Metaday 31/Notes

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Metaday #31 Notes

ACTA

Since Spring 2008 the European Union, the United States, Japan, Canada, South Korea, Australia as well as a few other countries have been secretly negotiating a trade agreement aimed at enforcing copyright and tackling counterfeited goods (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement).

Background - history

  • EU is 21% of the worlds GDP (PPP) while the US is only 20%
  • WTO/TRIPs, World Trade Organization, established January 1st 1995, replaced GATT, Trade Related aspect of Intellectual Property rights agreement
  • Big Pharma is in trouble, ever expanding marketing and R&D costs, ever increasing approval costs, increasing duration of approval procedures
  • Big Content is in trouble, disintermediation, overabundance of material
  • Original UN institutions as WIPO, BRIC countries are fed up with maximalists, NGOs have gotten a seat at the table
  • 2008 country club, leaks, complete leak in March, after negotiations in New Zealand the EU publishes the first public draft.
  • The parliament: Resolution 10th March, voted overwhelmingly 633/13/16 - record of votes (search for "(ACTA) - RESOLUTION"): http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//NONSGML+PV+20100310+RES-RCV+DOC+PDF+V0//EN&language=EN
    "Parliament considers that the proposed agreement should not make it possible for any "three-strike" procedures to be imposed, in order to protect fundamental rights." http://www.europarl.europa.eu/oeil/FindByProcnum.do?lang=en&procnum=RSP/2010/2572

Main issues

  • ACTA benefits a few companies to the detriment of billions humans.
  • policy laundering avoiding any hint of democracy
    Schlyter (swedish green mep): industrial lobby 90% of the participants in stakeholder meetings, among others: Pfizer, Daimler, MS, Time Warner, Google, Yahoo, BSA, MPAA, Pharma, BR American Tobacco, BR Telecom, EFF, FFII, KEI.
    http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Facta.mpbloggar.se%2Fremissinstanserna%2F&sl=sv&tl=en&hl=&ie=UTF-9
  • criminal sanctions (IPRED 2) - the commissions negotiator devigne on going beyond the acquis vs the council
  • inclusion of non-commercial activities
  • border measures
  • freedom of speech, one MEP talked about suppressing access to radical political sites.
  • privacy (monitoring, seizure, deep packet inspection) - Peter Hustinx, EDPS on ACTA: "Intellectual property must be protected, but it should not be placed above individuals' right to privacy and protection." http://www.edps.europa.eu/EDPSWEB/webdav/site/mySite/shared/Documents/EDPS/PressNews/Press/2010/EDPS-2010-03_ACTA_EN.pd
  • 3rd party liability - Alexander Alvaro from Germany said that "third party liability for internet servers is like making the post office responsible for what is written on the letters it sends".
  • censorship (censilia/censursula, blocking)
  • access to medicines - Médecins sans frontières: "We are in danger of ending up with the worst of both worlds, pushing IP rules, which are very effective at stopping access to life-saving drugs but are very bad at stopping or preventing fake drugs."
  • other markets that are dominated by a few big: spare car parts after-market, perhaps even Thingiverse
  • The opposition to ACTA has support from EDRI, TACD, FFII, KEI, Reporters sans Frontieres, EuroISPA (business association of eu ISPs)

What can be done

  • Written declaration 12/2010 was initially signed by MEPs Roithová (EPP) / Castex and Lambrinidis (S&D) / Alvaro (ALDE). Signatories: http://www.laquadrature.net/wiki/Written_Declaration_12/2010_signatories_list - (A) 5/17
  • never allow similar undemocratic legislative process, since we have arrived in the Lisbon treaty the EP has co-decision powers, these are democratically elected, while the commision not. We need to help the MEPs to discover and protect their new powers. Demand to start from scratch, not accepting a draft that has been 2 years in secret preparation.
  • get India/Brazil/China/Russia to comment and act on ACTA (India commented last Tuesday, in an EP public hearing)
  • convince MEPs sign written declaration 12, generally educating them about ACTA, showing that lot's of people care.
  • community work: transcribing, cleaning, analyzing, translating, documents, leaks.
  • Telecomix (pads+irc+twitter+wikis+small tools)
  • LQDN (wiki+co-ment+pads+twitter)
  • http://euwiki.org, Pippi Longstrings (not public yet), http://itsyourparliament.eu, custom tools!
  • develop tools that circumvent any kind of control, become a ciphernaut today!
  • support! LQDN, Telecomix, EFF, FFII, EDRi, your MEPs, Wikileaks
  • make more videos like: cleanternet: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkmcupFx3FQ

Assorted links