TPP - yet more internet shackling IP legislation.

[Cantih]

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/0...ur-rights-risk

The draft chapter of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement on Intellectual Property—as of its current leaked version [PDF], article 16—insists that signatories provide legal incentives for Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to privately enforce copyright protection rules. The TPP wants service providers to undertake the financial and administrative burdens of becoming copyright cops, serving a copyright maximalist agenda while disregarding the consequences for Internet freedom and innovation.

TPP article 16.3 mandates a system of ISP liability that goes beyond the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) standards and US case law. In sum, the TPP pushes a framework beyond ACTA[1] and possibly the spirit of the DMCA, since it opens the doors for:

Three-strikes policies and laws that require Internet intermediaries to terminate their users’ Internet access on repeat allegations of copyright infringement
Requirements for Internet intermediaries to filter all Internet communications for potentially copyright-infringing material
ISP obligations to block access to websites that allegedly infringe or facilitate copyright infringement
Efforts to force intermediaries to disclose the identities of their customers to IP rightsholders on an allegation of copyright infringement.

The TPP Puts Your Rights at Risk

Service providers are the conduits of free expression. By enabling free or low-cost platforms that enable anyone to reach an audience of millions, ISPs have democratized media and enabled innovative ideas to spread quickly—without the gatekeepers of traditional media.

Private ISP enforcement of copyright poses a serious threat to free speech on the Internet, because it makes offering open platforms for user-generated content economically untenable. For example, on an ad-supported site, the costs of reviewing each post will generally exceed the pennies of revenue one might get from ads. Even obvious fair uses could become too risky to host, leading to an Internet with only cautious and conservative content.

Moreover, the TPP insists upon notice and takedown regimes at the price of a free and open Internet. Expression is often time-sensitive: reacting to recent news or promoting a candidate for election. Online takedown requirements open the door to abuse, allowing the claim of copyright to trump the judicial system, and get immediate removal, before the merits are assessed. Put back procedures can mitigate the harm, but even a few days of downtime can strike a serious blow to freedom of expression.

A Sinister Side-Letter to Require Strict Takedown Procedures

If the copyright maximalists have their way, the TPP will include a “side-letter,” an agreement annexed to the TPP to bind the countries to strict procedures enabling copyright owners to insist material are removed from the Internet. This strict notice-and-takedown regime is not new—in 2004, Chile rejected the same proposal in its bilateral trade agreement with the United States. Without the shackles of the proposed requirements, Chile then implemented a much more balanced takedown procedure in its 2010 Copyright Law, which provides greater protection to Internet users’ expression and privacy than the DMCA’s copyright safe harbor regime.

Instead of ensuring due process and judicial involvement in takedowns, the TPP proposal encourages the spread of models that have been proven inefficient and have chilling unintended consequences, such as the US DMCA or the HADOPI Law in France.

These strict rules are not only bad public policy, but have the potential to impinge on national sovereignty by imposing, through a non-transparent process, significant changes in existing national law, such as the Chile judicial takedown system or the Canadian system where ISPs provide a conduit for notices, but not extra-judicial takedowns. Where a country has implemented a system more balanced than the DMCA, the TPP should not overrule popular legislative process or bring a one-size fits all approach for substantive and procedural rules.

TPP’s Safe Guards Are Not Safe

By introducing a series of ISP liability safeguards, the TPP may promote the actual extension of ISPs' secondary liability, something the entertainment and publishing industries dearly want. In a 2011 testimonial on whether Malaysia should join the TPP, the International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) made clear that approach [PDF], seeking to bring new intermediary liability along with a strictly limited safe harbor.

Intermediary liability is not universally recognized. The Office of the US Trade Representative—the agency leading the TPP negotiations—has recognized that creating limitations on liability encourages countries to adopt intermediary liability in the first instance. Indeed, if countries want to get off of the US intellectual property blacklist (the Special 301 report: a review of other countries’ intellectual property laws and enforcement standards), the USTR suggests that adopting the TPP can solve their problems. From the 11 negotiating TPP Countries, 5 are in the 301-2012 list [PDF] (Chile, Brunei, Peru, Mexico, Vietnam).

