Michael Geist on The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA)

[Richard Poynder]

There will soon be a big new beast in the IP jungle. And while the creature comes with the seemingly innocuous acronym of ACTA, cyber activists and copyright mavens fear that it will pave the way for a Global DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) that will significantly impact on ordinary people's privacy, and erode civil liberties. Moreover, they warn, the secrecy surrounding the ACTA negotiations raises important questions about representative democracy, and demonstrates the extent to which the developed world remains determined to dominate and control the developing world. For the research community, says University of Ottawa's Michael Geist, ACTA will make Open Access (OA) even more urgent. However, he cautions, if ACTA succeeds in propagating the bruising statutory damages rules used in US copyright infringement cases it could threaten the institutional repository movement.

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PR: wait... I: wait... L: wait... LD: wait... I: wait... wait... Rank: wait... Traffic: wait... Price: wait... C: wait...

[Sepp Hasslberger]

What is wrong with those people to push legislation like ACTA?

Have we not been sharing books and music and other copyrighted works, once we bought them, freely with our neighbors, friends and family?

I predict that the untrammeled greed of the proponents of copyright enforcement over and above commercial exploitation of creative works will come back to haunt them - they may lose more business than they gain by misguided efforts to enforce their business model with criminal law...

[Richard Poynder]

Maybe,but what do we make of this: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/03/08/eu_ip_enforcement/

[Sepp Hasslberger]

Someone who's not afraid to tackle the €U Colossus should initiate a campaign for a serious reform of copyright legislation that respects people's property rights, and their right to share ...