News

The ACTA Leak

I've received a huge number of emails referencing the leak of a document that outlines possible provisions in the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement.  The leaked document has been circulating around for some time and it is not clear who is the original source (ie. government or trade group).  Regardless, it reinforces the concerns that the ACTA is being negotiated behind closed doors with absolutely no transparency.  The Canadian government's participation demonstrates again that Industry Minister Jim Prentice is not a leader on IP – he takes orders rather than gives them.  Some of my past postings on ACTA can be found here, here, here, and here.  CIPPIC had a great ACTA submission to DFAIT and IP Justice maintains an excellent collection of links as well.

Update: The ACTA story gets front page coverage in the Ottawa Citizen along with stories throughout the Canwest chain.

Update II: The Globe and Mail provides further coverage of the issue with Prentice declining any comment. 

20 Comments

  1. multi-lateral trade agreement
    see also this from wikileaks: [ link ])

  2. try this LINK
    [ link ])

  3. SORRY
    The link won’t paste properly for me – You need to add a RIGHT bracket – ) – to the end of the URL.

  4. Bytowner says:

    ACTA in the Citizen!
    Check the bottom of the fold of the front page of today’s edition. The leak’s gotten much bigger play as of this morning.

    MUCH bigger.

  5. Or perhaps …
    .. it isn’t so much a matter of whether Prentice takes orders as your support for counterfeiters. Well, who could blame you? It’s so much cheaper to buy fakes. Save a buck, right, prof?

  6. Bytowner says:

    Framing the Argument to Keep the Truth U
    A time-honoured tactic of the people planning this deal, isn’t it?

  7. Bytowner says:

    A Correction and Apology
    The title was supposed to be “Framing the Argument to Keep the Truth Unspoken”.

  8. Brian The Lord says:

    With the ACTA, We are all Felons
    With this bill we are all felons, maybe possibly offenders of this law.

    Here are my long list of reasons:

    (1)Biltmore says no photography, and outside is personal only, so grabing/sharing pictures of the outside, or sharng/downloading sneaked inside pictures of Biltmore Estate would be a criminal offense, many people sneaked shots so they would be targeted.

    (2)A Majority of photographers take shots without asking permission with every shot, that makes us all criminals.

    (3)People cheat uncle sam and the greedy Oil Companies by modifiying their engines to run on water and gas, this bill makes this practice as criminal as drug dealing because the companies bought all the patents to save loads of money on fuel costs so we are.. Forced to suffer on high fuel costs.

    (4)P2P Would cease to exist with this bill, especially with all the allogations about child porn and p2p, terrorists using p2p, and using lies like p2p hurts jobs, NO! many corporations are cutting jobs to save money, not because of sharing, they are greedy and evil.

    (5)Many have snuck pictures of dixie stampede, and with this bill, that makes us criminals because they didn\’t authorize taking pictures, yet they don\’t enforce those rules, but if they did a crackdown, thousands of innocent people would be tried as criminals for photographing Dixie\’s stampede.

    (6)My grandparents take a bunch of graphics and pictures to share on their sites to make it look pretty, this bill would make my own grandmother a crook, a convict, a whooscow.

    (7)Many sing the birthday song, even if it is copyrighted, many just say it without worrying about the police, this bill will criminalize people who spread happy birthday wishes, all and all it would criminalize all Americans who like to legally record, copy, stay anonymous for illegal But Moral reasons such as hating the Bush Administration for killing millions of innocent people, in a war he started.

    (8)It would go against the U.S Constitution, the fundamental principles of America and it\’s government.

    If there is a good reason not to have privacy, he shouldn\’t be doing spying behind the peoples and voters back.

    So this trade agreement is ILLEGAL, against many governments constitutionalities that swear we will have privacy unless we are found guilty.

    So this bill is also IMMORAL, and it is against democracy.

    and theres bunch of other stupid reasons this bill will turn us all into criminals

    So My name now is copycriminal Brian, your name must be copycriminal whoever you are cause \”if we all don\’t fight this bill, WE ARE ALL CRIMINALS :O :\'( :X\”

  9. ACTA Leak
    I was wondering if this was all part of the same pile of WIPO poo that Prentice doesn’t want to table for debate in parliament.

    Torrent Freak has a good post on it too:

    [ link ]

    Cheers.

  10. Jean Naimard says:

    This is self-defeating
    With such a law, everyone becomes a criminal.

    When everyone is a criminal, no one is.

  11. Jean Naimard says:

    This is self-defeating
    With such a law, everyone becomes a criminal.

    When everyone is a criminal, no one is.

  12. HAIL PRENTICE says:

    BE IN OTTAWA MAY 27th
    Hrm, i must say i am not surprised that the little pion prentice must follow his lords calling.

    ALL HAIL HOLLYWOOD.
    Stand up and be the facists you can be.

  13. A Police State? Seriously?
    So it’s industries response to throw up a “police state” to prove to the rest of the world that they won’t change business models, no matter how much creators and artists would heart from such a proposal. When are these industries going to start to sell in the new business models, and look towards opportunities that have arisen from these new business models. This trade agreement seems way to excessive to be considered. The fact that this is being done in behind closed doors, needs to be questioned. Our leaders need to be questioned on this big time!

    If were to implement a policy like this, and give control to the state, shouldn’t the public be asking if it’s really needed, and examine very carefully the argument presented to in act such a policy. Shouldn’t we as a country in act a policy to force the “remaining” few who refuse to change with the times into this new market place, rather than have to put up with such proposals like this agreement that threaten the very freedoms civil society enjoys.

    I think it’s time I pick up a guitar and start playing. I want to rule the world one day!

  14. Jeremy K
    The leaked document, obviously, may differ from any final version. Let\’s hope it does, because the leaked version could make anyone carrying an mp3 on their laptop when they travel across a border subject to fine.

    So, that\’s the end of travelling with a computer, I guess? Who would want to take the risk of going anywhere with a PC in tow if some border guard somewhere can demand access to your private digital life and then fine you arbitrarily. Hey, what about photocopies. I guess I won\’t be travelling quite the same way for business purposes anymore, if this utterly insane-sounding regulation gets shoved down our throats.

    Is it likely that this would stand up to a court challenge in Canada, though? Surely these rules would constitute unreasonable violation of expectations of privacy, absence of reasonable grounds for search, and many other provisions. Wouldn\’t they?

    Yikes… it does sound like a police state is shaping up. And we can\’t even comment effectively on the regulation because our government refuses to tell us anything. Who is answerable to whom, here, anyway?

    -JTK

  15. Canada Gov't says:

    Rights
    Welcome to Canada,
    please leave your freedom and rights at the door.

  16. Fait a-coup-lit ?
    I have utter confidence in the current government to fight to give Canadians all the rights that the US and powerful corporate interests deem appropriate.

  17. Letters
    Time to write letters and make phone call to our deputies.

  18. Promateus says:

    Since we’re all felons now, perhaps we
    Un tutoriel intéressant et simple pour protéger les laptops et autres des “fedwares”

    An interesting tutorial, quite simple, that shows how to protect effectively laptops and other devices from “fedwares”

    [ link ]

  19. knobs
    This is really making Prentice look like (more of) a knob. I wonder if he’ll stand for it much longer.

  20. Promateus – Thanks but…
    it won’t necessarily help. My guess is, if they can’t access anything, they’ll just find a reason to keep your pc for as long as they can. Best path is to nip this in the bud now. By the way – as an American, I’m not surprised that my government is trying this. What is surprising is that Canada and Europe are going along with this. You guys are supposed to be the firewall until we can change administrations.