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As reported earlier, a secret treaty is being discussed by world governments in an effort to clamp down on online piracy.
It is now revealed that the US drafted section of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) promotes three-strikes as a viable solution to battling online piracy, and tries to force the US DMCA's anti-circumvention rule to be adopted by other countries, without the very important interoperability requirement.
The interoperability requirement, that many European countries have and have actually taken to court various DRM schemes such as Apple's Fairplay DRM, states that DRM should be interfere with the interoperability of the content. If Apple's Fairplay DRM was preventing iTunes downloads to be played on non Apple music players, then interoperability provisions would ban Fairplay DRM, and this has occured in some European countries. The new US position would remove the interoperability requirement, and thus allow DRM to be used to protect proprietary formats. And anyone trying to get rid of the DRM for interoperability will then fall foul of the DMCA-like provisions in the ACTA.
1,700 European ISPs and the European Union have all expressed concern at these latest developments, but it is unknown if their protests will be heard at the secret meetings.
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It is now revealed that the US drafted section of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) promotes three-strikes as a viable solution to battling online piracy, and tries to force the US DMCA's anti-circumvention rule to be adopted by other countries, without the very important interoperability requirement.
The interoperability requirement, that many European countries have and have actually taken to court various DRM schemes such as Apple's Fairplay DRM, states that DRM should be interfere with the interoperability of the content. If Apple's Fairplay DRM was preventing iTunes downloads to be played on non Apple music players, then interoperability provisions would ban Fairplay DRM, and this has occured in some European countries. The new US position would remove the interoperability requirement, and thus allow DRM to be used to protect proprietary formats. And anyone trying to get rid of the DRM for interoperability will then fall foul of the DMCA-like provisions in the ACTA.
1,700 European ISPs and the European Union have all expressed concern at these latest developments, but it is unknown if their protests will be heard at the secret meetings.
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