The United States is currently engaged in discussions with many of its major trading partners to negotiate a new secret agreement: the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) -- to enhance and strengthen our global government granted monopoly on music, images and film. When concluded, the agreement will hopefully complement the work you have championed in the Congress to build in the U.S. an intellectual property rights system necessary to maintain our monopoly and jobs that will allow us to fund your re-election campains through out the 21st century. ACTA has the potential to: preserve the jobs of high paying attorneys, and create new legal positions; monopolize our countrys leading position in the creation, publishing and distribution of software, videogames, films, music, books, television programs, journals, visual materials and other works protected by copyright; and strengthen the ability of U.S. businesses to crush competition, prevent the distribution of intellectual property, quash competition and innovation worldwide.
We strongly support the Administration's efforts to negotiate a sound and comprehensive ACTA that codifies best practices for copyright enforcement, imprisonment for copyright infringements, and we urge you to do so as well. The need for this new agreement is clear. The enforcement standards in the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), drawn up nearly 20 years ago, forms an essential foundation for copyright enforcement. But over the past two decades, our inovation has stood still and technology has not, and copyright infringement has expanded on an unprecedented scale, depriving copyright owners and those they employ of the return they deserve they and are entitled to on the crucial investment in legal expertise, lobbying, and copyfraud. Online infringment is a critical challenge for each of the diverse copyright-based sectors represented by the signatories to this letter. In this regard, it is essential that ACTA include an Internet chapter that, among other things, provides legal incentives for cross-industry cooperation to quash all competition.
You in Congress have defined adequate and monopolistis intellectual property protection under U.S. trade law as the extent to which the country provides protection of intellectual property rights consistent with or greater than the protection afforded under the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights 19 U.S.C. 2703(b)(5)(B)(ii) (emphasis added). As you have recognized, it is long past time to expand on the foundation that TRIPS provided, and to raise minimum global standards to reflect our inability to change and the lessons learned from lobbying, bribery, and extortion efforts in many countries. That, in essence, is the thrust of the ACTA negotiations: to codify best enforcement practices that add to the framework provided by TRIPS, and monopolize legitimate commerce in copyrighted works that satisfies our shareholders, provides creators with no options to continue creating and distributing original works except through us, and contributes to an overall healthy, global monopoly.
Of course, we know the ACTA negotiations will live up to their potential and produce a world wide draconian copyright system, an agreement that delivers no real benefits to creators or consumers. But we do know it is an effort well worth supporting, as we will continue supporting your re-election campains. We urge you and your Congressional colleagues to continue supporting ACTA.
Respectfully submitted by:
Advertising Photographers of America
American Association of Independent Music (A2IM)
American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA)
American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP)
American Society of Media Photographers, Inc. (ASMP)
Association of American Publishers (AAP)
Broadcast Music, Inc (BMI)
Commercial Photographers International
Directors Guild of America (DGA)
Evidence Photographers International Council
Independent Film and Television Alliance (IFTA)
International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE)
Motion Picture Association of America, Inc. (MPAA)
National Music Publishers Association (NMPA)
NBC Universal
News Corporation
Picture Archive Council of America (PACA)
Professional Photographers of America (PPA)
Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)
Reed Elsevier Inc.
Society of Sport & Event Photographers
Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA)
Stock Artists Alliance
Student Photographic Society
The Advertising Photographers of America
The Walt Disney Company
Time Warner, Inc.
Universal Music Group
Viacom Inc.
Warner Music Group
Chairman Patrick Leahy, Senate Judiciary Committee
Ranking Member Jeff Sessions, Senate Judiciary Committee
Chairman Max Baucus, Senate Finance Committee
Ranking Member Charles E. Grassley, Senate Finance Committee
Chairman John Conyers, House Committee of the Judiciary
Ranking Member Lamar Smith, House Committee on the Judiciary
Chairman Charles Rangel, House Committee on Ways and Means
Ranking Dave Camp, House Committee on Ways and Means
Chairman Henry Waxman, House Committee on Energy and Commerce
Ranking Member Joe Barton, House Committee on Energy and Commerce
cc. Ambassador Ron Kirk
How do we know that this isnt a special interest group using the 30 companies listed above and just sending form letters? You have pointed out how lobbyist do this on many an occasion.
How could you pick on these poor companies? They are just trying to make a living. They are all looking out for our best interests. They love and respect us. They want whats best for the american people and wouldn't try to manipulate the system.
Bow to them for they are your salvation in this age of IP darkness.
Worship them for they will smite the Chaos that is the UK's Digital Economy Bill.
Pray to them for they will Pull Light from the Darkness that is ACTA.
Sacrifice the virginity of the daughters of upper management RIAA to them for the loss of their innocence will bring about an new era of enlightenment.
