giving cats authority over mice. The idea, at least the one put out, is that it will standardise international enforcement of intellectual property rights. However, it will also give rights holders control over things like what fine amounts to levy against copyright infringers. It's not hard to imagine that could be open to some excesses, if not outright abuses.
Now it may seem like no big deal. It is pushed as being all about video and software piracy however it will have a broader impact.
There are all sorts of privacy issues, censorship problems, legal ramifications but I'll just focus on the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) of Seed producers, including GM Seed.

What does the World Health Organisation say about all this (http://www.who.int/foodsafety/publications/biotech/20questions/en/)?

20 questions on genetically modified foods.

Q17. Are there implications for the rights of farmers to own their crops?

Yes, intellectual property rights are likely to be an element in the debate on GM foods, with an impact on the rights of farmers. Intellectual property rights (IPRs), especially patenting obligations of the TRIPS Agreement (an agreement under the World Trade Organization concerning trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights) have been discussed in the light of their consequences on the further availability of a diversity of crops. In the context of the related subject of the use of gene technology in medicine, WHO has reviewed the conflict between IPRs and an equal access to genetic resources and the sharing of benefits. The review has considered potential problems of monopolization and doubts about new patent regulations in the field of genetic sequences in human medicine. Such considerations are likely to also affect the debate on GM foods.

So we've got the TRIPS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agreement_on_Trade-Related_Aspects_of_Intellectual_Property_Rights) (Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) Agreement mentioned which can be found here:
http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/trips_e/t_agm0_e.htm

The TRIPS Agreement is also mentioned in the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) final document which can be downloaded from here:
http://www.mofa.go.jp/policy/economy/i_property/pdfs/acta1105_en.pdf

The 'Office of the US Trade Representative' (USTR) has lots of lobbyist propaganda to go through here:
http://www.ustr.gov/acta

Finally in relation to the problems associated with IPR and GM seeds I'd point out a paper by Haley Stein titled 'Intellectual Property and Genetically Modified Seeds: The United States, Trade, and the Developing World (http://www.law.northwestern.edu/journals/njtip/v3/n2/4/).'
Stein states:

The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (“TRIPS”), adopted in 1994, is the controlling international agreement on patent policy, including plant and seed patents. TRIPS, along with other international agreements, monitors whether domestic policy choices of participating nations meet international norms (2005, p. 169)...
As the world leader in IP protections for the life sciences, the United States, through the USTR, exerts this pressure on developing nations and maintains its dominance through strict trade agreements like TRIPS (2005, p. 178).

ACTA extends on the ways that corporations can make use of their money/control/power.

Some of you may remember a paper (http://arxiv.org/abs/1107.5728) from a few months back we discussed here (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?28356-Study-shows-powerful-corporations-really-do-control-the-world-s-finances) that showed how a small number of corporations exerted control ('[i]t is clear, that root nodes accumulat[e] all the control' (p. 23 (http://arxiv.org/abs/1107.5728))) on the financial system (amongst other things). What is more powerful than the control of access to food? Surely the owners would be rich beyond the dreams of avarice...

I have focused on an area that may not be commonly looked at in relation to ACTA and there are many other areas where this form of "agreement" is not just short sighted but bloody dangerous.

Kind Regards, :yo:
Panopticon

[panopticon]

G'day All,

Here's an old Youtube video that talks about the danger to the internet of this "agreement". I reckon the video is a bit "over the top" in places but the end message is essentially correct as I understand it.

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Just so you're all aware. The ACTA has already been signed by Australia, Canada, Japan, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea and the US.
It has not been signed by the European Union, Mexico, and Switzerland, however as reported here (http://www.ustr.gov/about-us/press-office/press-releases/2011/october/joint-press-statement-anti-counterfeiting-trade-ag):

Representatives of the European Union, Mexico, and Switzerland attended the ceremony and confirmed their continuing strong support for and preparations to sign the Agreement as soon as practicable. All participants expressed their firm resolve to work cooperatively to achieve the Agreement’s prompt entry into force, and to support actively its goals.

