Full Canadian ACTA details online
p2pnet news view Freedom | P2P:- Full details of the infamous ACTA document are now online, reports Michael Geist.
Called the Canadian ACTA Consultation Report, it’s published by scribd and was obtained through the ATIP (Access to Information and Privacy) Act.
“In an earlier post, I noted that the Department of Foreign Affairs will be holding a consultation meeting on ACTA next week,” says Geist.
“DFAIT first consulted on ACTA in the spring of 2008.
“While I discussed some of the findings based on documents obtained under the Access to Information Act, I did not previously have access to the entire draft report.”
But he does now.
Wealthiest countries
Last May early details of the proposed US ACTA multi-lateral intellectual property trade agreement (2007), with the notorious Hollywood Howard Berman up front, was hosted by Wikileaks, which among other things stated
In 2007 a select handful of the wealthiest countries began a treaty-making process to create a new global standard for intellectual property rights enforcement, the “Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement”. The agreement does not cover currency fraud.
ACTA is spearheaded by the United States, the European Commission, Japan, and Switzerland – those countries with the largest intellectual property industries. Other countries invited to participate in ACTA’s negotiation process are Canada, Australia, Korea, Mexico and New Zealand. Noticeably absent from ACTA’s negotiations are leaders from developing countries who hold national policy priorities that differ from the international intellectual property industry.
A “Discussion Paper on a Possible Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement” was reportedly provided to select lobbyists in the intellectual property industry, but not to public interest organizations concerned with the subject matter of the proposed treaty.
Wikileaks has obtained the document.
The agreement covers the copying of information or ideas in a wide variety of contexts. For example page three, paragraph one is a “Pirate Bay killer” clause designed to criminalize the non-profit facilitation of unauthorized information exchange on the internet, which would also negatively affect transparency sites such as Wikileaks.
The document reveals a proposal for a multi-lateral trade agreement of strict enforcement of intellectual property rights related to Internet activity and trade in information-based goods. If adopted, a treaty of this form would impose a strong, top-down enforcement regime, with new cooperation requirements upon internet service providers, including perfunctionary disclosure of customer information and a ban on anti-circumvention measures.
“If Hollywood could order intellectual property laws for Christmas, what would they look like? This is pretty close,” said David Fewer (right), acting director of the University of Ottawa’s Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic.
Definitely stay tuned.
Michael Geist – Canadian ACTA Consultation Report Revealed, April 3, 2009
hosted by Wikileaks – Wikileaks runs ACTA proposal, May 24, 2008
Net access blocked by government restrictions? Use Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto. Go here for details.
restrictions? Use Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto. Go here for details.
April 3rd, 2009 at 12:26 pm
Optical Disc “piracy”
“request that no distinction be made between penalties for commercial and non-commercial infringement”
UHM Fail! Are they out of their minds?
April 3rd, 2009 at 4:46 pm
Just what I thought. But then again, I’m sure that was their intention. By that statement alone, a large portion of the population would be criminalised.
Governments don’t care though, for we only have to look to marijuana to see that even when 60% or more of the population has either tried or uses on it a regular basis, they still refuse to accept the implicit assent of the majority. While simultaneously sanctioning the highly addictive and carcinogenic tobacco. This is the hypocrisy of government.
They choose to work for the interests of the few against the good of the many. A classic case of greed and corruption which can only be eradicated by the reformation of democracy as we know it.
April 5th, 2009 at 5:15 am
If you think this is a bad idea, PASS IT ON. Especially, if you know the email address of a news organization….