As ACTA 1.0 Lies Dying, Are G8 Countries Already Working On ACTA 2.0?
from the never-gonna-give-you-up dept
As we recently reported, ACTA has been dealt a serious blow by the EU Rapporteur’s recommendation that the European Parliament should reject the treaty. In a fascinating leaked document (pdf) obtained by EDRI, it seems that even the G8 countries have accepted that ACTA is probably dead — and have started working on a successor.
Although the short (three-page) document appears to have avoided ACTA’s mistake of mixing two totally different issues — physical counterfeits and digital copying — and concentrates on the former, there are still major ramifications for the online world, as EDRI points out:
The Internet section, while avoiding the issue of policing of digital copying, is partially copied and pasted from the White House annual report on IPR Enforcement.
Moreover, like ACTA, the initiative is also a thinly-veiled attempt to implant the US’s approach in countries around the world:
The G8 document seeks to export the entire US policy on the role of intermediaries in the trade in physical counterfeits. In particular, it seeks to make American companies into a form of global non-judicial police force / government, with responsibilities ranging from “educating” citizens to policing and, ultimately, punishing companies and citizens on the basis of allegations.
The main way the new plan hopes to do that is through “voluntary cooperative efforts”, of the kind employed by ACTA, SOPA and the planned six-strikes scheme in the US, which handily avoids the need for new legislation:
Promoting voluntary cooperative efforts to tackle the proliferation of illegal Internet pharmacies. G8 countries could pledge to facilitate voluntary cooperative efforts among businesses in the pharmaceutical supply chain to stem the flow of counterfeit medicines. The voluntary industry actions could include options ranging from the financial (e.g. blocking credit card payments), to the physical (e.g., shippers refusing transportation), to the virtual (e.g., taking appropriate action against unlawful websites).
The other interesting feature of the leaked “non-paper”, as it calls itself, is the way that the Internet is being demonized for its involvement with the increased flow of fake medicines:
Reports of counterfeit drugs being found in U.S. supply chains are now a frequent occurrence. These drugs pose grave threats to public health. Increased access to the Internet, coupled with new methods of manufacturing and distributing illegal pharmaceuticals have created new challenges to safeguarding the legitimate supply chain.
It’s hard not to see this as a further attempt to paint the Internet as a dangerous, lawless place that needs “taming” because of the “grave threats to public health”. I suppose it’s a change from asking us to think of the children.
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Comments on “As ACTA 1.0 Lies Dying, Are G8 Countries Already Working On ACTA 2.0?”
They Will never stop us
And they won’t.We will use the newest Tech to bypass your stupid attempts to stifle the Internet.We will use whatever means we have to in order to Maintain A Free Internet.
There are people who are a lot smarter than I am and they are working or studying IT & The Internets & Computer Tech.There will always be a way to get the message out.
Wake me up when the Revolution Starts.
I hate this Government.
I knew it! I knew this will become a trend and it’s their new strategy. Instead of trying to pass a law, they will just try to coerce/convince big corporations into “voluntarily” doing the censorship and monitoring for them. We need to fight back on this before it spreads over entire industries and it’s too late to change it back.
Monopoly, not Go or Sorry
Had seen some of this previously, and it appears to in some ways be a move by the pharmaceutical industry to maintain their exclusive production/distribution and 1000% to 2800% markup–which is a nice fat profit margin.
Re: Monopoly, not Go or Sorry
Funny how you don’t see an increase in counterfeit drugs in the places that aren’t running scams to make the legal drugs unneccessarily crazy expensive.
The profits must flow. The internet is a lawless waste land of cats, pr0n and memes. It must be civilised. Or the world is doomed, DOOOOOMED.
Re: Re:
if they want the profits to flow the First thing they need to do is give up on the idea of single currencies for areas larger than a city-region.
that or give up on ‘free trade’ and globalization.
this sort of stupidity just encourages armed uprisings, eventually… and those are never good for the bottom line… unless you’re a mercenary or arms dealer. (or black-marketeer, i guess.)
Hey it’s Hollywood, they only know how to do remakes and sequels, rather then making something new and original.
Oh, and it’s election season to, so politicians need to do something to ‘encourage’ donations from people with big bags of money sitting around.
Re: Re:
Actually in a way, the fact that it’s election time is what gives the public even more power regarding stuff like this.
Tons and tons of bri… uh, I mean ‘donations’ don’t mean squat if people won’t vote for the person.
It will be the same crap even more heavily marketed as anti terrorism/pedophilia/piracy/organised crime.
it makes no difference how many of these type of ‘documents’ get rejected, there will be another after another after another until the US gets exactly what it wants. this total fear of someone, somewhere, doing something that is against what the USA wants is brought on by itself. it’s it’s own extremely aggressive, self important attitude that pisses other countries off. leave others alone then the biggest thing to fear is fear itself!
Re: Re:
All governments (not just the US) will fear the internet because it gives the public access to information to which they would not otherwise have access.
Governments fear an informed public
Internet informs the public
Internet = evil.
Unfortunately, it is that simple.
