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Report – US Unsure of Signing ACTA

Drew Wilson — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 06:12:23 +0000

ACTA (the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement) has had its share of bumps on the road towards its final agreement. Sometimes it looked like it was on track and other times, it looked like it could very well fly completely off the rails. It seems the latter is very present right now.

When it came to ACTA when it first appeared online back in 2008. There was a lot of well-placed fear about the agreement. A group of people secretly meeting in various places around the world that would side-step various governing bodies to pass legislation that would be thrust in to various countries around the world with great pressure to implement it. Throughout 2008 and 2009, ACTA was the stuff conspiracy theories were were made of. Rumors about iPod searches at the borders of different countries, a world-wide DMCA and a mandatory three strikes regime throughout the world were some of the more dramatic revelations that came out of the agreements that were leaked online by Wikileaks. For supporters of ACTA, it appeared to be a major stepping stone to ramping up copyright laws around the world to be even tighter than ever. Judging by the two sides, it looked like it was human rights versus corporate interests fight and many knew it was going to be an extremely tense battle. That was then. 2010 appears to have been a turning point in the stability of ACTA. The threat of ACTA becoming law in many countries around the world eased not because of external outrage, but internal struggle. Internal tension and differences between countries might turn out yet to be the biggest enemy to the survival of the hotly debated agreement. The biggest source of tension that most likely would cause a breakdown in the agreement comes from the differences between the United States and the European Union. This first surfaced back in February of this year and the tensions became even more apparent as time went on. February was the first appearance of cracks within the seemingly impenetrable fortress of ACTA and while negotiators tried to assure everyone that ACTA was on time and ready to sign almost immediately, deadlines being set came and went without all the countries signing - and this included the most recent "sometime in September" deadline. It's now October and the treaty has yet to be signed and the differences between the US and EU remain. As the joke goes, "I love deadlines - I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by!" The tension, however, isn't exclusively between the US and EU. India and Brazil are already dismissing ACTA with Brazil questioning the legitimacy of ACTA while India says that they have other priorities and see nothing to gain from ACTA. Meanwhile, there is pressure from the domestic side of Mexico - namely from a politician - to walk from ACTA. It's not hard to see the cracks now getting to the point of dividing many countries and stakeholders on the inside of ACTA. We already know there have been multiple times now where Europe threatened to walk from ACTA, but the US didn't seem to express too many doubts about ACTA outside of a couple of politicians expressing concern over the transparency of ACTA. That was, until today according to a well respected observer of copyright issues, Jamie Love. According to Love, the US is currently only considering signing the treaty. Some observers are, to put it bluntly, surprised because it seemed that the US was practically a shoe-in for signing the treaty. The thing is, the US has been trying very hard to get ACTA signed and signed quickly. To do this, they have been conceding on several key positions including the internet chapter. With so many concessions, ACTA may be becoming a bitter pill to swallow for the US which might explain the hesitation. Still, with so many sides not budging on key issues, you'd almost think that simply having a large tomato food fight for an hour amongst the negotiators would be more productive - at least that would likely be rather enjoyable for those on the inside and the only people that would be upset would be those trying to wash the red stains out of dry clean only tablecloths and dry clean only silk suits and ties. At this point in time, it seems that the only country that has expressed full support all the way up to this point was Singapore. So, at this point, if ACTA is going to be saved at this point, it would be through a major salvage operation with negotiators putting Humpty Dumpty ACTA back together again. ACTA is too big with too many players with too big of a scope with an excruciatingly tight deadline being set that would be tight for an agreement that actually focused exclusively on what the agreement name actually suggests (physical piracy). So many countries are either under pressure to walk, or are already threatening to walk from the table. The EU already threatened to walk multiple times and even the United States is unsure whether or not it wants to sign. The only way I personally see this treaty going through in spite of the divided negotiations is to draw out the negotiations over years and years so that each and every individual piece of the agreement can be worked out in painstaking detail. If key negotiators carry through on their threats to either walk or simply refuse to sign the agreement, it could be game over for ACTA after, so far, three years of negotiations. Have a tip? Want to contact the author? You can do so by sending a PM via the forums or via e-mail at drew@zeropaid.com.

MPAA targets libraries and schools in Singapore

Jared Moya — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 00:08:23 +0000

Asia continues to be the focus of the MPAA, for in a world first it will distribute anti-piracy brochures to every library and school in the nation city-state of Singapore warning them about the evils of P2P and file-sharing.

The new anti-piracy booklets titled “Illegal File-Sharing: The Risks Aren’t Worth It” will be distributed to students attending all of Singapore’s 164 secondary schools and 16 junior colleges, and copies will be available at all of the country’s 23 National Library branches as well.

The Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) will distribute 200,000 copies of a Motion Picture Association-developed booklet outlining the dangers of illegal peer-to-peer file sharing to the country’s secondary school and junior college students. The HIP (Honour IP) Alliance, a public awareness initiative of IPOS, will oversee the distribution, beginning today.

The booklets note that since many P2P applications require users to upload – often invisibly – content at the same time they are downloading, users may be exposing themselves to criminal liability as well.

Of the the $6.1 billion USD in lost revenue that the MPAA attributes to piracy, approximately $1.2 billion USD is alleged to occur across the Asia-Pacific region.

Apparently the move is related to a degree to its ongoing efforts in Malaysia, where the infamous “Lucky” and “Flo” MPAA anti-piracy dogs are the bane of organized crime bootlegging operations.

“They found computers and databases of customers from all over the world and I’m afraid to say that a lot of those customers are here in Singapore. The gangs that are involved in this are organized crime groups, unquestionably organized crime groups,” says Michael Ellis, Senior VP & Regional Director (Asia Pacific), Motion Picture Association – International.

“And Singapore customers who are dialing or emailing their orders to Malaysia and asking for the products to be delivered here are involved and supporting organized crime. And I have to tell you, we know who you are and we’re providing that information to the authorities in Singapore. If you think that by buying one disc or one pirated DVD, you’re not involved in this, it doesn’t affect you, you’re wrong, it does,” says Mr Ellis.

Mr. Ellis also tries to plead with people on an emotional level, saying that “Today’s students are tomorrow’s creators, developers, and owners of intellectual property, and there is a very real danger that unless young people begin thinking meaningfully about the consequences of wholesale copyright theft, the future will be much less bright for the next generation of creators.”

I find his statement interesting, as the present and future existence of the MPAA looks fine to me and by their very own accountants. They recently reported record profits for 2006, thereby making any claims of a “less bright” future nonsensical when their content already saturates P2P and file-sharing networks everywhere and they are still able to make record profits in the process.

The Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS), the entity tasked with distribution of the booklets also offers a reason why the campaign is important. It wishes for the public to be responsible ‘Net citizens’ by avoiding copyright
infringement.

They write:

Since 2002, IPOS has actively engaged the public through the HIP Alliance to educate people in the need to respect intellectual property. The HIP Alliance has rolled out more than 50 initiatives jointly supported by government and industry, and this year will focus on highlighting the challenges brought about by technological advancement, such as Internet piracy and the sale of counterfeit goods online. We want to encourage members of the public to be responsible ‘Net citizens’ and avoiding copyright infringement.

Sounds good and all but I have a hunch that larger forces are at work.

Singapore is known for its authoritarian rule, and perhaps the acquiescence to foreign corporate interest lies in the fact that it wishes to combat organized crime’s revenue streams. For why else would they allow them to put anti-piracy booklets in all of its schools and libraries? Surely t has to be more than merely wanting the public to be good “Net citizens.”

Either way, this another black eye for America in my opinion, for sooner or later people around the world are going to grow tired of our companies regularly going into their classrooms and public libraries, and lecturing them about how it’s important that the companies they represent are able to make as much money as possible. Wouldn’t you?

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SOULXTC: “walkin’ the streets of P2P”

Singapore police in 25 new cases of illegal music file-sharing

Jared Moya — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 18:09:29 +0000

Singapore- The Recording Industry Association of Singapore (RIAS) filed complaints with the police in 25 new cases of illegal music file-sharing and downloading, Channel News Asia reported Tuesday. The 25 new cases were reported just days after the police had raided the homes of seven illegal music file-sharers.

In February, two Singaporean men had been jailed four months and three months, respectively, for distributing hundreds of pirated digital music files through an Internet chat programme.

They were the first to be punished for a non-profit offence under Singapore’s Copyright Act.

A third man was let off with a warning because he was only 16 years old at that time of the offence.

Singapore: America’s next college town

Jared Moya — Sun, 09 Jul 2006 17:00:41 +0000

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the National Research Foundation of Singapore on Friday announced plans to establish a major, new research center in Singapore in 2007. The Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART) Center will be MIT’s first such research center of its kind outside of Cambridge, Mass., according to the university.

The center will let MIT faculty and graduate students conduct research with their counterparts in Singaporean universities and companies. Scientists at the center will primarily concentrate on biomedical science, water and environmental technology, and digital media. Cooperation between MIT and Singapore first began in 1998.

MIT won’t be the lone export in the island nation. Duke University is helping Singapore set up a medical school, while several companies and academics are participating in Biopolis, a multimillion-dollar program to establish the nation as a biotech hub.

Although politicians, parents and employers have roundly complained about the quality of elementary and high school education in the U.S., the university system generally still gets high marks.