Offering no details - as is their standard - government negotiators for a global anticounterfeiting treaty this week declared a commitment to make efforts to find ways to increase transparency and inclusion of public input in the secretive talks. But they stopped short of actually committing to increased transparency and inclusion, or explaining the continued need for secrecy. [...]

http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/2010/01/31/acta-negotiators-make-no-break...

La Quadrature Du Net is a French advocacy group formed to promote digital rights and online freedom. Its name comes by analogy between the unsolvable mathematical problem of "squaring the circle", and similarly impossible attempts to "effectively control the flow of information in the digital age by the law and the technology without harming public freedoms, and damaging economic and social development". In our ongoing series of perspectives on ACTA from around the globe, today Jérémie Zimmermann and Félix Tréguer of La Quadrature du Net describe how the trade agreement undermines democratic challenges to IP policies in France and beyond. [...]

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/01/acta-and-france

The French anti-piracy outfit Trident Media Guard has been chosen by the entertainment industry to track and report illegal downloaders in France. The company, known globally for its pollution of BitTorrent and other file-sharing networks with fake data, will assist in the recently passed Hadopi three-strikes law. [...]

Aside from polluting file-sharing networks, the company will now also be responsible for tracking and reporting pirates to the authorities. TMG has the capacity to record up to 25,000 infringements a day, and according to initial estimates 10,000 offenders a day are expected to receive a warning. [...]

Thus far no details have been published on the data gathering techniques of TMG, but considering the enormous opposition against the Hadopi law there is little doubt that their every move will be closely watched.

http://torrentfreak.com/bittorrent-spammers-chosen-to-spy-on-french-pira...

Nueva ronda de negociaciones, ahora en México, entre las principales potencias comerciales sobre el futuro tratado ACTA (un acuerdo comercial contra la falsificación). Los internautas denuncian la opacidad de las mismas y les preocupa el resultado de las negociaciones ya que, a pesar del nombre, el tratado también plantea autorizar a las empresas y propietarios de derechos a exigir a los proveedores de acceso a Internet la vigilancia sobre el tráfico de sus clientes.

La Asociación de Internautas (AI) ha denunciado la "opacidad" con la que un grupo de países -EEUU, la Unión Europea y Japón, entre otros- reunidos en México desde hoy y hasta el 29 de enero están llevando las negociaciones. Los internautas se quejan de que el encuentro no dispone de "la supervisión de organismos internacionales" ni "supervisión de democrática", por lo que "las condiciones son las ideales para que los lobbies del entretenimento dicten su sueño: imponer un régimen del copyright fundamentalmente adaptado para controlar Internet y el acceso al conocimiento". [...]

http://www.elpais.com/articulo/tecnologia/Criticas/opacas/negociaciones/...

Reporters Without Borders is very concerned about the threat to online free expression from measures to combat digital piracy and copyright violations in an Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) that is currently being negotiated. [...]

The European Parliament has not even had access to the negotiating documents. [...]

Read and sign the open letter to the European Parliament that has been signed by Quadrature du Net, Reporters Without Borders, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Consumers International, ASIC and some 30 other NGOs.

http://www.rsf.org/Threat-to-online-free-expression.html

WASHINGTON — Declaring that an attack on one nation’s computer networks “can be an attack on all,” Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton issued a warning on Thursday that the United States would defend itself from cyberattacks, though she left unclear the means of response. [...]

Mrs. Clinton said: “Those who disrupt the free flow of information in our society or any other pose a threat to our economy, our government and our civil society. Countries or individuals that engage in cyber-attacks should face consequences and international condemnation.” [...]

“Censorship should not be in any way accepted by any company from anywhere,” Mrs. Clinton said. “American companies need to take a principled stand. This needs to be part of our national brand.” [...]

Tom Malinowski, the Washington advocacy director for Human Rights Watch, said the United States should treat China’s forced censorship as an unfair trade practice, which could be confronted through the World Trade Organization or raised in future trade negotiations.