Re: Re:
this sort of nonsense is why the right to keep and bear arms is in the US constitution, btw.
at what point does it become viable, or even Necessary, to take advantage of that?
because frankly i don’t see this nonsense ending without the entire corrupt system being torn down and rebuilt on a different model, with the old elite dead (whether by violence or age, it matters little, but there must be a Break between the old way and the new, and simply having new people of a younger generation take up the roles of the old is the slowest way to change such things, if it works at all… and is perhaps too slow all togeather at this point.)
Say goodbye to your affordable medicines
“Reports of counterfeit drugs being found in U.S. supply chains are now a frequent occurrence. These drugs pose grave threats to public health.”
Many less affluent people (including seniors on fixed incomes) buy their doctor prescribed medicines from online pharmacies to save money. They are getting perfectly good quality generic versions of the drugs they need. However these drugs are technically “counterfeit” since the are not licensed and labeled for sale in country. Big pharma is seeking to increase their already huge profits by cutting off this source of affordable medicine for the poor!
The vulture like greed sickens me.
Re: Say goodbye to your affordable medicines
Many of those “counterfeit drugs” are perfectly-legal drugs purchased in Canada by US seniors.
Re: Re: Say goodbye to your affordable medicines
In most cases, though, these days, the prescription has to be written by a practitioner licensed to do that kind of thing in the province where the prescription comes from.
That said, from what I do know of this is that seniors in border states will often come into Canada, get a GP here and then have the legal drugs sent into the USA on refills. For better or worse that’s how most Canadian based online pharmacies have to operate these days.
“Reports of counterfeit drugs being found in U.S. supply chains are now a frequent occurrence.”
Unless they are now calling FedEx and UPS “U.S. supply chains” they are not talking about drugs bought online by consumers. Therefore “increased access to the internet” is not the problem.
Re: Re:
So the next step is to have the DOJ take out FedEx and UPS as they are a “conspiracy to commit priracy”. Actually while their at it the government can take out itself by having the DOJ takedown the USPS while they are at it.
It’s a paradox if you think about it.. we wouldn’t be where we are today, technology wise, without groups like the AA’s, yet these groups are the ones trying to hold back the technology…. and in holding back the technology, they are causing the people to create new technologies to bypass these attempts to hold us back… round and round we go.. advancing technology at ever increasing speeds……..
They keep this crap up, were going to be transferring files through “mind melding” pretty soon….. tinfoil hat anyone?
Re: Re:
“we wouldn’t be where we are today, technology wise, without groups like the AA’s”
Yeah we would be further on. They challenge every new technological innovation and they are holding back the development of cloud computing by years.
Re: Re: Re:
“Yeah we would be further on”
I don’t know ….IMO… People tend to get lazy in the absence of adversity… it’s typically only when challenged, that we seem to excel.
Re: Re: Re: Re:
True, but in the absence of the *AAs, there’d be more of the type of challenge that really works in the way you describe: competition.
“have created new challenges to safeguarding the legitimate supply chain.”
Notice how that doesn’t say “safeguarding the people”? Nope, safeguarding the supply chain. You’d almost think they cared more about that then the health of the…
oh.
Re: Re:
they don’t generally care much about the health of the economy either, only their own bank account… they seem to have missed how worthless that becomes when the economy crashes…
RE legitimate
so, it’s “OK” for legitimate drugs to harm you, but not the “illegitimate” ones
OK that clears that up
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_withdrawn_drugs
I wonder if, just for a moment, someone stopped to consider that reports of counterfeits, real ones, are increasing because of wide spread internet access?
I said real to differentiate between those in US border states who get their meds from on line pharmacies Canada which are then legally shipped into the United States.
Not those which can cause sickness or death if taken or nothing at all in the case of “sugar pills”. In the latter case beware of the placebo effect which can be extremely powerful at times so the person taking them does get some healing effects from them.
The Internet may make it easier to access so-called counterfeit drugs, say Tylenol 3 which is an over the counter drug in Canada but needs script in the USA.
That self same Web makes it far easier to spread news about dangerous fakes than was possible before.
What Big Pharma really hates, though, is that the Web makes it easier to report and spread news about undocumented side effects of “legitimate” drugs that can cause death, injury and addiction whether they’re being used off label or not.
Either way, news gets around. And either way government hates it.
Fear, corp Money
Is it time to CUT the budget??
as our law maker MUST be making BANK, with all the Moo-la being paid to them..
What is it NOW?? 4-6?? and MORE on the way..
The problem has 2 things WRONG..
1. they are going to KEEP DOING IT, until they get it PAST..Until the gov makes it a LAW or part of constitution Against it happening.
2. while you DEBATE 1, another is sneaking up..and being done BEHIND YOU..
Re: Fear, corp Money
passed, not past.
past refers to the period of time before the present, or is used as (prepositon? adverb? i’m not sure. but ‘we walked/went/drove past them’)
the verb is Passed. (past tense of pass) ‘he passed me’ ‘they passed the bill’
you see?
i happen to agree with your point bout the problems, mind you.
oh for pete’s sake