DMCA may be poised to go world wide

ACTA bill sounds much like existing American law

[Demaestro]

source:
[arstechnica.com...]

ACTA appears to be a measure to extend the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) to the rest of the world, and that's exactly what the Internet section tries to do.

A note worthy point is that they look to continue the trend that ISPs are protected from copyright lawsuits so long as they have no direct responsibility for infringement.

Major downside in my opinion is:

it would make it illegal to bypass DRM locks, even when the intended use is a legal one.

I am all in favor of the DMCA, not so much of DRM.

[graeme_p]

The bits of the DMCA that affect webmasters (safe harbour until you receive notice)) are pretty reasonable, apart from the lack of effective penalties for false claims (due to lack of enforcement - a false DMCA claim is perjury, but there have been no criminal prosecutions).

ACTA is far broader. Disconnection from the net for three downloads in breach of copyright - and possibly three mere accusations would be enough (like the French law was originally going to be).

The worst thing is that it is secret so there is no possibility of public debate. What has leaked so far suggests it will be very good for big media, but bad for everyone else (including most of us here).

[claus]

IMHO, ACTA is totally and utterly insane. It represents a severe attack on liberties enjoyed today, and no sane internet user, ISP, or web master should consider it a positive thing.

The traditional big media has too much power in the organizations doing work like this. And the traditional big media does not share the interests of the users (their customers), the webmasters (their competitors), the ISPs (cash cows to milk), or anyone else for that matter. Further, the artists that they claim to represent are being fed utterly lousy margins, as the big media directs almost all income into their own pockets. No wonder more and more artists turn to direct distribution.

So, this is nothing but an attempt to build into law that their insane profits must continue, even though the free market dictates that they must fall.

When access to end users is close to cost free there is no profit left for a middle man. No need for one either.