ACTA Chapter One
by Matthew Forsyth on Jan.30, 2012, under ACTA
Here comes part 2 of ACTA. This is when then the legalese really starts so here’s to hoping I can do the whole chapter in one shot.
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Chapter I: Initial Provisions and General Definitions |
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Section 1: Initial Provisions |
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Article 1: Relation to Other Agreements |
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Nothing in this Agreement shall derogate from any obligation of a Party with respect to any other Party under existing agreements, including the TRIPS Agreement. |
This agreement is subservient to other agreements. Meaning in a conflict between this agreement and another occurs, then the other agreement takes priority. |
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Article 2: Nature and Scope of Obligations |
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1. Each Party shall give effect to the provisions of this Agreement. A Party may implement in its law more extensive enforcement of intellectual property rights than is required by this Agreement, provided that such enforcement does not contravene the provisions of this Agreement. Each Party shall be free to determine the appropriate method of implementing the provisions of this Agreement within its own legal system and practice. |
One of the main points in this law is that ALL parties in the agreement agree to enact and enforce laws that protect intellectual property rights. |
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2. Nothing in this Agreement creates any obligation with respect to the distribution of resources as between enforcement of intellectual property rights and enforcement of law in general. |
There is no obligation to the size of the enforcement staff/funding. |
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3. The objectives and principles set forth in Part I of the TRIPS Agreement, in particular in Articles 7 and 8, shall apply, mutatis mutandis, to this Agreement. |
Mutatis mutandis is Latin for “the necessary changes having been made”. |
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Article 3: Relation to Standards concerning the Availability and Scope of Intellectual Property Rights |
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1. This Agreement shall be without prejudice to provisions in a Party’s law governing the availability, acquisition, scope, and maintenance of intellectual property rights. |
The agreement should have no influence on a country’s policy for copyrighting material. |
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2. This Agreement does not create any obligation on a Party to apply measures where a right in intellectual property is not protected under its laws and regulations. |
The agreement does not create an necessity for a country to expand what it allows copyright to be given to. |
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Article 4: Privacy and Disclosure of Information |
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1. Nothing in this Agreement shall require a Party to disclose: (a) information, the disclosure of which would be contrary to its law, including laws protecting privacy rights, or international agreements to which it is party; (b) confidential information, the disclosure of which would impede law enforcement or otherwise be contrary to the public interest; or (c) confidential information, the disclosure of which would prejudice the legitimate commercial interests of particular enterprises, public or private. |
THIS IS WHAT PEOPLE SEEM TO MISUNDERSTAND!!!!!! This article says RIGHT AWAY that information that is protected by law in a country SHOULD NOT BE DISCLOSED. Any right to privacy a person now has IS STILL PROTECTED UNDER THIS AGREEMENT. |
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2. When a Party provides written information pursuant to the provisions of this Agreement, the Party receiving the information shall, subject to its law and practice, refrain from disclosing or using the information for a purpose other than that for which the information was provided, except with the prior consent of the Party providing the information. |
Any information that is disclosed through this agreement CANNOT be used to prosecute other legal cases. |
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Section 2: General Definitions |
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Article 5: General Definitions |
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For the purposes of this Agreement, unless otherwise specified: (a) ACTA means the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement; (b) Committee means the ACTA Committee established under Chapter V (Institutional Arrangements); (c) competent authorities includes the appropriate judicial, administrative, or law enforcement authorities under a Party’s law; (d) counterfeit trademark goods means any goods, including packaging, bearing without authorization a trademark which is identical to the trademark validly registered in respect of such goods, or which cannot be distinguished in its essential aspects from such a trademark, and which thereby infringes the rights of the owner of the trademark in question under the law of the country in which the procedures set forth in Chapter II (Legal Framework for Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights) are invoked; (e) country is to be understood to have the same meaning as that set forth in the Explanatory Notes to the WTO Agreement; (f) customs transit means the customs procedure under which goods are transported under customs control from one customs office to another; (g) days means calendar days; (h) intellectual property refers to all categories of intellectual property that are the subject of Sections 1 through 7 of Part II of the TRIPS Agreement; (i) in-transit goods means goods under customs transit or transhipment; (j) person means a natural person or a legal person; (k) pirated copyright goods means any goods which are copies made without the consent of the right holder or person duly authorized by the right holder in the country of production and which are made directly or indirectly from an article where the making of that copy would have constituted an infringement of a copyright or a related right under the law of the country in which the procedures set forth in Chapter II (Legal Framework for Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights) are invoked; (l) right holder includes a federation or an association having the legal standing to assert rights in intellectual property; (m) territory, for the purposes of Section 3 (Border Measures) of Chapter II (Legal Framework for Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights), means the customs territory and all free zones[1] of a Party; (n) transhipment means the customs procedure under which goods are transferred under customs control from the importing means of transport to the exporting means of transport within the area of one customs office which is the office of both importation and exportation; (o) TRIPS Agreement means the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, contained in Annex 1C to the WTO Agreement; (p) WTO means the World Trade Organization; and (q) WTO Agreement means the Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization,done on 15 April 1994. |
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I was trying to think of something to say at the end of this chapter, but then I couldn’t think of anything.