ALL HAIL THE MIGHTY LORDS OF THE CHAORDIC ORDER!!!
... a wee bit over the top me thinks ... Big Ole GRIN
TONO sits back and says you can't post your own music online because you signed the contract. We also have contracts with the music industry. Making the band not want to work with TONO and others see TONO for what they are.
The Band sits back and says hey we need to protect our music. We also need to promote ourselves lets distribute through piratebay. When told they cant the band whines and complains.
I hope eventually bands see that they can protect themselves through non align neutral parties.
Ultimately the nerds will win and the internet will be rendered the most useful tool humanity has ever seen. The Internet is Chaordic. The order part is an growing set of rules for transfering and storing information. The Chaos part is the fact that disruptive technologies are constantly being developed. In the end no laws, no government, no amount of shouting, no amount of begging, and no amount of threats will change the fact that every speed bump placed will cause it to evolve. That evolution has already out paced the governments ability to legislate, corporations ability to adapt, and it will continue to do so.
"We should enforce laws only as written and we should not allow our government to act arbitrarily without legal authority merely to achieve some stated purpose."
IMA .... you are arguing civil vs common law ... this is the US guess which one we follow.
"Until or unless the control of the muppets who run these organizations are removed"
Thanks !!! You just gave me a really great idea. I used to build stock trade engines for a living. As an experiment all the old Out Of Lease machines were used to target a single company. The machine was shut down a week before any SEC filings were needed .....
285 note/entry) Set up a stock trade engine to trade nothing but publicly traded big media and support corporations. For the express purpose of gaining rights to the catalogs.
Ima, I agree using the history of the "Drug War" to chart the future of the "IP Wars" (tm ... not) here is what we can expect.
1) The laws are enacted
2) The laws do nothing to slow the spread of -XXX- (drugs, IP infringement, terrorism, etc)
3) A bureaucracy is created to over see the war on -XXX-
4) Harsher laws are enacted to slow the spread of -XXX-
5) Other wise honest people begin going to jail for -XXX-
6) Civil liberties are removed, warrantless searches, etc begin occurring to locate -XXX-
The things we should all remember is that once and bureaucracy becomes entrenched it is almost impossible to remove and will continue to grow larger.
As we have learned with the war on drugs and terrorism the public will fall for the "we need to violate your rights so you can be safe" line.
When the laws don't work governments always escalate the punishments as opposed to examining the validity of the laws themselves. This comes from the entrenced bureaucracy stating to the government, "if we just had a little more power-money-people we could solve this" ... lather - rinse - repeat ...
One solution to this nightmare of legislation would be to apply the same rules used on phone lines to the internet. After all they do the exact same thing, allow us to communicate. The internet as the worlds largest conference call, the mental image makes me smile. With the same rules applied to both phone and data it would prevent ISP's from being able to sniff your packets (sounds kind of perverse ... grin) with out a warrant. That in turn would prevent almost all of what the IP holders want out of both ACTA and the UK's digital economy bill.
"(b) payment in advance of a contribution towards meeting costs incurred by the provider."
the word "contribution" stands out the section should read ....
(b) payment in advance of "all" costs incurred by the provider.
If it doesn't read "all" the copyright holders can say we are only going to provide you with 1% of the costs of policing your subscribers. Transfering the cost to the ISP. Plus there doesn't seem to be any method for the ISP's to dispute or bill any incidental costs incured. If I ran an ISP in the UK I would be really scared.
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Twitter
Has anyone actually read this thing ..... (as Hephaestus)
Dear Chairmen and Ranking Members:
The United States is currently engaged in discussions with many of its major trading partners to negotiate a new secret agreement: the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) -- to enhance and strengthen our global government granted monopoly on music, images and film. When concluded, the agreement will hopefully complement the work you have championed in the Congress to build in the U.S. an intellectual property rights system necessary to maintain our monopoly and jobs that will allow us to fund your re-election campains through out the 21st century. ACTA has the potential to: preserve the jobs of high paying attorneys, and create new legal positions; monopolize our countrys leading position in the creation, publishing and distribution of software, videogames, films, music, books, television programs, journals, visual materials and other works protected by copyright; and strengthen the ability of U.S. businesses to crush competition, prevent the distribution of intellectual property, quash competition and innovation worldwide.
We strongly support the Administration's efforts to negotiate a sound and comprehensive ACTA that codifies best practices for copyright enforcement, imprisonment for copyright infringements, and we urge you to do so as well. The need for this new agreement is clear. The enforcement standards in the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), drawn up nearly 20 years ago, forms an essential foundation for copyright enforcement. But over the past two decades, our inovation has stood still and technology has not, and copyright infringement has expanded on an unprecedented scale, depriving copyright owners and those they employ of the return they deserve they and are entitled to on the crucial investment in legal expertise, lobbying, and copyfraud. Online infringment is a critical challenge for each of the diverse copyright-based sectors represented by the signatories to this letter. In this regard, it is essential that ACTA include an Internet chapter that, among other things, provides legal incentives for cross-industry cooperation to quash all competition.