The UN and the European Court of Justice Agree that Human Rights Are at Stake

We’re not the only ones who see this as a threat to Internet freedom. Both the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion and Expression[2] and the European Court of Justice agree. In addition, Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights should still be the guiding light for TPP. It declares:

“Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”

To allow people to hold opinions without interference, and to seek, receive and impart information, it is critical to have a policy infrastructure that does not impose liability on Internet intermediaries. By forcing intermediaries to become much more than service providers, many of these proposals attempt to make Internet intermediaries the sole arbiter and enforcer of the law instead of courts and judges. ISPs are not well equipped to make these decisions, and these proposals lack the due process rights that are so critical in the courtroom.

To the extent that governments wish to deputize Internet Intermediaries to enforce public policy objectives, the intermediaries must abide by the due process standards that apply to governments. At a minimum, this includes transparency, accountability, accuracy, precisely targeted measures that don’t cause collateral damage, a timely and affordable means of redress, and fairness and proportionality of cost distribution. The most appropriate role for Internet intermediaries is limited to forwarding notices of alleged infringement to their customers, and then allowing the judicial system to determine the subsequent steps. This includes protecting the identity of the user.

Through the support of people like you, we've beaten back SOPA, PIPA and ACTA. We can do the same to the TPP, by shining a light on the copyright maximalists agenda, by explaining the implications of these back room deals, and—with your support—we can prevent the slow erosion of liberty on the Internet.

And here's some personal consequences to get some of you moving

Ken Akamatsu, creator of Love Hina and Mahou Sensei Negima!, expressed concern the agreement could decimate the derivative dōjinshi (self-published) works prevalent in Japan. Akamatsu argues that the TPP "would destroy derivative dōjinshi. And as a result, the power of the entire manga industry would also diminish." Kensaku Fukui, a lawyer and a Nihon University professor, expressed concerns that the TPP could allow companies to restrict or stop imports and exports of intellectual property, such as licensed merchandise. For example, IP holders could restrict or stop importers from shipping merchandise such as DVDs and other related goods related to an anime or manga property into one country to protect local distribution of licensed merchandise already in the country via local licensors.[39]
At a NicoNico live seminar titled How Would TPP Change the Net and Copyrights? An In-Depth Examination: From Extending Copyright Terms to Changing the Law to Allow Unilateral Enforcement and Statutory Damages, artist Kazuhiko Hachiya warned that cosplay could also fall under the TPP, and such an agreement could give law enforcement officials broad interpretive authority in dictating how people could dress up. Critics also have derided the agreement could also harm Japanese culture, where some segments have developed through parody works.[40]

[hey]

Can't we just end copyright altogether, and stop this bullshit?

[Tajin]

Can't we just end copyright altogether, and stop this bullshit?

/wishfulthinking 6 months of people (worldwide) not watching/pirating movies would probably be deterrent enough /I_Believe_I Can_Fly

[Odon]

Can they just fuck off for once. This is getting really old.

[Cantih]

Corporations: "Can't Stop, Won't Stop"

[Plow]

it's really too bad people refuse to stop stealing shit and giving them nearly unlimited reasons to do this shit

"AHMAHGAD TEH GOVERNMENT WONT STOP TRYING TO PREVENT THEFT WHY R THEY DOING THIS THEY KEEP SCREWING STUFF UP THAT'S NOT STEALING!...


afk stealing some movies and tv shows, and oh btw anybody got a stolen copy of that sweet new game I can have?"

[Mazmaz]

When did Plow start going full retard?

[Churchill]

Aug 2005 or so

[hey]

When did Plow start going full retard?

He's the same guy that posted this. What do you expect?