Let's not forget that The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (https://www.eff.org/pages/trans-pacific-partnership-agreement) is being negotiated and is expected to be finalised in November of this year.
Here is the USTR site for TPP (notice the lack of actual information):
http://www.ustr.gov/tpp

It is even more bloody restrictive, more secretive and more manipulative than ACTA.

Kind Regards, :yo:
Panopticon

Further reading:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/10/acta-signed-8-members-are-we-doomed-yet
https://www.eff.org/pages/trans-pacific-partnership-agreement

[Lord Sidious]

Stop the kraken?
Good luck on that, they are mean, ask anyone from Norway and Denmark.

[58andfixed]

Related material on "PROTECT IP."


yDX8Lyl16Qs

http://www.youtube.com/v/yDX8Lyl16Qs

3m 52s

The bill, and how it will work.

The fence is made of wool, and shrinks under the heat and action of the dryer.

What little remains of freedoms is steadily shrinking.

It is a marvel we manage to even keep up with these new mechanizations.

- 58

[panopticon]

G'day all,

Thanks 58andfixed for contributing the video as it really gets across some of the problems that are associated with the form of protectionist agenda surrounding IPRs.

yDX8Lyl16Qs
This PROTECT-IP (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protect_IP_Act) is an "interesting" proposed piece of legislation (http://www.opencongress.org/bill/112-s968/show).
It must be alright because the Property Rights Alliance (http://propertyrightsalliance.org/about) says so in their "news" article titled 'PROTECT IP Act Introduced in the Senate (http://propertyrightsalliance.org/protect-ip-act-introduced-senate-a2967)'.
There again it appears I'm completely wrong about TPP (https://www.eff.org/pages/trans-pacific-partnership-agreement) because the Property Rights Alliance (http://propertyrightsalliance.org/about) reckons it's brilliant too (http://propertyrightsalliance.org/current-tpp-negotiations-focus-ip-protection-a2990)!

Those US politicians sure are busy...
Here's another lovely piece of legislation titled the 'E-PARASITE Act (http://www.opencongress.org/bill/112-h3261/show)' that is such a piece of work I wonder what is going through their heads.
If this passes then all I will be able to say (I mean that literally) is "look at the distributed great firewall of America" (which is what it is called in the techdirt.com article 'PROTECT IP Renamed E-PARASITES Act; Would Create The Great Firewall Of America (http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111026/12130616523/protect-ip-renamed-e-parasites-act-would-create-great-firewall-america.shtml)').

Here's an interesting article (https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/10/disastrous-ip-legislation-back-%E2%80%93-and-it%E2%80%99s-worse-ever) from EFF (https://www.eff.org/) on PROTECT-IP (https://www.eff.org/files/filenode/coica_files/GRA11445.pdf)'s evil sister 'Stop Online Piracy Act (http://judiciary.house.gov/hearings/pdf/112%20HR%203261.pdf)' (SOPA).
SOPA is "brilliant"! How's this for spooky:

(ii) LIMITATIONS.— A service provider shall not be required — ... to continue to prevent access to a domain name to which access has been effectively disabled by other means (pp. 14-15).
Yeah, that's not talking about a firewall or some form of filtering now is it.

Don't worry though as it's all about protecting the rights of poor starving artists to make a meagre living from their art, except it isn't is it...
Many artists are saying (http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111026/14344016525/new-letter-artists-content-creators-against-protect-ipe-parasites-act.shtml) that the freedom of the internet is allowing them to extend their fan base and make money from their art without the restrictions of copyright legislation. So who does this rubbish legislation benefit then if it isn't the artists?

It's all about Money, Control and Power exerted by the few on the many, at different levels and in different ways, to assist in consolidating, in the hands of the few, more Money, Control and Power.

Kind Regards, :yo:
Panopticon

[58andfixed]

Thank you Panopticon, for you bring much effort, study and familiarity.

I have found your material on prior occasions, and have helped to spread your articles.

When I first became interested in the business of "doing" web-sites and potentially SEO work back in the mid-1990's, things didn't sit right.