ACTA Introduction
by Matthew Forsyth on Jan.28, 2012, under ACTA
As promised part 1 of my ACTA section by section critical analysis. While this is only the introduction I do believe it is important because it sets the “flavor” of the whole agreement. The source of the copy of ACTA that I am using is on the Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada website. I am directly copying the text from that website; copies of the agreement are also available in Wikipedia, and probably tons of other sites.
| The Parties to this Agreement, | An actual list of the parties that are involved in the agreement is presented in the final section of the agreement. |
| Noting that effective enforcement of intellectual property rights is critical to sustaining economic growth across all industries and globally; | Pretty self-explanatory, this starts the justification for the agreement. |
| Noting further that the proliferation of counterfeit and pirated goods, as well as of services that distribute infringing material, undermines legitimate trade and sustainable development of the world economy, causes significant financial losses for right holders and for legitimate businesses, and, in some cases, provides a source of revenue for organized crime and otherwise poses risks to the public; | Knowing that the sale and distribution of Illegal goods harms the development of the world economy as well as causes danger to the public (as some sales of counterfeit goods have been traced to funding organized crime and terrorism). |
| Desiring to combat such proliferation through enhanced international cooperation and more effective international enforcement; | Wanting to combat the illegal activities through international cooperation. |
| Intending to provide effective and appropriate means, complementing the TRIPS Agreement, for the enforcement of intellectual property rights, taking into account differences in their respective legal systems and practices; | Expanding on the TRIPS agreement (the predecessor of this agreement, put into effect in the mid-nineties, it is almost the exact same agreement, this agreement just expands on adding more provisions for international cooperation). More information on the TRIPS agreement can be found here. |
| Desiring to ensure that measures and procedures to enforce intellectual property rights do not themselves become barriers to legitimate trade; | Self-explanatory, the enforcement of this act should not interfere with legitimate trade. |
| Desiring to address the problem of infringement of intellectual property rights, including infringement taking place in the digital environment, in particular with respect to copyright or related rights, in a manner that balances the rights and interests of the relevant right holders, service providers, and users; | This act is meant to curb digital piracy, without infringing the rights of users. This is one of the few times the user is mentioned in this bill, which is funny because many interpretations that people give when trying to convince others to protest the agreement is that the bill sets up specific courses of action which infringe on the users rights, such as monitoring everyone’s internet usage. |
| Desiring to promote cooperation between service providers and right holders to address relevant infringements in the digital environment; | Self-explanatory. |
| Desiring that this Agreement operates in a manner mutually supportive of international enforcement work and cooperation conducted within relevant international organizations; | The provisions in the agreement should help law enforcement agencies. |
| Recognizing the principles set forth in the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health, adopted on 14 November 2001, at the Fourth WTO Ministerial Conference; | The provisions should not conflict with prior agreements. |
Hereby agreeas follows:Chapter I: Initial Provisions and Definitions
Chapter II: Legal Framework For Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights
Chapter III: Enforcement Practices |
A quick table of contents for the rest of the agreement. |
There you are the first section of the ACTA agreement demystified. I hope that this gets you excited to hear about the rest of the agreement, and convinces you to remain open minded.
ACTA, SOPA and LIES!
by Matthew Forsyth on Jan.27, 2012, under ACTA, SOPA
Over the course of the next few days/ weeks I want to post some ramblings on a few topics that have been very hot on the internet, ACTA and SOPA.
I think everyone on the internet believes these are the evilest things to come out of Washington in the past few years, but are they really? After hearing all these RIDICULOUS claims as to what these allow I’ve decided to take a look at the laws/agreements in their true form (the actual written form) and see what they actually say. These stories about requiring internet service providers being required to monitor and log everyone’s traffic is not only a violation of our rights as citizens but also ENTIRELY impracticable. There are also other ridiculous claims that people have made but there’s no point in listing them here if they arn’t true.
Since SOPA has all but been diverted for a view months lets look at the agreement that started SOPA in the first place, ACTA. Many people my not of heard of this agreement but it is REALLY important and EXTREMELY fair and just.
ACTA stands for ‘Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement’ and basically outlines policies that all participating countries that agree to it must o bide by. These polices are all pretty much common sense but the issue is that people tend not to read for themselves and therefore get exaggerations of what these agreements actually say. In the effort of fair and just reporting I will take the time to post side by side the actual agreement and a simplified version devoid of the legalize. At the end I hope to post a summary of what it all actually DOES.
Development
by Matthew Forsyth on Jan.23, 2010, under Programming
I started developing my next game, Extreme Illinois Farming, about of week ago. The game is based off of some crazy ideas my friends had. Strangly enough it has actually been fun to program.
In other news I have been working on a robot for USFirst FRC. Mostly secret stuff but let’s say that the control system is not exactly simple but we got it all ready.
