[THS] Secret copyright treaty leaks. It's bad. Very bad.

[Peter Webster]

Secret copyright treaty leaks. It's bad. Very bad.
 by Cory Doctorow

http://www.boingboing.net/2009/11/03/secret-copyright-tre.html

The internet chapter of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, a secret copyright
treaty whose text Obama's administration refused to disclose due to "national
security" concerns, has leaked. It's bad. It says:

	* That ISPs have to proactively police copyright on user-contributed material.
This means that it will be impossible to run a service like Flickr or YouTube or
Blogger, since hiring enough lawyers to ensure that the mountain of material
uploaded every second isn't infringing will exceed any hope of profitability.

	* That ISPs have to cut off the Internet access of accused copyright infringers
or face liability. This means that your entire family could be denied to the internet --
and hence to civic participation, health information, education, communications, and
their means of earning a living -- if one member is accused of copyright
infringement, without access to a trial or counsel.

	*That the whole world must adopt US-style "notice-and-takedown" rules that
require ISPs to remove any material that is accused -- again, without evidence or trial
-- of infringing copyright. This has proved a disaster in the US and other countries,
where it provides an easy means of censoring material, just by accusing it of
infringing copyright.

	* Mandatory prohibitions on breaking DRM, even if doing so for a lawful
purpose (e.g., to make a work available to disabled people; for archival preservation;
because you own the copyrighted work that is locked up with DRM)

The ACTA Internet Chapter: Putting the Pieces Together
Next: More on secret copyright treaty: your kids could go to jail for noncommercial
music sharing