[GPSCC-chat] ACTA = International treaty worse than SOPA?
Spencer Graves
spencer.graves at prodsyse.com
Tue Jan 31 11:40:48 PST 2012
Hello, All:
If you have a few minutes to spare, I encourage you to sign two
online petitions to try to stop yet another power grab by the 1%: The
"Anti-Counterfitting Trade Agreement (ACTA)" is reportedly worse than
the Stop On-line Piracy Act (SOPA) in may ways. The following two
online petitions are trying to stop this in the European Parliament,
which may be its last stop before becoming law having already been
signed by the US (with the standard news blackout we can expect on
anything that might affect the power of the major commercial media):
* https://www.accessnow.org/page/s/just-say-no-to-acta
(John Thielking asked us to sign this one on Jan. 25.)
* http://www.avaaz.org/en/stop_acta/?vl
<http://www.avaaz.org/en/stop_acta/?cl=1547510096&v=12300>
For those who would like more information, I recommend the
Wikipedia article on it
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Counterfeiting_Trade_Agreement) and
the articles mentioned below. The following summarizes the biggest
problems I've heard reported:
1. It includes a special ACTA Committee empowered to amend
the agreement without public or judicial review. Thus, any safeguards
that might be part of the current agreement could be easily removed.
2. It empowers governments to take down Internet Service
Providers (ISPs), not just web sites, it doesn't like. I don't know
what recourse a targeted web site or ISP might have to the courts, but
any they might have now could be removed by the ACTA Committee.
3. Security forces at airports and border crossings are
authorized to search your cell phone, MP3 player or computer for pirate
copies of anything and confiscate or destroy it if they find something
they don't like. (No search warrant required.)
4. ACTA was negotiated in secret and signed by the US and
several other countries. The Bush and Obama administrations
successfully quashed Freedom of Information Act requests on the grounds
that disclosure would cause "damage to the national security."
The two petitions above are mercifully short. I read and signed
both in less than a minute.
Thanks,
Spencer
On 1/31/2012 2:19 AM, mkmusic03 at aol.com wrote:
> Hi Spencer.
> Do you know about ACTA? The horrible twin to SOPA.
> Merriam
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Dalia Hashad - Avaaz.org <avaaz at avaaz.org>
> To: mkmusic03 <mkmusic03 at aol.com>
> Sent: Mon, Jan 30, 2012 5:59 pm
> Subject: ACTA: The new threat to the net
>
> Dear friends,
>
> <http://www.avaaz.org/en/stop_acta/?cl=1547510096&v=12300>
>
> *A new global treaty could allow corporations to police everything
> that we do on the Internet.* Last week 3 million of us successfully
> pushed back the US censorship bills -- *if we act now, we can get the
> EU Parliament to bury this new threat* to all of us:
>
> Click here to sign the petition
> <http://www.avaaz.org/en/stop_acta/?cl=1547510096&v=12300>
>
> Last week, 3 million of us beat back America's attack on our Internet!
> -- but there is an even bigger threat out there, and our global
> movement for freedom online is perfectly poised to kill it for good.
>
> *ACTA -- a global treaty -- could allow corporations to censor the
> Internet.* Negotiated in secret by a small number of rich countries
> and corporate powers, it would set up a shadowy new
> anti-counterfeiting body to allow private interests to police
> everything that we do online and impose massive penalties -- even
> prison sentences -- against people they say have harmed their business.
>
> *Europe is deciding right now whether to sign ACTA -- and without
> them, this global attack on Internet freedom will collapse.* We know
> they have opposed ACTA before, but some members of Parliament are
> wavering -- *let's give them the push they need to reject the
> treaty.* Sign the petition -- we'll do a spectacular delivery in
> Brussels when we reach 500,000 signatures:
>
> http://www.avaaz.org/en/stop_acta/?vl
> <http://www.avaaz.org/en/stop_acta/?cl=1547510096&v=12300>
>
> It's outrageous -- governments of four-fifths of the world’s people
> were excluded from the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement
> (ACTA) negotiations and *unelected bureaucrats have worked closely
> with corporate lobbyists to craft new rules and a dangerously powerful
> enforcement regime.* ACTA would initially cover the US, EU and 9 other
> countries, then be rolled out across the world. But if we can get the
> EU to say no now, the treaty will lose momentum and could stall for good.
>
> The oppressively strict regulations could mean people everywhere are
> punished for simple acts such as sharing a newspaper article or
> uploading a video of a party where copyrighted music is played. Sold
> as a trade agreement to protect copyrights, *ACTA could also ban
> lifesaving generic drugs and threaten local farmers' access to the
> seeds they need.* And, amazingly, the ACTA committee will have carte
> blanche to change its own rules and sanctions with no democratic scrutiny.
>
> *Big corporate interests are pushing hard for this, but the EU
> Parliament stands in the way.* Let's send a loud call to
> Parliamentarians to face down the lobbies and stand firm for Internet
> freedom. Sign now and send to everyone you know:
>
> http://www.avaaz.org/en/stop_acta/?vl
> <http://www.avaaz.org/en/stop_acta/?cl=1547510096&v=12300>
>
> Last week, we saw the strength of our collective power when millions
> of us joined forces to stop the US from passing an Internet censorship
> law that would have struck at the heart of the Internet. We also
> showed the world how powerful our voices can be. Let's raise them
> again to tackle this new threat.
>
> With hope and determination,
>
> Dalia, Alice, Pascal, Emma, Ricken, Maria Paz and the rest of the
> Avaaz team
>
> More information:
>
> If You Thought SOPA Was Bad, Just Wait Until You Meet ACTA
> http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2012/01/23/if-you-thought-sopa-was-bad-just-wait-until-you-meet-acta/
>
>
> ACTA vs. SOPA: Five Reasons ACTA is Scarier Threat to Internet Freedom
> http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/286925/20120124/acta-sopa-reasons-scarier-threat-internet-freedom.htm?cid=2
>
>
> What's Wrong With ACTA
> http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number10.1/whats-wrong-with-ACTA
>
> The secret treaty: Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) and Its
> Impact on Access to Medicines
> http://www.msfaccess.org/content/secret-treaty-anti-counterfeiting-trade-agreement-acta-and-its-impact-access-medicines
>
>
>
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>
>
>
>
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--
Spencer Graves, PE, PhD
President and Chief Technology Officer
Structure Inspection and Monitoring, Inc.
751 Emerson Ct.
San José, CA 95126
ph: 408-655-4567
web:www.structuremonitoring.com
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