[Air-L] La Quadrature du Net - ACTA

[Richard Forno]

The ACTA "treaty" "negotiations" are quite the interesting thing to  
read about -- or, what real information you can get about it from  
leaks, that is. It almost seems to intentionally exclude public  
comment or participation in these discussions and only allow a token  
number of likely opponents into their meetings, but only after signing  
nondisclosure agreements. Here in the US last year, the USTR invoked  
"national security" as reason to withold their meeting notes and the  
ACTA documents from public view.  Ummm....excuse me?

Unfortunately while I hate putting on a conspiracy-theory hat, when it  
comes to the influence of the IP industry and the Net, I must presume  
there's ulterior motives -- but that's for another debate/discussion  
in and of itself.
IMHO these matters generally emphasize measures to preserve fading  
business models and organisational legitimacy in the era of the  
Internet and technological innovation and indepdendence.  Many IP  
industries (movies and music in particular) are built upon Industrial  
Age business models and ended up being dragged kicking and screaming  
into the Information/Internet Age --- and now are trying to ensure  
their legitimacy and relevance in this new and undiscovered country.

As for ACTA, I am more than a bit puzzled/worried at the amount of  
secrecy being placed on the activities and documents regarding this  
commercial "treaty" -- that to me is quite suspicious and, absent any  
hard evidence to the contrary, only further slides my perception of  
ACTA into the "conspiracy theory" camp and leads me to believe that if  
passed, it's more than likely that the citizen/netizen will be the one  
who suffers as a result.

Just my own off-the-cuff response here.  Morning coffee is brewing...

-rf


On Jan 25, 2010, at 06:02 , Mathieu ONeil wrote:

> 	<!-- 		@page { margin: 2cm } 		P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm } 	--> 	  
> Thought some people might be interested in this.
>
> cheers
> m
>
> ====
>
> La Quadrature du Net - For immediate release
>
> Permanent link:
> http://www.laquadrature.net/en/acta-attacks-internet-lets-attack-acta
>
>
>
> ACTA Attacks Internet! Let's Attack ACTA!
>
>
> *** Paris, Jan 25th 2009 - Negotiations on the Anti-Counterfeiting  
> Trade
> Agreement (ACTA) [1] will take place from January 26th to January 29th
> in Mexico. ACTA aims at controlling the Internet, while conveniently
> circumventing democratic processes. Unelected negotiators - carrying  
> out
> the orders of the entertainment industries - are attacking the very
> essence of the Internet. Let's attack ACTA! Let's expose its  
> negotiators
> so they face their responsibilities! ***
>
> - From Jan 26th to Jan 29th, representatives of a handful of countries
> (including the EU represented by the Commission) will meet in Mexico  
> to
> decide the future of the Internet and other issues such as access to
> medicine. With no supervision from international organizations and no
> democratic oversight, conditions are ideal for entertainment lobbies  
> to
> dictate their dream: enforcing a fundamentally unadapted copyright
> regime in order to control the Internet and access to knowledge. More
> than 80 NGOs from all over the world (including Consumers  
> International,
> Reporters without Borders, the Free Software Foundation and the
> Electronic Frontier Foundation) already signed an open letter strongly
> opposing ACTA [2].
>
> The last leaked analysis of the European Commission [3] unmasks the
> global intent of the text: imposing extra-judicial "voluntary"
> agreements between Internet service providers and rights holders to
> combat copyright infringements through "three strikes" schemes or
> automated content filtering or removal. To force Internet operators  
> into
> accepting such access restrictions, ACTA will make them liable for the
> copyright infringements done by their users.
>
> "By creating legal uncertainty for the Internet operators, ACTA will
> force them to bend under the pressure of entertainment industries.  
> ACTA
> will compell Internet service providers to filter and remove content  
> and
> services, turning them into private police and justice auxiliaries. We
> cannot tolerate that restrictions to fundamental rights and freedoms  
> be
> imposed by private actors. Such a modification of criminal law by
> governments themselves, in total opacity, shows how much the people
> behind ACTA hate democracy." analyzes J?r?mie Zimmermann, spokesperson
> for the citizen advocacy group La Quadrature du Net.
>
> La Quadrature du Net calls on every citizen to participate in raising
> awareness on the dangers of ACTA (see policy brief [4]) and to expose
> its negotiators in order to make them accountable. A dedicated
> participative campaign page [5] is provided for this purpose:
> http://www.laquadrature.net/wiki/Attack_ACTA
>
> "Obeying to the music and movie industries, unelected negotiators are
> deciding the future of the Internet. We must make them accountable and
> make sure they face the consequences of their decisions." concludes
> Zimmermann.
>
>
>
> * Reerences *
>
>
> 1. See our web-dossier about ACTA: http://lqdn.fr/ACTA
>
> 2. ACTA: A Global Threat to Freedoms - open letter:
> http://www.laquadrature.net/en/acta-a-global-threat-to-freedoms-open-letter
>
> 3.
> http://sharemydoc.org/files/philip/ec_analysis_of_acta_internet_chapter.pdf
>
> 4.
> http://www.laquadrature.net/files/LaQuadratureduNet-20100124_Policy_Brief-Shedding_the_Light_on_ACTA.pdf
>
> 5. Campaign page "Attack ACTA" on La Quadrature's wiki:
> http://www.laquadrature.net/wiki/Attack_ACTA
>
>
>
> ** About la Quadrature du Net **
>
>
> La Quadrature du Net is an advocacy group that promotes the rights and
> freedoms of citizens on the Internet. More specifically, it advocates
> for the adaptation of French and European legislations to respect the
> founding principles of the Internet, most notably the free circulation
> of knowledge.
>
> As such, La Quadrature du Net engages in public-policy debates
> concerning, for instance, freedom of speech, copyright, regulation of
> telecommunications and online privacy.
>
> In addition to its advocacy work, the group also aims to foster a  
> better
> understanding of legislative processes among citizens. Through  
> specific
> and pertinent information and tools, La Quadrature du Net hopes to
> encourage citizens' participation in the public debate on rights and
> freedoms in the digital age.
>
> La Quadrature du Net is supported by French, European and  
> international
> NGOs including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Open Society
> Institute and Privacy International.
>
> List of supporting organisations :
> http://www.laquadrature.net/en/they-support-squaring-net-la-quadrature-du-net
>
>
> ** Press contact and press room **
>
> Jeremie Zimmermann, jz at laquadrature.net, +33 (0)615 940 675
>
> http://www.laquadrature.net/en/press-room
>
> ****
>
>
>
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