SOPA/PIPA reinvented (OPEN, ACTA, etc.)

[djzombie]

queue the "what about teh childrenz?"

[jmc]

queue the "what about teh childrenz?"

Wat?

[Jonny]

https://www.popvox.com/bills/us/112/hr1981

vote to oppose it.

[nerdfromthehood]

The bill should be properly renamed "TROJAN HORSE" because that's what it is.
PS - This guy put words in his bills like "piracy" and "protect children" in hopes people would see those words alone and support it. Meanwhile, the bills themselves wouldn't even accomplish the mission that the title suggests.

[pogejr]

Texas republican.

Texas republican who went to SMU.
Makes me proud. :')

[Caiyuo]

Wonder how much campaign funding he gets from the MPAA

this is no big secret by now, but http://www.opensecrets.org/politicia...?cid=N00001811

If it already cleared the committee then this'll be pretty fucking futile. Why didn't anyone mention this bill before?

here or in the news? it's been circulated in tech circles ever since it came about, the recent influx of political awareness just happened to shine a spotlight on it and Lamar Smith in general.

[Gwynplaine]

Here's the bill itself as it is shown on the site. It's short only 16 pages.
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-1...12hr1981rh.pdf

[Milkster]

What is ACTA?

In October 2007, the United States, the European Community, Switzerland, and Japan simultaneously announced that they would negotiate a new intellectual property enforcement treaty the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement or ACTA. Australia, the Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Mexico, Jordan, Morocco, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, and Canada have joined the negotiations. Although the proposed treaty’s title might suggest that the agreement deals only with counterfeit physical goods (such as medicines) what little information has been made available publicly by negotiating governments about the content of the treaty makes it clear that it will have a far broader scope and in particular will deal with new tools targeting “Internet distribution and information technology”.
In recent years major U.S. and EU copyright industry rightsholder groups have sought stronger powers to enforce their intellectual property rights across the world to preserve their business models. These efforts have been underway in a number of international fora including at the World Trade Organization the World Customs Organization at the G8 summit at the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Advisory Committee on Enforcement and at the Intellectual Property Experts’ Group at the Asia Pacific Economic Coalition. Since the conclusion of the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Issues of Intellectual Property in 1994 (TRIPS) most new intellectual property enforcement powers have been created outside of the traditional multilateral venues through bilateral and regional free trade agreements entered into by the United States and the European Community with their respective key trading partners. ACTA is the new frontline in the global IP enforcement agenda.
To date, disturbingly little information has been released about the actual content of the agreement. However despite that it is clearly on a fast track, treaty proponents wanted it tabled at the G8 summit in July and completed by the end of 2008.
Why You Should Care About It

ACTA has several features that raise significant potential concerns for consumers’ privacy and civil liberties for innovation and the free flow of information on the Internet legitimate commerce and for developing countries’ ability to choose policy options that best suit their domestic priorities and level of economic development.
ACTA is being negotiated by a select group of industrialized countries outside of existing international multilateral venues for creating new IP norms such as the World Intellectual Property Organization and (since TRIPs) the World Trade Organization. Both civil society and developing countries are intentionally being excluded from these negotiations. While the existing international fora provide (at least to some extent) room for a range of views to be heard and addressed no such checks and balances will influence the outcome of the ACTA negotiations.
The Fact Sheet published by the USTR together with the USTR's 2008 "Special 301" report make it clear that the goal is to create a new standard of intellectual property enforcement above the current internationally-agreed standards in the TRIPs Agreement and increased international cooperation including sharing of information between signatory countries’ law enforcement agencies. The last 10 bilateral free trade agreements entered into by the United States have required trading partners to adopt intellectual property enforcement obligations that are above those in TRIPs. Even though developing countries are not party to the ACTA negotiations it is likely that accession to and implementation of ACTA by developing countries will be a condition imposed in future free trade agreements and the subject of evaluation in content industry submissions to the annual Section 301 process and USTR report.
While little information has been made available by the governments negotiating ACTA a document recently leaked to the public entitled "Discussion Paper on a Possible Anti-counterfeiting Trade Agreement" from an unknown source gives an indication of what content industry rightsholder groups appear to be asking for – including new legal regimes to "encourage ISPs to cooperate with right holders in the removal of infringing material" criminal measures and increased border search powers. The Discussion Paper leaves open how Internet Service Providers should be encouraged to identify and remove allegedly infringing material from the Internet. However the same industry rightsholder groups that support the creation of ACTA have also called for mandatory network-level filtering by Internet Service Providers and for Internet Service Providers to terminate citizens' Internet connection on repeat allegation of copyright infringement (the "Three Strikes" /Graduated Response) so there is reason to believe that ACTA will seek to increase intermediary liability and require these things of Internet Service Providers. While mandating copyright filtering by ISPs will not be technologically effective because it can be defeated by use of encryption efforts to introduce network level filtering will likely involve deep packet inspection of citizens' Internet communications. This raises considerable concerns for citizens' civil liberties and privacy rights and the future of Internet innovation.
What You Can Do

