I know that I am beginning to sound like a scratched record (for younger readers, I refer to this piece of old technology), but when I read headlines like BoingBong’s Last push to kill ACTA: act now or the Internet gets it, I get upset. And angry. Angry and upset. Read more…
Today the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties of the Australian House of Representatives has released a report on the implementation of the Anti-counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). The report is supposed to look at ACTA and make recommendations to the government about its implementation. I was positively impressed with the document Read more…
Yesterday I wrote about the anti-ACTA protests taking place across Europe, which prompted a very interesting tweet discussion with Geraldine Juarez (Storify in Spanish here). The gist of the argument is that Geraldine disagrees that there is no reason to protest, while my argument continues to be that people have Read more…
Today Europeans will be hitting the streets against ACTA. This is great, a sign of public engagement from a disillusioned generation that feels like they are not getting anything from their leaders. Something bothers me though. If I were to go to any of the protesters and asked why they Read more…
SOPA and PIPA are knocked-out. ACTA is on the ropes… time to relax? Not yet, meet the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the new front in the War on Piracy™. While there is already a trade agreement under this name, the TPP has been enhanced and in November last year the leaders Read more…
After the (at least for now) defeat of SOPA and PIPA, the copyfight has been moving towards a more international setting with the arrest of the Megaupload owners in New Zealand, and now with the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). In fact, ACTA is not new, but it has been making Read more…
It has been a bad week for the supporters of three strikes copyright policies in Europe. Although at some point last year the panorama looked good for them with the enactment of the Digital Economy Act, it seems like recent legal developments will make it considerably harder for a comprehensive Read more…
Good news everyone. Remember that international multilateral secret agreement everyone was worried about? It turns out that we do not really have to worry that much about it any more. The newest draft text of the Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) has now been published, and it turns out that Read more…
Anyone who has ever heard me speak about Internet regulation will know of my barely contained scepticism with regards to Barlow’s Declaration of Independence of Cyberspace, and all that it represents. In fact, the Declaration speaks of a more innocent time in Internet history, and it is usually considered to Read more…
The final draft of the Anti-counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) has been released to the public (unlike previous drafts, which were leaked). Previously we had looked at the possible changes that the agreement would bring to UK copyright law. I am happy to say that at least the worst case scenario Read more…