You in Congress have defined adequate and monopolistis intellectual property protection under U.S. trade law as the extent to which the country provides protection of intellectual property rights consistent with or greater than the protection afforded under the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights 19 U.S.C. 2703(b)(5)(B)(ii) (emphasis added). As you have recognized, it is long past time to expand on the foundation that TRIPS provided, and to raise minimum global standards to reflect our inability to change and the lessons learned from lobbying, bribery, and extortion efforts in many countries. That, in essence, is the thrust of the ACTA negotiations: to codify best enforcement practices that add to the framework provided by TRIPS, and monopolize legitimate commerce in copyrighted works that satisfies our shareholders, provides creators with no options to continue creating and distributing original works except through us, and contributes to an overall healthy, global monopoly.
Of course, we know the ACTA negotiations will live up to their potential and produce a world wide draconian copyright system, an agreement that delivers no real benefits to creators or consumers. But we do know it is an effort well worth supporting, as we will continue supporting your re-election campains. We urge you and your Congressional colleagues to continue supporting ACTA.
Respectfully submitted by:
Advertising Photographers of America
American Association of Independent Music (A2IM)
American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA)
American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP)
American Society of Media Photographers, Inc. (ASMP)
Association of American Publishers (AAP)
Broadcast Music, Inc (BMI)
Commercial Photographers International
Directors Guild of America (DGA)
Evidence Photographers International Council
Independent Film and Television Alliance (IFTA)
International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE)
Motion Picture Association of America, Inc. (MPAA)
National Music Publishers Association (NMPA)
NBC Universal
News Corporation
Picture Archive Council of America (PACA)
Professional Photographers of America (PPA)
Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)
Reed Elsevier Inc.
Society of Sport & Event Photographers
Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA)
Stock Artists Alliance
Student Photographic Society
The Advertising Photographers of America
The Walt Disney Company
Time Warner, Inc.
Universal Music Group
Viacom Inc.
Warner Music Group
Chairman Patrick Leahy, Senate Judiciary Committee
Ranking Member Jeff Sessions, Senate Judiciary Committee
Chairman Max Baucus, Senate Finance Committee
Ranking Member Charles E. Grassley, Senate Finance Committee
Chairman John Conyers, House Committee of the Judiciary
Ranking Member Lamar Smith, House Committee on the Judiciary
Chairman Charles Rangel, House Committee on Ways and Means
Ranking Dave Camp, House Committee on Ways and Means
Chairman Henry Waxman, House Committee on Energy and Commerce
Ranking Member Joe Barton, House Committee on Energy and Commerce
cc. Ambassador Ron Kirk
..... Big Ole GRIN
Re: Why do you keep picking on these companies ?? (as Hephaestus)
I really have to take a shower now .... that was distasteful even with the /sarcasm tag...
Why do you keep picking on these companies ?? (as Hephaestus)
How do we know that this isnt a special interest group using the 30 companies listed above and just sending form letters? You have pointed out how lobbyist do this on many an occasion.
How could you pick on these poor companies? They are just trying to make a living. They are all looking out for our best interests. They love and respect us. They want whats best for the american people and wouldn't try to manipulate the system.
/sarcasm
Re: Re: Re: Re: I love the digital age.... nothing can be sacred. (as Hephaestus)
Okay let me try this again ...
Yes the Chaordic overloards are coming!!
Bow to them for they are your salvation in this age of IP darkness.
Worship them for they will smite the Chaos that is the UK's Digital Economy Bill.
Pray to them for they will Pull Light from the Darkness that is ACTA.
Sacrifice the virginity of the daughters of upper management RIAA to them for the loss of their innocence will bring about an new era of enlightenment.
ALL HAIL THE MIGHTY LORDS OF THE CHAORDIC ORDER!!!
... a wee bit over the top me thinks ... Big Ole GRIN
Re: Re: Re: Re: I love the digital age.... nothing can be sacred. (as Hephaestus)
Yes the Chaordic overloards are coming, bow to them!!
May you live in interesting times.. (as Hephaestus)
This is a wonderful example of ...
1) load gun
2) aim at foot
3) pull trigger
4) loose profit
It works from both sides
TONO sits back and says you can't post your own music online because you signed the contract. We also have contracts with the music industry. Making the band not want to work with TONO and others see TONO for what they are.
