This Sucks! Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) puts Onus on ISP's

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Update:

Now with an In-Blog player I hacked from CBC, loaded with a CBC's "As it Happens" interview with Dr. Geist from Friday November 6, 2009!

Also the full text and of the leaked ACTA copyright agreement overview discussed below. In my Tweet Universe Michael Geists' Tweet was the first I'd heard of the actual document.

If you want to do some reading before downloading the 'secret' document go toDr. Micheal Geists' Web Site, he posted an article about it as well as the document itself.

Or you can just download it onto your computer, so you can - ironically - spread it around the planet peer to peer.

Michael Geist on ACTA, CBC's As it Happens November 6, 2009.



Hmm, the I link posted put up by user "andersholmstrom" goes no-where now (11/07/09). So I've embedded "As it Happens" - Friday November 6, 2009 from CastRoller. The Dr. Michael Geist interview is 1/2 way through. Enjoy.

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My previous post, Copyright Laws are Endangering the Imperial Project (and Good Entertainment), was intended to be informative, ironical and funny - but BoingBoing has just gotten a hold of leaked info detailing the United States' position on copyright infrigement on the www - and it takes all the 'funny' right out of my heart.

The summary from BoingBoing: "That ISPs have to proactively police copyright on user-contributed material."

That means companies like Rogers and Bell or Quebecor here in Canada, those who provide your connection to the internet through a co-axial or satellite connection are liable if they don't cause to be taken down, copyright material uploaded by users of sites like Youtube; as in the example in my previous post here. The producers or owners of said content will be able to sue Rogers et-al. for not acting.

I don't know the situation very well in the USA, but here in Canada Rogers Has been forcing Youtube to remove content for several years now. Legislation much the same as it looks like is coming in the United States has already been passed here. We're leading backwards, our backward-marching federal government is following an old, 'vested' corporate agenda on these issues.

A good example of this is a Youtube user - 'Morality Virtue' - who was in the process of uploading Star Trek TNG episodes - a show he obviously loved - when he began receiving threatening emails from his Internet Service Provider (ISP).

He posted a Vlog on the site about the situation he found himself in. He and his family received emails (he's 19 and lives at home) threatening to cut off their service and other legal action. He said on the Vlog that he was planning to go to university and eventually get a job in government - and he didn't want this hobby to destroy his chances accomplishing the dream. So, even though he didn't think it was fair that Rogers should be coming after him - and not all those out there pirating for profit - he would aquiese and stop uploading.

Youtube has since taken down everything but the trailers he had posted for each episode; it's really a sad story.

Links:

Michael Geist is Canada Research Chair of Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa, Canada. His has a great site that covers internet copyright and net-neutrality issues.



mh