Everything you want to know about the scary, secret copyright treaty

Here's a 20-minute, must-see lecture on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement -- the secret copyright treaty currently being negotiated, which stands to fatally wound all user-generated content sites from mailing lists to YouTube; which stands to criminalize kids for noncommercial file-sharing; which stands to put your internet connection in jeopardy if anyone in your house is accused of infringement, and much, much more.

The ACTA Threat: My Talk on Everything You Need To Know About ACTA, But Didn't Know To Ask

Previously:

Leave a comment

Anonymous

Email Address

Remember personal info?

Speech is free, but Boing Boing is moderated. Comments may be deleted or disemvoweled. Anonymous comments are not automatically published. Please don't make racist, sexist or homophobic remarks or use associated offensive terms. Please don't talk politics in unrelated threads. Please don't cuss or harass other commenters. Please don't post signatures, spam, astroturf or copypasta. Link to your website only on your profile page. Wheedling accomplishes nothing. Stay on topic. Read the full moderation policy. Thank you!

To the anonymous gay teen who asked for help in a Boing Boing comment thread

[PHOTO: "Jessie," a CC-licensed image by LeTiger.] A few weeks ago, I blogged a funny video created by a Canadian high-school student titled "Hiding Your Sexual Orientation From Your Parents 101." One of the many people who commented on that post was an anonymous commenter who wrote: Ok, my pa... More.

Woman accidentally buys wrapping paper covered with swastikas

A woman in Florida bought a bunch of wrapping paper for Christmas at a dollar store and when she brought it home, she noticed that one of the rolls had swastikas on it. The manager of the store said the paper was made in China and he didn't know about the swastikas. Woman discovers swastika... More.

Y2K ten years later

Farhad Manjoo writes in to tell us about his Slate series looking back on Y2K, ten years later, "In the first part, which is up now, I look into how Y2K changed the tech industry, and whether it was all a waste. In the second I look at the unacknowledged success of Y2K--it was one of the only times... More.

The Edge Case: Indies Rally To Raise Copyfight Awareness

The story of Tim Langdell's relentless and darkly fascinating trademark fight against any and all users of the name 'Edge' has been quietly storming under the surface for the better part of this year. In a nutshell: Langdell's Edge Games, a UK-based publisher in the earliest days of home computer ... More.

9 Comments

| Leave a comment

Anonymous | #1 | 10:03 on Thu, Nov.12 | Reply

Nothing to do but keep raising awareness and watch.

Anonymous | #2 | 10:05 on Thu, Nov.12 | Reply

border guards responsible for scanning laptops and ipods for copyright violations? awesome

the_headless_rabbit | #3 | 11:31 on Thu, Nov.12 | Reply

Michael Geist re-tweated a post by @jamie_love earlier today. I think it sums up the situation nicely:

Population of countries negotiating ACTA: 1,178,504,491.
Members of public with access to text: 42

what can the 1.1 billion who do not want this do to stop those 42 who do?

Anonymous | #4 | 13:58 on Thu, Nov.12 | Reply

Thank you for trying to stay on top of this and keeping the rest of us informed.

Anonymous | #5 | 15:28 on Thu, Nov.12 | Reply

This looks very bad. Thank you for posting a concise informative lecture on ACTA Cory.

jerwin | #6 | 16:21 on Thu, Nov.12 | Reply

I don't think he explains "De minimus" very well.

MasterSauce | #7 | 17:08 on Thu, Nov.12 | Reply

Oh man. What a steaming pile of poo.
Glad my vote for "Transparency in Government" wasn't wasted or useless. Maybe the White House's angle is that this isn't government, this is higher than government. IP and copyright are more important than an informed public.

Honest question: How can they flip this into a question of National Security? In what way exactly?

I think we need Ms. Maddow to fly in and pick this topic up on her show.

Anonymous | #8 | 20:26 on Thu, Nov.12 | Reply

A possible answer to how national security can be invoked: perhaps because it's really corporate security. Just as with investment banks, the corporate interests pushing this stuff have thoroughly infiltrated the government.

Andrew Katz | #9 | 03:16 on Fri, Nov.13 | Reply

@the_headless_rabbit

Bill Patry is one of the 42 (senior copyright counsel for Google). If he's consistent with the thesis he sets out in his recent book (Moral Panics and the Copyright Wars, reviewed hereabouts) then he should be a force for good. I'm assuming he will be - even if his personal views aren't 100% aligned with his employers, they must be reasonably close, at least in the context of these negotiations.