I had a notion things were skewed the wrong way, in an already incorrectly sloped world.

Well, now it's becoming much more obvious, and thankfully, gratefully, more are recognizing the mechanisms that are contributing to a narrowing, conformist, manipulative culture that contributes to an even more dysfunctional & disconnected civilization.

I am grateful for having found PA, for it is attracting a wealth of diversity and contributors from many perspectives, and to be able to post next to someone whose efforts are nothing less than outstanding.

Thank you for noticing, and thank you for you selfless efforts in bringing to our attention these issues of direct concern.

- 58



Many artists are saying that the freedom of the internet is allowing them to extend their fan base and make money from their art without the restrictions of copyright legislation.

So who does this rubbish legislation benefit then if it isn't the artists?

It's all about Money, Control and Power exerted by the few on the many, at different levels and in different ways, to assist in consolidating, in the hands of the few, more Money, Control and Power.

Kind Regards, :yo:
Panopticon

[panopticon]

Well, now it's becoming much more obvious, and thankfully, gratefully, more are recognizing the mechanisms that are contributing to a narrowing, conformist, manipulative culture that contributes to an even more dysfunctional & disconnected civilization.
I am grateful for having found PA, for it is attracting a wealth of diversity and contributors from many perspectives


G'day 58andfixed,

Sorry for the tardy reply, been walk-abouts.

I agree with what you've said above and could not have expressed it better.
All these different perspectives and diverse opinions are a great benefit.
Might sound a bit punsey, but this has helped me understand, to some extent anyway, what is dogma and closed mindedness in my own perspective, which in turn has lead me down unexpected paths I may never have wandered.
The more contributing to this the better.

Kind Regards, :yo:
Panopticon

[Ilie Pandia]

If this will come to pass, and my guess is that they will push it until it does, we need to be prepared!

There are tools that encrypt traffic and make it impossible for you to be tracked online. One of such tools is Tor (https://www.torproject.org/). However Tor alone is not enough to protect you from ACTA. I won't go into tech details, but it is possible that if you are in the TOR network, you will get banned by your ISP.

The next step would be for every website to switch to "HTTPS" instead of plain old "HTTP". The final "S" stands for secure. It pus big stress on the server, so it's rarely used, but if they give us no choice we can completely "anonymize" the web traffic (HTTPS+TOR, or any other secure protocol over TOR will do).

I did not read the documentation yet, but is likely they will ban TOR and hard-to-crack-secure-protocols from being used by ISPs. Not sure how to fix that... Local (city/state) networks can be maintained by willing tech people, but access to Internet that goes through satellite may be banned (inter-continental access). My hope is that the attempt to contain the Internet will prove to be even more harmful to the Big Corp. (I suspect Google Ads would take a major hit with this ACTA thing).

The Internet is the closest to "true freedom" that we've ever came on this planet. To me, the Internet, is a natural step in our evolution as a society. And more and more free things on the Internet should be next step. Business models will evolve in such a way as to provide free services to humans. This is the "right direction". Just look at the Mozilla project (http://www.mozilla.org/about/mission.html) and all great Linux flavors that have evolved so much that even a "payed for programs" have a hard time keeping up! Even Google makes a ton of money by using a somewhat free service (to promote the paid ones).

So please, lets not allow this legislation to pass. This legislation is not about copyright! That's just a front! This is about policing and restricting the freedom that is Internet.

----------
PS: As a side note, please do not color your entire posts. See here (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?33653-Post-formatting-color-and-bold-fonts-and-viewing-themes&p=343934&viewfull=1#post343934) and here (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?33657-Font-colours-theme-backgrounds&p=343994&viewfull=1#post343994) why that is disruptive.

[panopticon]

G'day Ilie,

I agree with you that the internet can be viewed as a decentralised social grouping, which I am in favour of, however to say that it is 'a natural step in our evolution as a society' implies that it could be akin to a blue-print which I view it isn't. At best it is a means of showing that a decentralised model is able to work. I agree that Stallman's Free Software Movement (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free-software_movement) is exceptional and the rise of Open Source (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source_movement) is a business model to watch closely over the next decade.