[Kuya]

it's really too bad people refuse to stop stealing shit and giving them nearly unlimited reasons to do this shit

"AHMAHGAD TEH GOVERNMENT WONT STOP TRYING TO PREVENT THEFT WHY R THEY DOING THIS THEY KEEP SCREWING STUFF UP THAT'S NOT STEALING!...


afk stealing some movies and tv shows, and oh btw anybody got a stolen copy of that sweet new game I can have?"

Why are you berating strawmen?

[MaachaQ]

it's really too bad people refuse to stop stealing shit and giving them nearly unlimited reasons to do this shit

"AHMAHGAD TEH GOVERNMENT WONT STOP TRYING TO PREVENT THEFT WHY R THEY DOING THIS THEY KEEP SCREWING STUFF UP THAT'S NOT STEALING!...


afk stealing some movies and tv shows, and oh btw anybody got a stolen copy of that sweet new game I can have?"

I admit I've "stolen" alot of shows, mainly Anime that I wanted to watch with English subtitles. But guess what? I've also bought a crapton of DVDs/LDs/BluRays, probably more than most people do. Here's pics of my collection as of ~4 years ago, and it has only grown since then:

Spoiler: show

http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z...nal/movies.jpg
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z...nal/anime2.jpg
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z...nal/anime1.jpg
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z...rnal/boxes.jpg

My biggest concern with this new law is that it could outright ban imports of legal copies of a show if there is a domestic version released, even if that domestic version is substantially altered from the original. Say I was a Naruto fan (I'm not, but it's an easy example), I would be forced to buy the US version release even though it is heavily censored for the US market. I would have no legal means to get an uncensored copy of the show unless the US licensee made it available (usually later and a a higher cost). I'm currently living in Korea and have access to many newer Anime shows on TV, mainly Japanese subtitled with Korean. If I want to buy a copy of the show on disc, I usually have to look toward Japan or the US, because physical media sales are almost nonexistent in Korea. Internet speeds are fast enough here that most people just stream shows when the want to watch. We have a set-top box that has on-demand video streaming for just about everything aired on our cable networks, available maybe a week or so after it airs. I can't even subscribe to Netflix/Hulu/etc to get "legal" streams of shows because they don't allow connections from outside the US (and using a VPN for streaming service defeats the purpose since it slows down internet speed to a crawl).

The next biggest BS move is 70 years/120 years on copyright, that is just insane... the current 50 years after death of the author to me is even too much. Much more reasonable would be 20-25 years after the author's death, which would provide for their surviving family for plenty of time. Far too little is passing into the public domain nowadays.

[BaneTheBrawler]

Maybe if they'd sell me digital copies that didn't require redeeming 36 digit codes for a one-time download (of sub-par formatting, no less) or subscriptions for everything I'd pay them for their mediocre movies.

[hey]

Much more reasonable would be 20-25 years after the author's death, which would provide for their surviving family for plenty of time.

Nah, reasonable would be 6 months to a year after it's first created/released.

That covers the vast majority of sales anyway.

[Cantih]

I'd argue 20 years, no exceptions. Fuck sitting on your laurels.
If you live to 100, you only need to do 4 awesome things in your life.

[hey]

I'd argue 20 years, no exceptions. Fuck sitting on your laurels.
If you live to 100, you only need to do 4 awesome things in your life.

And it's not like there are no ways to make money on something, even without copyright, and everyone can download your shit for free, anyway.

[Cantih]

And it's not like there are no ways to make money on something, even without copyright, and everyone can download your shit for free, anyway.

^

For example, these dudes http://www.eclipsephase.com/game their entire game is CC licensed. THEY ACTUALLY SEEDED "pirate" torrents of the PDF, and one of the writers puts fileshare links on his blog soon after each new release. You know what it got them? http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/metal.php Fuckin platinum sales on the core book, and Sunward, Gatecrashing, Panopticon, and Rimward all went Gold in about a week of their release, these dudes are batting at Shadowrun/White Wolf level.

