The US-EU Working Group on IPR Enforcement is holding a meeting in Washington today and Canada has apparently been a regular topic of discussion. Judit Rius Sanjuan of KEI is twittering from the event, but the one report that was most troubling was from Meredith Fllak. She indicated that the Entertainment Software Association suggested using the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement as a new method to force Canada to implement DMCA-style legislation.
Entertainment Software Association Suggests Using ACTA To Force Canadian DMCA
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It’s not like we didn’t see this coming. The whole Canadian copyright negotiations mean absolutely nothing in the end.
Even if we get Canadian copyright that is balanced and takes the public into account, ACTA will just end up later pushing in the draconian legislation the industry is begging for anyways, without any balance.
This includes anti-circumvention, full ISP liability for customer actions, obtaining ISP subscriber information without a warrant (open the floodgates on RIAA type lawsuits), etc. Its the exact same things the industry wants in the new Canadian law, except with ACTA they have a much better chance at making it happen as its entirely industry driven and private.
Then the solution is clear
Don’t sign ACTA unless there’s provisions to prevent this sort of outcome.
Ever.
Yes, because the DMCA has been such a success in the US. Well, a success for the lawyers.
…
On the positive side, this shows just how bad the DMCA is, in that they have to resort to legal trickery to get it passed. If it was so good, they wouldn’t have to do this.
Music
I have been buying records, tapes and CD’s for the last 45 years. When MP3 came around, I transformed most of my records and tapes in that format because it took a lot less space on my computer, and then I dumped my originals. Why, because I found the sound of MP3’s good enough. Then came the internet with songs that I did not have to transform anymore. Evolution is part of life for most of us, but not for the American Music industries, who pretend to serve the artists but are really serving themselves. Greed, that is their moto. All they will achieve, is to alienate their own customers and loose them for ever.
Opposition bill can kill ACTA
The opposition can legally force the government to either not sign or retract ACTA as long as Harper remains minority.
It shouldn’t be that hard, I mean the last DMCA was opposed by the ISPs, the majority of the business lobby, various legal advocacy groups and the privacy comissioner. That’s a lot of lobbyists.