EFF

EFF Dissects ACTA

November 19, 2009

A pair of Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) Directors penned an article which delves into some of the issues surrounding the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) negotiations.

The Impact of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement on the Knowledge Economy (PDF) was published in the Yale Journal of International Law. Authors Eddan Katz, EFF International Affairs Director, and Gwen Hinze, EFF International Policy Director, call the secret ACTA negotiations a threat “to undermine the balance of IP at the foundation of sustainable innovation and creativity.”

The EFF is concerned as well with the “unprecedented” secrecy around ACTA negotiations. The organization attempted to gain information using freedom of information laws, but only received 159 pages of information, while 1,362 were withheld due to national security concerns.

The U.S. is negotiating ACTA as a sole executive agreement, meaning that agreements “are concluded on the basis of the President’s independent constitutional authority alone.” The authors note that such agreements are not subjected to congressional vote, thus removing “the inter-branch accountability mechanisms essential to balanced policymaking.”

Circumventing the involvement of organizations such as World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the World Trade Organization (WTO), who typically account for “a range of interests” also removes “checks and balances” from ACTA negotiations.

Why should you and I be concerned about ACTA? The EFF has three responses for that question:

…though it was originally portrayed as an agreement to coordinate best practices on border enforcement of physical goods, ACTA will extend to regulation of global Internet traffic.

...implementation of ACTA may require amending U.S. law and upsetting developments in controversial areas of public policy.

…using trade agreements to set global norms for intellectual property enforcement risks distorting national information regulation.

The EFF authors offer the following proposals as ways to improve the transparency and accountability of ACTA:

• Reform trade advisory committees for more diverse representation;
• Strengthen congressional oversight and negotiating objectives;
• Institutionalize transparency guidelines for trade negotiations;
• Implement the State Department’s solicitation of public comments under the Circular 175 procedure


ACTA negotiations are scheduled to resume in January.

Electronic Frontier Foundation Launches School Copyright Curriculum

June 8, 2009

A couple of weeks back GamePolitics reported that the Copyright Alliance had developed a K-12 curriculum designed to drill the IP lobbying group's message into school children.

By contrast, the more consumer-friendly Electronic Frontier Foundation has launched Teaching Copyright, a curriculum of its own. As one might expect, the EFF takes a much different approach than the Copyright Alliance.

While I'm not sure that either side in the copyright debate should be permitted to chew up precious educational time, the EFF points out that California law requires such curriculum:

In 2006, California passed a law requiring schools that accept technology funding to educate students about copyright, plagiarism, and the basics of Internet safety. Other states have since considered similar laws...

 

When we surveyed existing digital education resources related to copyright, we were dismayed to find that... the materials focused on drilling students on the prohibitions of copyright... we could not stand by and let this educational opportunity become an excuse to scare young people away from making full and fair use of the digital technologies that will continue to affect virtually every aspect of their lives.

The EFF's curriculum includes:

  • What is legal online?
  • How is creativity being enabled by new technologies?
  • What digital rights and responsibilities exist already, and what roles do we play as users of digital technology?

However, Nate Anderson of Ars Technica expressed some concerns about the EFF's educational prorgam:

The EFF's curriculum rightly says that P2P isn't just for copyright infringement... But the material glosses quickly over the absolutely epic levels of infringement taking place on P2P networks...

The [EFF] curriculum seems to presuppose, in fact, that students have already been bombarded with rightsholder concerns to the point that these can almost be left out of the discussion.

 

DRM in Your Car's Engine

May 20, 2009

GamePolitics readers are familiar with the Digital Rights Management controversy which marred the release of Will Wright's long-awaited Spore last year.

But DRM and the consumer-unfriendly Digital Millenium Copyright Act are apparently concerns for drivers as well as gamers.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports that a proposal before Congress would allow independent auto repair shops to break the DRM which currently locks them out of your car's diagnostic computer:

The Right-To-Repair Act of 2009 (H.R. 2057)... points to a much bigger consumer issue... One underlying legal problem here is the DMCA, which prohibits bypassing or circumventing "technological protection measures..."

And the issue goes beyond the importance of being able to get independent repair and maintenance services. The use of technological "locks" against tinkerers also threatens "user innovation" -- the kinds of innovation that traditionally have come from independent tinkerers -- which has increasingly been recognized as an important part of economic growth and technological improvement...

In short, thanks to the DMCA, we need a Right-To-Repair Act not just for cars, but increasingly for all the things we own.

Via: boing boing

Hal Halpin, ECA on Hand For Today's FTC Town Hall Meeting on DRM in Seattle

March 25, 2009

The Federal Trade Commission's much-anticipated Town Hall Meeting on digital rights management (DRM) will take place today at the University of Washington Law School in Seattle.

The all-day event begins at 8:30 A.M. Pacific and will be webcast live.

Among other participants, Entertainment Consumers Association President Hal Halpin will serve on the 1:15 P.M. panel "Informing Consumers." According to the FTC's agenda, "This panel will discuss how companies communicate the existence and effects of DRM protections on products and services to consumers. It will explore ways of providing consumers with better notice."

