US outlines secretive international piracy deal The world's major economic powers are considering whether to involve internet service providers (ISPs) in fighting copyright infringement and how to stop pirated material crossing borders, according to documents released by the US Government. Thirty-seven countries are negotiating a new worldwide trade deal that aims to reduce …
The stronger you make IP rights, the crapper your economy will be. This is the CONVERSE of what you think.
Consider bananas. The trademark for the banana companies is held in a low tax location like the Caribbean. This is because trademarks don't need factories or people, and can be shipped freely at zero cost. So they are easy to locate in the lowest tax zone possible.
The trademark is then licensed to the local EU/USA subsidiaries at a very high price. The high price is used to reduce the local taxes paid in the EU and USA and move the profits to the low tax country.
As strange as it may sound, unbranded bananas make for a bigger economy than the branded type because they don't have the license charge back used to reduce profits in the EU. i.e. stronger IP = lower EU tax revenues and a smaller economy.
Consider the case of music copyright. You can create massive licensing companies by strictly enforcing the most minor infraction at tax payer expense.... but those licensing companies are easy to move to the lowest tax location. Even if you kept a company here in the EU, you can do the banana trick, hold the licenses abroad, license the music to the local EU company at nearly all its profit.
Counterfeiting is quite minor according to the US border control, and doesn't need a special treaty.
So I suspect they justify all this awful anti citizen searches thinking it rescues the economy, but actually they will destroy their own economies.
They need to take a more balanced approach, and try to firmly tie the IP right to the local EU company or artist or maker. Because the maker has the factory and needs the experts, and so cannot be easily moved to some backwater tax haven like Cyprus.
ACTA should really be discussed more widely, and not just with a few IP companies who stand to profit big time from it at the expense of the industrialized countries.
I did not realise the French had pass the 3 strikes rule for those suspected of piracy.
I don't know how they will be able to tell if you are pirating material. They will have suspicions but they maybe wrong. I guess that they will look at bandwidth so those pirating movies will be stopped and those pirating books will be allowed to carry on.
Icon is book burning onto CD
why we need international cooperation on this?
Why can't those at fault just be prosecuted in their own legal jurisdiction?
Ah yes, because that would be because:
a) If ISPs can be made responsible, the media companies can sue the ISPs for a bonus revenue stream. As in the French case, hopefully the legal threat to the ISPs will convince them to disconnect people without the bother of having to actually gather any court-standard evidence or making a legal case which might be scrutinised for fairness.
b) if infringement can be made a criminal offense, prosecution costs and bad PR are neatly shifted to the police/public prosecution service.
b) "international treaty obligations" trump local parliamentary discussion and are so much harder to repeal.
There is absolutely no need for international cooperation on infringement. And really, is camcording films really such a problem? I can't see it being a major problem - it has to be the ultimate "I really wish I hadn't wasted £1 on that DVD" experience.
As for the crying wolverine, the resident tech expert on RTE (Irish radio) seemed to think that it was probably the movie company wot dunnit. Call me cynical but I tend to agree. Lots of confusion and misdirection from various Murdock companies and an FX film seen without FX, on a small screen will hardly impact future sales.
Note to media companies: use your skills to build a better WoW and make some serious money.
Note to everyone else: beware pirates. Not the somalis who you'll probably never meet, nor the infringers who provide tv episodes you've missed at better quality than you can get with your aerial. Beware of those who commandeer your parliamentary system, bypass your democratic controls and rip your rights from the legal system in the name of profit.
I believe I recently read that France decided to postpone the three strikes and work on the bill some more.
Perhaps they should consider changing there agenda to that of finding the malware writers and organized online crime which is surely costing people and companies a lot more money than the alleged revenue from pirated movies and music.
It's also worth noting that in some countries, the common person cannot afford the music and movies (even at discounted rates). Should they not be allowed those things that make life a little more enjoyable. Actually, that reminds me of a certain North Korean dictator.
ACTA really wouldn't be bad if it confined itself to COMMERCIAL IP theft across national borders. Unfortunately, being created in secret with only commercial interests having any say in its creation is exactly the wrong tact. What this ensures is that any kind of commercial or non- commercial IP "theft" will be treated the same....it will now become an international crime and you will be liable anywhere in the world.
Don't you want to see IFPI, RIAA, MPAA, etc. in charge of "fixing" the IP problem?
You obviously haven't paid your "dues" to enough politicians to 'buy" your way in with the program.
Without the cooperation of east and southeast Asian countries such as China, Taiwan, Indonesia, etc., these anti-copyright infringement measures will serve only to punish the casual P2P users and do little to stop industrial-level infringement. Every time I visit the PRC, I am amazed at the openness of copyright infringement. I saw the new U2 album for sale weeks before its release, along with very goof CAM and R5 copies of movies still in western cinemas. Also, try stopping at any of the bazaars and street fairs in the U.S. and Europe, and you'll find much the same. You can find the most amazing black market and gray market goods at our own Ashby Flea Market (in Berkeley, CA), or sold on folding tables or out of the backs of vans on Twin Peaks or at Ocean Beach in San Francisco. This stuff doesn't come from any of the aformentioned treaty signatories. And since it is already illegal to import and sell thse goods in the U.S., this treaty will likely have little impact, except to make the life of the average consumer even more difficult. I can't hardly wait to see the lines at the airport where every computer and mp3 player is checked for "contraband" before boarding an international flight! No wait, I can.
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