Wikileaks publishes anti-counterfeiting treaty doc that tries to extend US copyright law around the world

Wendy sez, "Wikileaks has a document apparently leaked from drafting negotiations around the proposed "Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement." The discussion paper has the stated objective to 'Establish, among nations committed to strong IPR protection, a common standard for IPR enforcement to combat global infringements of IPR particularly in the context of counterfeiting and piracy that addresses today's challenges, in terms of increasing international cooperation, strengthening the framework of practices that contribute to effective enforcement of IPRs, and strengthening relevant IPR enforcement measures themselves.' Of course the proposed 'cooperation' would once again extend the worst of US IP law and beyond -- DMCA anticircumvention and ISP takedown, criminal penalties for non-commercial copying, enforcement with minimal process -- onto partners such as developing countries for whom these enclosure regimes are even less appropriate. " Link, See also (Thanks, Wendy!)

[#1 posted by gadfly , May 23, 2008 7:58 AM]

Very scary and very unsurprising that "piracy" is in there.

[#2 posted by BrerMatt , May 23, 2008 8:17 AM]

Finally! Something for Team America: World Police to combat now that they eliminated terrorism.

[#3 posted by clrcdd , May 23, 2008 8:30 AM]

true. very scary but imagine what will happen if those corporations, pushing treaties like this wind up in the legal system worldwide.

[#4 posted by madjo , May 23, 2008 8:30 AM]

Wikileaks gets another donation from me.
Big media is still screwing with us and our rights, and I'm tired of it! For the past years I haven't bought an big label CD/DVD, nor an big label digital download, nor will I now ever buy one.
I am not missing a thing, and I don't want to invest any of my money into that bottomless cesspit.

[#5 posted by Mister Staal , May 23, 2008 9:31 AM]

I understand the need to protect intellectual property, but what I don't like is how commercial products can hold a place in the market simply because they were the first implementation of a technology, rather than the best.

[#6 posted by Wubby , May 23, 2008 10:59 AM]

They should really update their SSL cert. It expired a week ago. Not inspiring confidence, which is bad, because Wikileaks is an amazing site.

[#7 posted by Oren Beck , May 23, 2008 12:42 PM]

#5

We all *SHOULD* agree that a creator of intellectual property holds the original assignable copyright to their otherwise unencumbered work. Works for hire as an example of encumbered content. Also so considered as having some copyright entanglements would be cases of existing precedent covered works- GPL, CC Derivatives, Fair Usage and their equals of concept.
No sane person dares promote denying copyright as an invalid concept so to speak. The sad truth is two extremist opposing end points are at war. One claims the position of all copyright inherently being vested in an Oligarchy based association. The other extreme is an anarchic denial of consistent property rights being a fact.

Which ends up as a destructive battle with no winners and all losers. I can understand both viewpoints as having seductive power to incite.
When what gets incited is flagrant disrespect for the rules of law and simple justice this situation needs to change. The element of change needs to be social more than technical or legal.

IF we all decide to honor property rights and simple fair recompense where applicable it's the first step to sanity. Call it a modest proposal to be honorable!

MY "modest proposal" centers on us all as individuals. It's going to need our collective respect for creators of information. And the creation of a culture where DRM etc is pointless.
The devil lies as always in the details

[#8 posted by Random Royalty , May 23, 2008 1:37 PM]

I wonder if the recent push for DMCA style copyright reform in Canada (about to be reintroduced by the Hon. Jim Prentice) is related to this.

[#9 posted by noen , May 23, 2008 4:19 PM]

Also

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. The proposal also bans "anti-circumvention" measures which may affect online anonymity systems and would likely outlaw multi-region CD/DVD players.

So it won't effect just copyrights. It will eliminate "online anonymity systems". Does that include Tor? Does this represent a response to "Little Brother" or at least nullify some techniques used in the book?

[#10 posted by Anonymous , May 23, 2008 8:50 PM]

The obvious response is cease purchase of all paid media content. When the media vendors are gone the political grease will also be gone. We can then get back marketing content in a reasonable manner, without paid political influence.

[#11 posted by Robbo , May 24, 2008 8:18 PM]

Is that document the same one (or part of the same pile of WIPO poo) that Industry Minister Jim Prentice doesn't want to table in the Canadian parliament?

http://torrentfreak.com/proposed-treaty-turns-internet-into-a-virtual-police-state-080524/