The Truth About ACTA: Video

Michael Geist sez, "Over the weekend, over 100 people gathered in Wellington, New Zealand for the PublicACTA conference. As Boing Boing has noted, the resulting Wellington Declaration is a must-read with thousands of people around the world signing their support. I have posted the video of my keynote talk from the conference called the Truth About ACTA. About 40 minutes in length, the talk traces the background of ACTA, features extensive discussion on the reasons for concern (including the lack of transparency, substantive provisions such as three strikes, anti-circumvention rules, and statutory damages), and offers a brief comment on what can be done about the treaty."

The Truth About ACTA

Previously:

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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jo3lr0ck5

Good Vid. hopefully people see it!
dreamfish

He’s a good speaker but the slides are terrible – break every rule, such as small text, too many words on a slide, etc.
Anonymous

There’s nothing interesting in the first 10 minutes; most people will probably want to skip to about 25 minutes in.
turn_self_off

this is insane, and i fear that nothing will happen until things reach the armed revolt level…

one law for the haves, one for all the rest.
Anonymous

the thing to do is to get it on digg, reddit and other places’ front pages and to make it a trending topic on twitter. better yet, facebook it an get people curious. Do Americans think acta doesnt apply to them?

most people are under the impression that this applies to only pharma and physical counterfeit products – little do they know about the digital 3 strikes.

fine dling is wrong – but this gives corps the license to track our IPs and acquire our private info even when we are not dling – eg: visiting boingboing and reading up on acta could make you a dissident/

it’s a slippery slope – and of course politicians and law enforcement will be exempt from the rules as always.
ryanrafferty

Watching Michael Geist speak leaves me wondering, as a good political scientist and philosopher, where the failure is in the system that has allowed democratic institutions to continue to become intertwined with imperialistic legal regimes, like ACTA.

At least in the case of Canada, it seems the failure is due to a lack of strong opposition on the subject– despite the political unpalatability of the entire topic and process.

The Liberal party, as opposition party, appears mum on the virtues (or lack) of ACTA… leaving it easy to imagine them, if the tables were turned, at the negotiation table. I can only speculate why this is the case… could it be that both the Conservative party and the Liberals fear ramifications of being shunned or punished by “partner nations” or private interests?

Our governments (the ones involved in these negotiations) are being hoodwinked by opportunists– I’m glad to see meetings like the one in the video are taking place.

We need a coordinated effort to embarrass the shysters involved in ACTA– with the aim to divest the trust we’ve placed in our ineffectual, and maligned peers.
- Laurel L. Russwurm
  
  As a Canadian I am very happy that we have a minority government.
  
  The Liberals, like the Conservatives, cater to big business. Which means ACTA. The NDP, or more specifically Charlie Angus, have been attempting to fight ACTA, but with Angus’ iPod tax maybe they aren’t nevessarily on the tight page either. The only political party devoted to reasonable copyright reform is the Pirate Party, and they are just on the verge of being officially registered.
  
  Having a minority government would appear to be our best option at present. A majority for either the Liberals or Conservatives would ensure Canada’s unbridled support of ACTA.
  
  In Canada the only time politicians may actually listen to the people instead of just the corporations is with a minority government. So until we get electoral reform, that’s the best we can hope for.
  
  But the best way to fight ACTA is to tell people.
  
  Funny, the mainstream news media is NOT telling citizens about ACTA. Wonder why. Guess Freedpm of the press depends on the Internet these days.