[GPSCC-chat] ACTA = International treaty worse than SOPA?

Tue Jan 31 15:35:54 PST 2012

Spencer,

Thanks for sending this around.  I have a plan with Pre-Paid Legal (I think they changed their name to legal shield or something since I signed up).  Anyway, for a measely $37 per month, I do have a lawyer on tap to answer my personal and small business related questions about ACTA.  I've already submitted two questions: 1)Does ACTA change copyright law to allow for copyrighting of information (currently the only way information as opposed to the exact form of prose is copyrighted is through terms of use contracts on individual web sites or other specific licensing agreements) and 2) Does ACTA usher in a police state online to enforce the new regime.  I will know the answers to those basic questions shortly.  If anyone wants to ask me a question about ACTA I can ask it of my lawyer if I have standing (if it would also affect me) under my plan. I have 6 more pages left on my 10 page limit for the topic I'm currently on with my lawyer, so keep the
 questions short. Of course, I can not represent that my questions and answers will be translated accurately, so this is not a solicitation to provide legal advice.  For that you would have to pay the $37 per month yourself.  Thanks.

Sincerely,

John Thielking

From: Spencer Graves <spencer.graves at prodsyse.com>
To: GPSCC <sosfbay-discuss at cagreens.org> 
Sent: Tuesday, January 31, 2012 11:40 AM
Subject: [GPSCC-chat] ACTA = International treaty worse than SOPA?

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/?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 pmSubject: ACTA: The new threat to the net 
>Dear friends, 
> 
>
>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:  
> 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/?vlIt'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/?vlLast 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 ACTAhttp://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 Freedomhttp://www.ibtimes.com/articles/286925/20120124/acta-sopa-reasons-scarier-threat-internet-freedom.htm?cid=2 What's Wrong With ACTAhttp://www.edri.org/edrigram/number10.1/whats-wrong-with-ACTA The secret treaty: Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) and Its Impact on Access to Medicineshttp://www.msfaccess.org/content/secret-treaty-anti-counterfeiting-trade-agreement-acta-and-its-impact-access-medicines  
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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 _______________________________________________sosfbay-discuss mailing listsosfbay-discuss at cagreens.orghttp://lists.cagreens.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/sosfbay-discuss
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