November 4, 2009 8:38 AM
Korea ACTA talks: US secret draft to restrict Internet
Yet another global treaty being advanced by the US which will abet in the repression of US citizens. This one will police the Internet - and as noted below, has been drafted by the US and treated with the secrecy of a nuclear bomb.
I can hardly believe with this kind of news - a president who promised transparency and yet who operates by stealth and cover-up - that the Left is so stubbornly clinging to the Big O. Even Alinsky notes in Rules for Radicals that the Left can go so far out that it circles back to the right. Or as we read in our book study of Animal Farm, the pigs start walking on two feet and dressing up like the humans they overthrew.
These negotiations will be taking place in Seoul Korea today - and the news of the US draft just leaked:
Trade Talks Hone in on Internet Abuse and ISP Liability
Paul Meller, IDG News Service
Nov 3, 2009 12:10 pm
ISPs around the world may be forced to snoop on their subscribers and cut them off if they are found to have shared copyright-protected music on the Internet, under an international agreement being promoted by the U.S.
Countries including Japan, Canada, South Korea, Australia as well as the European Union and U.S. have been negotiating an anticounterfeiting trade agreement (ACTA) over the past two years to combat the growing problem of counterfeit products ranging from designer clothes to downloadable music.
The countries are due to discuss the ACTA at a meeting in South Korea on Wednesday, focusing specifically on the issue of Internet piracy. The U.S. has drafted the text of the chapter on the Internet.
In a summary of the U.S.'s position shared orally with trade officials at the European Commission in September, signatories of the accord must "provide for third-party liability." The Commission informed all 27 countries in the E.U. of the U.S. position in a memo seen by IDG News service.
Under existing laws in the U.S., the E.U. and elsewhere, ISPs are granted immunity from prosecution for illegal activities carried out by subscribers across their networks. This new global trade agreement appears to contradict the legal status quo, said Michael Geist, a law professor at Ottawa University, Canada.
This provision would mean that every country that signs up to ACTA must allow content owners such as record companies and Hollywood studios to sue ISPs for failing to stop their subscribers from illegally sharing copyright-protected material such as music and movies.
U.S. trade officials have been slow to show any of its trading partners its draft of the Internet chapter ahead of Wednesday's meeting. "This is an intellectual property agreement yet it is being treated like nuclear secrets," Geist said.
Read more at PC World.
HT: Carrien
Posted in Globalism, Obama Nation, Oppression | Permalink