Then there's THIS guy http://craphound.com/?cat=5
All those images on the right, click 'em. On the top of every page should be a "download for free" link, there you can get a complete copy of each book, in damn near any file format you could possibly want. Or, you can go buy them in a bookstore (or off Amazon), and people do, his publisher is p. f. happy with him. Three books coming out in the next half year, one a collaboration with Charles Stross.

Oh, and on the matter of publishers. Baen.
Yeah, BAEN http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baen
Has published books, in bookstores, that contain CDs, filled with copies of their books. They explicitly state you can do whatever you like with the CD, including http://baencd.thefifthimperium.com/ PUTTING THEM ON THE FUCKING INTERNET. Wanna read every single Honor Harrington book up to Mission of Honor, right now? http://baencd.thefifthimperium.com/2...ssionofHonorCD YOU'RE COVERED BITCHES.
How's Baen doing? Great.

FREEDOM
IT FUCKING WORKS

[hey]

I'm still pretty amused with the dvd link for closure on http://www.nin.com/albums/ .

[Plow]

I admit I've "stolen" alot of shows, mainly Anime that I wanted to watch with English subtitles. But guess what? I've also bought a crapton of DVDs/LDs/BluRays, probably more than most people do. Here's pics of my collection as of ~4 years ago, and it has only grown since then:

Spoiler: show

http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z...nal/movies.jpg
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z...nal/anime2.jpg
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z...nal/anime1.jpg
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z...rnal/boxes.jpg

My biggest concern with this new law is that it could outright ban imports of legal copies of a show if there is a domestic version released, even if that domestic version is substantially altered from the original. Say I was a Naruto fan (I'm not, but it's an easy example), I would be forced to buy the US version release even though it is heavily censored for the US market. I would have no legal means to get an uncensored copy of the show unless the US licensee made it available (usually later and a a higher cost). I'm currently living in Korea and have access to many newer Anime shows on TV, mainly Japanese subtitled with Korean. If I want to buy a copy of the show on disc, I usually have to look toward Japan or the US, because physical media sales are almost nonexistent in Korea. Internet speeds are fast enough here that most people just stream shows when the want to watch. We have a set-top box that has on-demand video streaming for just about everything aired on our cable networks, available maybe a week or so after it airs. I can't even subscribe to Netflix/Hulu/etc to get "legal" streams of shows because they don't allow connections from outside the US (and using a VPN for streaming service defeats the purpose since it slows down internet speed to a crawl).

The next biggest BS move is 70 years/120 years on copyright, that is just insane... the current 50 years after death of the author to me is even too much. Much more reasonable would be 20-25 years after the author's death, which would provide for their surviving family for plenty of time. Far too little is passing into the public domain nowadays.

There's a whole lot of things wrong with this, and many other copyright/IP laws.

But it wouldn't be nearly this insanely overbearing and ridiculous if people weren't stealing billions of dollars of IP every single day.

And, it's retarded as hell for people to sit around complaining about copyright laws knowing full well that they're going to steal as much as they can as long as it's possible.

He's the same guy that posted this. What do you expect?

you realize you just tried to imply I was dumb for arguing that stand your ground laws were a really really bad thing a few days *BEFORE* the trayvon martin shit, right?

and that every single person that argued against me there has looked stupid as fuck ever since...

[ronin sparthos]

There's a whole lot of things wrong with this, and many other copyright/IP laws.

But it wouldn't be nearly this insanely overbearing and ridiculous if people weren't stealing billions of dollars of IP every single day.

And, it's retarded as hell for people to sit around complaining about copyright laws knowing full well that they're going to steal as much as they can as long as it's possible.

You're being exceedingly naive.

[Plow]

oh my bad, I forgot about all the huge copyright law issues we had before napster

I had almost completely forgotten about that guy that got arrested with thousands of recorded tv shows on videotapes he wasn't selling or trading or anything.