In advance of his panel appearance, Halpin issued a statement on the Town Hall Meeting:

Over the past year we have witnessed a growing concern from gamers about the issues of increasingly invasive Digital Rights Management (DRM) and End User Licensing Agreements (EULAs). While we respect the careful balance that must exist between the content community and the customer, and agree that piracy is an ever-present challenge for the trade, it is also becoming evident that consumer rights are being diminished in the process...

The law, in the area of EULAs in particular, is not as clear as it once was. And the software industry’s potential side-stepping of the First Sale Doctrine’s protections – by terming their products as “licensed” rather than “sold” - leaves us concerned about the future of interactive entertainment, generally...

Halpin also noted that the ECA is preparing new position statements on both DRM and EULAs. You can read the full text of his statement here.

Among others known to be appearing at the Town Hall on behalf of consumers is Staff Attorney Corynne McSherry of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

FULL DISCLOSURE DEPT: The ECA is the parent company of GamePolitics.

Electronic Frontier Foundation Calls on FTC to Protect Consumers From DRM

February 13, 2009

Digital activist group the Electronic Frontier Foundation has called upon the Federal Trade Commission to mitigate the harm caused to consumers by digital rights management (DRM).

An EFF press release quotes staff attorney Corynne McSherry (left) on the DRM issue:

DRM does not prevent piracy.

 

At this point, DRM seems intended to accomplish a very different purpose: giving some industry leaders unprecedented power to influence the pace and nature of innovation and upsetting the traditional balance between the interests of copyright owners and the interests of the public.

 

The best way to fix the problem is to get rid of DRM on consumer products and reform the [Digital Millenium Copyright Act], but the steps we're suggesting will help protect technology users and future technology innovation in the meantime.

The EFF press release adds:

Industry leaders argue that DRM is necessary to protect sales of digital media, but DRM systems are consistently and routinely broken almost immediately upon their introduction.

The group filed public comments with the FTC in advance of the government agency's Town Hall on DRM, which is scheduled for March 25th in Seattle.

ECA IconA PUBLICATION OF THE ECA RSS IconSUBSCRIBE User LoginLOGIN / REGISTER

Crispy Gamer




       

GamePolitics ShoutBox

Posted 03/11/10 at 01:48pm
ZippyDSMlee: I shopped Michele and duke nukem stripper go take a look in the Michele article!!
Posted 03/11/10 at 12:59pm
BearDogg-X: Just updated the shout. It does include the video game episode with interview of JT.
Posted 03/11/10 at 12:53pm
Andrew Eisen: Is that the one with the video game violence episode?
Posted 03/11/10 at 12:50pm
BearDogg-X: Penn & Teller Bullshit Season 7(which includes the video game episode) will be released on DVD May 4th.
Posted 03/11/10 at 11:30am
pete_gallagher: on the front page
Posted 03/11/10 at 11:29am
pete_gallagher: it's a new setting and it threw me too. basically we are going to truncate the stories in order to have more stories (and images
Posted 03/11/10 at 10:35am
Andrew Eisen: Yep. For now, just click "Read more" and you'll see the rest of the story.
Posted 03/11/10 at 10:27am
Valdearg: Whats up with the twitter-esque stories today? Having Technical Problems or something?
Posted 03/10/10 at 07:35pm
nightwng2000: I don't know. I fear the death of more brain cells if I read them.
Posted 03/10/10 at 07:23pm
Valdearg: Ok, so I'm officially a terrible person for laughing at this.
Posted 03/10/10 at 07:12pm
Andrew Eisen: Do they have sex? I bet they have sex.
Posted 03/10/10 at 06:16pm
nightwng2000: And Doctor Who and the Teletubbies?! Someone ACTUALLY wrote a story combining Doctor Who and the Teletubbies?!
Posted 03/10/10 at 06:15pm
nightwng2000: I think my brain just turned to mush. Seriously, I just saw, but not read, Fan Fiction Xover of Dr. Who and the Smurfs?!
Posted 03/10/10 at 04:41pm
ZippyDSMlee: test
Posted 03/10/10 at 01:02pm
BearDogg-X: Soldat Louis posted this in the ECA Forums. The CCFC kooks got an eviction notice; CCFC trying to blame Disney
Posted 03/10/10 at 12:20pm
ZippyDSMlee: specailizations the public dose not need the person is goign to have to pay for that shcooling.
Posted 03/10/10 at 12:18pm
Valdearg: @Erik: I love that quote. I stole it from you. I hope you don't mind. :P
Posted 03/10/10 at 12:17pm
ZippyDSMlee: Eirc:O think public EDU also plays a large role in healthcare prices, if most doctors could get free EDU,they would not be enslaved as interns,instead work half as much(30 hours a week) for a couple years then are allowed to move on.
Posted 03/10/10 at 12:08pm
Erik: It's a good thing the fire department isn't like American Healthcare. "Okay, according to your account ma'am you only have enough money for us to save two of your three kids. Which one of your kids do you want to burn alive?"
Posted 03/10/10 at 12:06pm
Erik: People turning a profit based on people's suffering, yeah that is a pretty big sin.
Login or register to post shouts