The Band sits back and says hey we need to protect our music. We also need to promote ourselves lets distribute through piratebay. When told they cant the band whines and complains.
I hope eventually bands see that they can protect themselves through non align neutral parties.
Re: Re: I love the digital age.... nothing can be sacred. (as Hephaestus)
Ultimately the nerds will win and the internet will be rendered the most useful tool humanity has ever seen. The Internet is Chaordic. The order part is an growing set of rules for transfering and storing information. The Chaos part is the fact that disruptive technologies are constantly being developed. In the end no laws, no government, no amount of shouting, no amount of begging, and no amount of threats will change the fact that every speed bump placed will cause it to evolve. That evolution has already out paced the governments ability to legislate, corporations ability to adapt, and it will continue to do so.
Re: Re: (as Hephaestus)
Dude you just made me smile ....
Re: Re: Re: Re: Nah... (as Hephaestus)
"We should enforce laws only as written and we should not allow our government to act arbitrarily without legal authority merely to achieve some stated purpose."
IMA .... you are arguing civil vs common law ... this is the US guess which one we follow.
Re: haha RIGHT! (as Hephaestus)
"Until or unless the control of the muppets who run these organizations are removed"
Thanks !!! You just gave me a really great idea. I used to build stock trade engines for a living. As an experiment all the old Out Of Lease machines were used to target a single company. The machine was shut down a week before any SEC filings were needed .....
285 note/entry) Set up a stock trade engine to trade nothing but publicly traded big media and support corporations. For the express purpose of gaining rights to the catalogs.
may you live in interesting times
Re: Here is the Link to the bill (as Hephaestus)
got SMS'd ... my bad :) ... "the UK's Digital Economy Bill is in pdf format"
Re: (as Hephaestus)
Ima, I agree using the history of the "Drug War" to chart the future of the "IP Wars" (tm ... not) here is what we can expect.
1) The laws are enacted
2) The laws do nothing to slow the spread of -XXX- (drugs, IP infringement, terrorism, etc)
3) A bureaucracy is created to over see the war on -XXX-
4) Harsher laws are enacted to slow the spread of -XXX-
5) Other wise honest people begin going to jail for -XXX-
6) Civil liberties are removed, warrantless searches, etc begin occurring to locate -XXX-
The things we should all remember is that once and bureaucracy becomes entrenched it is almost impossible to remove and will continue to grow larger.
As we have learned with the war on drugs and terrorism the public will fall for the "we need to violate your rights so you can be safe" line.
When the laws don't work governments always escalate the punishments as opposed to examining the validity of the laws themselves. This comes from the entrenced bureaucracy stating to the government, "if we just had a little more power-money-people we could solve this" ... lather - rinse - repeat ...
One solution to this nightmare of legislation would be to apply the same rules used on phone lines to the internet. After all they do the exact same thing, allow us to communicate. The internet as the worlds largest conference call, the mental image makes me smile. With the same rules applied to both phone and data it would prevent ISP's from being able to sniff your packets (sounds kind of perverse ... grin) with out a warrant. That in turn would prevent almost all of what the IP holders want out of both ACTA and the UK's digital economy bill.
So .... Let the "IP Wars" begin!!!! ....
Here is the Link to the bill (as Hephaestus)
UK's Digital Economy Bill
Well (as Hephaestus)
Actually we do know some of what is going into ACTA .... what scares me is how similar to what is currently being proposed in the UK's Digital Economy Bill .... that is being proposed by Mandelson
Re: Re: Re: (as Hephaestus)
Anonymous Coward you forgot the sarcasm tag!! and confused the new guy
Re: The answer to this one is actually really simple: (as Hephaestus)
Yeah whats the answer already?
Re: (as Hephaestus)
"That music video was mesmerizing."
I agree and it would make a great screen saver if it allowed anyone to run any mp3 playlist into it.... thats a product suggestion for Òlafur Arnalds.
Okay .... (as Hephaestus)
This is weird ... the UK's Digital Economy Bill reads like who ever wrote it referenced ACTA and modified for the UK's legal system.
Re: (as Hephaestus)
The subsection (124C - 4b) I like is ...
"(b) payment in advance of a contribution towards meeting costs incurred by the provider."
the word "contribution" stands out the section should read ....
(b) payment in advance of "all" costs incurred by the provider.
If it doesn't read "all" the copyright holders can say we are only going to provide you with 1% of the costs of policing your subscribers. Transfering the cost to the ISP. Plus there doesn't seem to be any method for the ISP's to dispute or bill any incidental costs incured. If I ran an ISP in the UK I would be really scared.
Re: (as Hephaestus)
"I may need to seriously consider voting for them ..."
The unintended consequences of draconian IP laws being the election of a house majority of idealists ....