Despite the potentially significant harmful impact on consumers and Internet innovation and the expedited timeframe in which the treaty is being negotiated the citizens that stand to be directly affected by the treaty provisions have been given almost no information about its real contents and very little opportunity to express their views on it.
But there is still time to do something to change that! If you live in the US tell your Senators to demand more transparency in ACTA!

• Read the authentic version of the ACTA text as of 15 April 2011, as finalized by participating countries here: ACTA Finalized Text
• Follow the history of the treaty’s formation here: ACTA history
• Read letters from U.S. Senator Ron Wyden wherein he challenges the constitutionality of ACTA: Letter 1 | Letter 2 | Read the Administration’s Response to Wyden’s First Letter here: Response
• Watch a short informative video on ACTA: ACTA Video
• Watch a lulzy video on ACTA: Lulzy Video
• Reuters: ACTA signed in Tokyo: Article
• United States ACTA: Read
• European Union Trade Commission ACTA: Read
• Australian Gov’t ACTA: Read
• Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic: Read
• ACTA Undermines Access to Medicines: Article

Looks like V for Vendetta is real and going worldwide at this rate.

[guartz]

Yes, this bill will prove that pedos sure love proxy websites.

[Kurokikaze]

lol this bill does absolutely nothing to stop piracy or child pornography... This dude needs to be stopped.

[Shuvo]

I doubt this bill will be stopped. Everyone's energy is focused on SOPA, and now that that's been shelved people will be too busy thinking they won to care about this newly named bill.

This senator needs to get voted out next election before he does more damage.

[Kurokikaze]

Why is it always the small government conservatives coming up with bills that make government bigger an intrusive...?

Theres a dick joke there somewhere...

[Caiyuo]

I doubt this bill will be stopped. Everyone's energy is focused on SOPA, and now that that's been shelved people will be too busy thinking they won to care about this newly named bill.

This senator needs to get voted out next election before he does more damage.

I have a little more hope since the internet's so galvanized around this issue along with the tech world and large internet communities doing a pretty respectable job of educating people about the subject and process. I think that with money in politics becoming a running theme throughout the election season there's a little light at the end of the tunnel signaling how this all inevitably turns out, even if horrendous bills are passed and awful politicians are elected in the short-term. Assuming everyone doesn't get fucking lazy.

[Milkster]

OPEN: Online Protection & ENforcement of Digital Trade Act

The OPEN Act secures two fundamental principles. First, Americans have a right to benefit from what they've created. And second, Americans have a right to an open internet. Our duty is to protect these rights. That's why congressional Republicans and Democrats came together to write the OPEN Act. But it's only a start. We need your ideas: sign up, comment and collaborate to build a better bill.

http://keepthewebopen.com/

[Drex]

Why is it always the small government conservatives coming up with bills that make government bigger an intrusive...?

Because they don't actually believe in smaller government, they just say it for votes.

[Apelila]

The area this guy represents is a backwater fuckhole even by Texas standards. The chances of him loosing an election are slim, because the people voting for him wont be immediately affected by the stupid bullshit he pulls.

[Kurokikaze]

[Kuya]

Recalls for congressmen would be really nice.

[Mazmaz]

Let's throw this from RIT in with these.

[Kuya]

Meanwhile, republicans and conservative are busy complaining about how the government is getting its greedy paws on their medicare.