Dear all,
as most of you probably know, ACTA (the "Anti-Counterfeiting Trade
Agreement") which is currently being negotiated is (despite its name)
likely to seriously impact the internet.
For example, from the draft text that has been published in April [1],
we see that a provision has been suggested that would require
participating countries to give their courts the authority to issue
an "interlocutory injunction ... against an intermediary whose
services are being used by a third party to infringe an intellectual
property right."
[1]
https://www.ige.ch/fileadmin/user_upload/Juristische_Infos/e/acta_text_for_…
In other words, if this suggested text becomes international law, it
implies that copyright holders can get injunctions against ISPs to
prevent the illegal distribution of their content via the ISP's
networks.
The draft Agreement even explicitly requires the participating
countries to make the "enforcement procedures" so that they "permit
effective action" against copyright infringement that takes place
via the internet.
At the last round of negotiations (which took place in New Zealand in
April) a group of activists and InternetNZ (a large provider)
organised a parallel event "PublicACTA" in the same venue as the ACTA
negotiations, with the purpose to inform the public and elicit
discussions, see
http://publicacta.org.nz
Apparantly this event was a big success.
They're suggesting that what they did could be continued with an event
in a similar spirit here in Switzerland where the next round of
negotations is planned to take place (probably in Geneva, sometime in
June, we don't know the exact date yet).
Who would be willing to help organize and/or contribute funding to
such an event?
Greetings,
Norbert
--
Owner/CEO, Adaptux GmbH -
http://adaptux.com
Coaching and Consulting in all areas of informatics management including
Goal-Setting, Strategy Development, Procurement, Day-To-Day Operations,
Software Asset Management, Risk Management, Benefit Orientation Management.