The more I read about this stuff, the worse it gets…

As if the national (ie: Canadian) laws weren’t getting screwed up enough, now there’s a proposed international treaty that’s even more rife with abuse and blatantly biased bull$#!t.

From the Sydney Morning Herald - Digital copyright: it’s all wrong:

The ACTA draft is a scary document. If a treaty based on its provisions were adopted, it would enable any border guard, in any treaty country, to check any electronic device for any content that they suspect infringes copyright laws. They need no proof, only suspicion.

They would be able to seize any device - laptop, iPod, DVD recorder, mobile phone, etc - and confiscate it or destroy anything on it, merely on suspicion. On the spot, no lawyers, no right of appeal, no nothing.

The draft contains other draconian measures. It proposes a governing body for copyright protection that would operate outside organisations such as the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the UN. In short, it proposes a global police force, answerable to no one, with intrusive powers that vastly exceed those currently available to adherents of the concept of intellectual property.

The proposed treaty is being sponsored by a small group of US Congress members, all of whom Wikileaks says have received significant contributions from major record companies and film studios. As they say, “follow the money”.

Read the rest here.

I have a hard enough time just keeping my mouth shut with the security theater nonsense we have to put up with at the airport as it is (”Thank God they made Grandma take her shoes off, now we’re all safe from terrorists!”).  Now I have to worry about some underpaid uneducated bully with a plastic badge rooting around in my laptop looking for pictures of my girlfriend he can download for “personal use” later!?  Of course I can protest all I want… in a windowless room with a latex-covered finger up my @$$ while my plane takes off without me… or I can just comply like a good little citizen.

I have a pretty decent size music collection, just over 12.000 tracks on my iPod right now.  I used to DJ in University, but more importantly I download a LOT of independent music put out by undiscovered bands because I love looking for a new sound and I love the passion that goes into the tracks that these guys put out, hoping and praying for their one shot.  I do things like grabbing the fully legal and authorized torrent put out each year by the SXSW music festival containing around 600-900 songs, one song from each band playing in the festival.  How exactly am I supposed to alleviate the “suspicions” of some airport security goon who decides to screw with me by confiscating my iPod??

If this thing goes through, I’m going to end up in jail somewhere, I know it.  There’s just no way I’m going to be able to keep my mouth shut.

Tags: Copyright, Law, Politics