The federal government is secretly negotiating an agreement to revamp international copyright laws which could make the information on Canadian iPods, laptop computers or other personal electronic devices illegal and greatly increase the difficulty of travelling with such devices.
The deal could also impose strict regulations on Internet service providers, forcing those companies to hand over customer information without a court order.
Federal trade agreements do not require parliamentary approval.
The deal would create a international regulator that could turn border guards and other public security personnel into copyright police. The security officials would be charged with checking laptops, iPods and even cellular phones for content that "infringes" on copyright laws, such as ripped CDs and movies.
The guards would also be responsible for determining what is infringing content and what is not.
The agreement proposes any content that may have been copied from a DVD or digital video recorder would be open for scrutiny by officials - even if the content was copied legally.
Not liking this. I don't regularly cross international boundaries with infringing materials in my possession but the prospect of having my personal computer (or gawd forbid, work computer) searched along with my iPod is not something I look forward too. I realize that CBSA and their US counterparts can already search my laptop but to have them scroll through playlists searching for infringing songs is excessive.
I suppose this is a creative way to get around changing domestic copyright laws here in Canada. Minister Prentice was met with a surprisingly effective grassroots resistance to the Canadian DMCA. Rather than risk facing a similar uprising, why not just subvert the entire democractic process instead and introduce a treaty that effectively does what he was earlier unable to do?
I am not much of a computer/ipod kind of person so I am not terribly up to date on what is legal and what is not. Suppose I watch a copyrighted music video on youtube or part of a TV show on Veoh, is that illegal? If they were to search my webhistory and find something like that would that constitute a copyright violation?
I will need more details rather than customs agents checking my ipod cause that seems a smidge peculiar.
Easy ways around it though, Encrypt your notebook hard drive and after you are through customs load your Ipod.
Not sure if you can encrypt your Ipod - I only have a shuffle so
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This is scary stuff IMO. I don't know much about it, but following what Fewer and Geist say in the article, it's pretty troubling. I found this to be deliciously ironic:
"He [Fewer] said Friday's leak of a "discussion paper" which outlines the priorities of the agreement is the first glimpse anyone has into ACTA.
'We knew this existed, we filed an Access to Information request for this but all it provided us with was the title. All the rest of it was blacked out,' he said."
They want to go through our stuff, but cannot extend the same courtesy as regards the implementation of these policies. I hate the idea of anyone going through my stuff. And that includes the government. I really hope this doesn't go through.
I'm having a 'V for Vendetta' moment.
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The agreement proposes any content that may have been copied from a DVD or digital video recorder would be open for scrutiny by officials - even if the content was copied legally.
Good bye fair use, hello pay per play.
This is essentially what all content owners want anyway.
This is just going to lead to more and more infringement.
Let the fun and games begin!
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Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement
