New treaty promises invasive searches, minimal privacy, guilt until innocence is proven
This is what the EU is negotiating on our behalf.
Policy decided by technocrats in secret, away from scrutiny by national
parliaments.
This is what the europhiles are cheerleading for, though they don't even
realise it. Expect to see much more of this sort of thing in future
"According to once-secret, now-leaked sections of the new, plurilateral
Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, global Internet users and ISPs might be
in for a world of hurt in the near future.
A U.S.-drafted chapter on Internet use would require ISPs to police
user-generated content, to cut off Internet access for copyright violators,
and to remove content that is accused of copyright violation without any
proof of actual violation. The chapter also completely prohibits DRM
workarounds, even for archiving or retrieving one's own work.
The U.S. drafted this chapter under the strictest measures to ensure
secrecy. Only 42 specific persons - such as representatives of Google,
Intel, Verizon, Time Warner, Sony, News Corp, eBay, the MPAA, and the RIAA -
were given access to the document under nondisclosure agreements: a
corporate cabal hand-selected to help review the text of the final
agreement. The politicians involved in creating the document are also
heavily funded by entertainment, media, and IP corporations such as Sony,
Time Warner, News Corp, and Disney.
As with other sections of the treaty, portions of this element have been
leaked online. As it stands, the leaks suggest Internet users around the
world are headed for a new regime of IP enforcement - a culture of invasive
searches, minimal privacy, guilt until innocence is proven, and measures
that would kill our normative behaviors of file-sharing, free software,
media downloading, creative remixing, and even certain civil liberties."
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/copyright_treaty_leaked_trouble_for_isps_and_in.php
date: Wed, 4 Nov 2009 09:12:39 -0000
author: DVH
|