Still, Mr. Malinowski said: “I really thought this was groundbreaking. She showed no hesitation in naming countries, including U.S. allies, for suppressing speech on the Internet. She made a very strong case for connecting Internet freedom to core American national security interests.” [...]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/22/world/asia/22diplo.html?hp

To be fair, it may have been Bono who first made the connection explicit, but others are beginning to notice that there are some worrisome parallels between what is being pushed via ACTA and other methods and ongoing internet censorship in China. The latest, as pointed out by the EFF, is writer Rebecca MacKinnon, who walks you through the way in which Chinese censorship is based on the same faulty principle as ACTA's push for secondary liability for ISPs.

But this "intermediary liability" is a big deal, because under any common sense approach to things, you should never blame an third party/intermediary for the actions of end users. And yet, that's exactly what the entertainment industry has been pushing. [...]

[...] The more you look at the details, the more it looks like the entertainment industry is doing everything possible to encircle the internet to make it appear more like a broadcast entertainment medium, rather than a communications medium.

http://techdirt.com/articles/20100120/0216537828.shtml

Amidst all the rancor that we've seen during the last few weeks over the Federal Communications Commission's proposed net neutrality rules comes a joint filing by Verizon and Google that asks a refreshing question. What do the antagonists have in common regarding this vexing problem?

It makes sense that Google and Verizon would try this out. As Ars readers know, they don't just "rely on each other," they're business partners now, not just in offering the Droid smartphone on Verizon's network, but in Google's online phone store, as well. "We believe that we need a policy that will ensure openness and preserve the essential character of the Internet as a global, interconnected network of networks and users that is thriving based on a common set of core values," their statement explains.

Does this mean that The War is over? Hot partisans on any side of the Internet non-discrimination debate need not worry about that. Both companies have also filed individual statements with the FCC that offer very different takes on the issue.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2010/01/verizon-and-google-draft-net-...

Das am 1. Jänner 2010 in Kraft getretene Internet-Sperrgesetz "Loi HADOPI" ist Frankreichs Medienindustrie nicht genug. Sie will, dass die Regierung Google und andere Suchmaschinenanbieter sowie die Internet-Provider mit Sondersteuern belegt, die vor allem an die Musikindustrie fließen sollen. Bürgerrechtler sprechen von einem "Krieg gegen die User".

(...)

Ganz anders sieht das die französische Netzbürgerrechtsorganisation La Quadrature du Net. In einer Mitteilung vom Donnerstag schrieb sie, es sei "nahezu obszön", der Medienindustrie in großem Umfang Subventionen zukommen zu lassen, damit diese ihre überalterten und kaputten Geschäftsmodelle weiter aufrechterhalten könne.

(...)

http://futurezone.orf.at/stories/1635894/

Looks like another stay of execution for illegal file sharers in France. The “three-strikes” anti-piracy law approved by the French senate last October, and due to to come into effect this month, is being put on pause by the government’s main agency overseeing the use of personal data and online privacy, the Commission Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés (CNIL).

(...)

Ballard adds that implementing Hadopi will also give more weight to similar laws being considered in the UK and elsewhere. “It’s very likely we will see more [laws like this in other countries] particularly with the new directive,” he says. “It creates a framework through which this kind of mechanism can be deployed.”

http://paidcontent.co.uk/article/419-as-in-uk-french-three-strikes-may-b...

El Acuerdo Comercial Anti-Falsificación (ACTA por sus siglas en inglés) es la propuesta de un acuerdo comercial multilateral para el establecimiento de normas internacionales sobre la aplicación de los derechos de propiedad intelectual, especialmente en las economías emergentes.

Una filtración de los documentos de ACTA demuestran que uno de los principales objetivos del tratado entre los países signatarios, es la lucha bajo la forma de los “tres strikes” (conocida en Francia como HADOPI) contra el intercambio de archivos y una disposición donde los proveedores de servicios Internet (ISP) proporcionarían información (sin orden judicial) sobre presuntos infractores de derechos de autor.

“En un momento en donde los debates importantes se están produciendo sobre la necesidad de adaptar los derechos de autor a la era digital, este tratado estaría eludiendo los procesos democráticos para hacer cumplir un régimen de regulación fundamentalmente irrelevante. Se alteraría profundamente la propia naturaleza de Internet como la conocemos, poniendo fin a la neutralidad de la red” – La Quadrature du Net

http://www.fayerwayer.com/2010/01/mexico-secretaria-de-economia-convoca-...