I disagree with you regards ACTA and the legislation discussed not being about copyright, patents and intellectual property. From my perspective the control of power is undertaken via increasing centralised legislative control and agreements followed by (or concurrent with) limiting the means of protest. So in this respect I agree that it is not only about intellectual property rights.

Yes the control of the internet is an important area that these agreements we've been discussing in this thread are chiefly viewed to be aimed at however, the danger is not to the comfortable middle class internet user having limited access but in the increased rights of corporations to control.

I understand the impact social media sites such as twitter and facebook have in daily life and the impact they had in the "Arab Spring" and I am not trying to say that these agreements and legislations are not also aimed at this, rather that attention has been firmly focused on the internet/pirate and not on the tightening of the intellectual property rights associated with food and water. Remember what happened in Bolivia when water was privatised (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000_Cochabamba_protests). The Bolivian protests were about the privatisation of the municipal water supply by the government to a transnational corporations.

Again: It is about money, control and power.
If a TNC is able to monopolise, or through collusion fix pricing, it will!

I would again refer you to Haley Steins paper (http://www.law.northwestern.edu/journals/njtip/v3/n2/4/) and point out that ACTA states that its definition of IP comes from TRIPS. TRIPS is the agreement that defines and gives power to Intellectual Property Right holders (ie corporations) to take action against farmers who save seeds from their harvest where it is not covered by legislation.

Some of the ACTA in relation to TRIPS:

ARTICLE 1: RELATION TO OTHER AGREEMENTS
Nothing in this Agreement shall derogate from any obligation of a Party with respect to any other Party under existing agreements, including the TRIPS Agreement....

ARTICLE 2: NATURE AND SCOPE OF OBLIGATIONS
3. The objectives and principles set forth in Part I of the TRIPS Agreement, in particular in Articles 7 and 8, shall apply, mutatis mutandis, to this Agreement...

ARTICLE 5: GENERAL DEFINITIONS
(h) intellectual property refers to all categories of intellectual property that are the subject of Sections 1 through 7 of Part II of the TRIPS Agreement;
...
(o) TRIPS Agreement means the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, contained in Annex 1C to the WTO Agreement;


This covers all the seed IPR in TRIPS...

Yes, I agree with you that internet connectivity is important, I would just point out that limiting a discussion to only one area ignores the fact that no piece of legislation I have ever read does only one thing. Look at the track record of IP in the US (where this all starts from) and then try and tell me that this is all about pirated software and videos...

Here's a reasonable documentary called 'The Corporation (http://www.thecorporation.com/)' that many here may be familiar with that covers some of what I'm talking about.

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That having been said it's 4:30am so I'm of to bed.
Kind Regards, :yo:
Panopticon

[Ilie Pandia]

I disagree with you regards ACTA and the legislation discussed not being about copyright, patents and intellectual property.

Hello,

Most likely you have a better understanding and knowledge of the law than I do.

In a sense ACTA is about copyright and patents and intellectual property, but I believe it opens the door for abuse by those in power to limit our interactions on the Internet. This is why I think it's just a front for more fascist laws down the road. They need to get their "legal foot" in the door, so later on can totally control the Web.

[panopticon]

G'day Ilie,

We seem to agree that these forms of legislation/regulation and agreements are aimed at the consolidation of power.
I also agree with you that the ACTA will have an effect on the "freedom" of internet users.
How far this effect will go only time can tell.

What I have noticed, and what I was trying to get across in this thread, is that international agreements created over the last decade have increased restrictions by gradually increasing regulation and, much like the slowly boiling frog (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiling_frog), most people haven't noticed this happening and by the time they do it will all be over.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (http://www.dfat.gov.au/fta/tpp/index.html) and the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (http://www.dfat.gov.au/trade/acta/) are just recent examples of this.

Here's an interesting short video from the NZ Greens about what these agreements do:

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My greatest fear is that in 20 years time corporations will control every aspect of our lives (they pretty well do now) and that people like us will be openly referred to as "defective work units".

Kind Regards, :yo:
Panopticon