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Another day, another ACTA leak. For those that haven't been following, the ACTA is a global treaty currently being negotiated in secret. The aim of the ACTA is to get countries adopt a series of rather harsh measure to stop online piracy, everything from three-strikes, to exporting the US style DMCA to a country near you.
Had the negotiating parties not made the discussions secret, there might not have been as many leaks as most of the stuff is quite boring, but it's clear that many countries are uncomfortable with the idea of secrecy and some have been leaking stuff all over the place.
The latest leaks see countries such as Japan and New Zealand questioning the wisdom of adopting an US style DCMA legislation, which is at odds with their current laws and these countries perhaps hold the opinion that the DMCA is far too restrictive.
New Zealand also questioned why safe harbour is needed for links. It's not that they don't want safe harbour, which gives immunity to websites as long as they have a clear and working anti-piracy solution in place, it's that they don't really understand how links can violate copyright as to need safe harbour in the first place. We don't understand it either!
Just to make it clear, most of these rather draconian measures are being pushed by the US, which themselves are being lobbied by the entertainment industry in general (also the BSA, probably).
One thing that is out may be ISP monitoring, since nobody, other than the US of course, likes this very much.
The ars technica article has lots more, it's well worth a read even if it is just to get an insight into what happens at these types of international negotiations:
Had the negotiating parties not made the discussions secret, there might not have been as many leaks as most of the stuff is quite boring, but it's clear that many countries are uncomfortable with the idea of secrecy and some have been leaking stuff all over the place.
The latest leaks see countries such as Japan and New Zealand questioning the wisdom of adopting an US style DCMA legislation, which is at odds with their current laws and these countries perhaps hold the opinion that the DMCA is far too restrictive.
New Zealand also questioned why safe harbour is needed for links. It's not that they don't want safe harbour, which gives immunity to websites as long as they have a clear and working anti-piracy solution in place, it's that they don't really understand how links can violate copyright as to need safe harbour in the first place. We don't understand it either!
Just to make it clear, most of these rather draconian measures are being pushed by the US, which themselves are being lobbied by the entertainment industry in general (also the BSA, probably).
One thing that is out may be ISP monitoring, since nobody, other than the US of course, likes this very much.
The ars technica article has lots more, it's well worth a read even if it is just to get an insight into what happens at these types of international negotiations:
