Will proposed treaty make border agents copyright

[RadioPatrol]

Will proposed treaty make border agents copyright cops?

Document posted to Wikileaks indicates trend toward IP crackdown
By Jaikumar Vijayan

Importantly, the treaty -- if adopted as proposed -- also has the potential to turn customs and border patrol agents into copyright cops, said Caleb Sullivan, an attorney specializing in international trade and customs law with Becker & Poliakoff, a Florida law firm.

U.S Customs and border patrol officials have already been carrying out searches of laptops and other electronic devices belonging to travelers at U.S borders without any reasonable cause or suspicion, Sullivan said. If ACTA is adopted, it will give these officials a much broader pretext for carrying out such searches, he cautioned. "If the rules are established within this international treaty it would provide further justification from them to engage in this type of behavior," he continued, "and it won't be just at U.S. borders that travelers could be subjected to such searches, but in other countries as well."

WTF is going on ... unwarrented searches of laptops and other electronic devices ... for ? IP reasons ?? Terrorist Suspects ?

ACTA as proposed will also "create new forms of legal liability for third parties over infringements of others," and it will lower existing standards for secondary liability, warned IP Justice, a San Francisco-based civil rights group focused on intellectual property laws. In a white paper posted in response to the ACTA document posted by Wikileaks, IP Justice said that ACTA could end up criminalizing non-commercial copyright infringements and endanger legal due process rights of individuals.

The group also lamented the apparent lack of transparency surrounding ACTA up to this point. "Negotiations are going on in secret between intellectual property industry lobbyists and the trade offices of wealthy countries," the group said in its white paper. "The lack of transparency in the process to negotiate the global trade pact for an information society is concerning," it said.

Responding to a request for comment, a spokeswoman from the USTR pointed to the fact sheet posted by the agency last October. She added that the agency could not comment on the contents of an "allegedly leaked document."

 

[Dougstermd]

Careful out ther folks Big Brothjer is watching you!!!

 

[itsbob]

They don't specify if they are inspecting hte laptops of US Citizens or not.

I know when we came through customs, it was nothing.. nothing searched.. "How was your vacation!??" STAMP.. have a nice day.

I could give a ratsass if they are searching non-citizens computers.. after all, they aren't protected under the rights of the constitution now are they? How could the searches be 'illegal'??

 

[RadioPatrol]

They don't specify if they are inspecting hte laptops of US Citizens or not.

I know when we came through customs, it was nothing.. nothing searched.. "How was your vacation!??" STAMP.. have a nice day.

I could give a ratsass if they are searching non-citizens computers.. after all, they aren't protected under the rights of the constitution now are they? How could the searches be 'illegal'??

Problem is, and why the military kept the terrorists @ Club Gitmo off of US Soil, US Constitutional Rights apply to anyone here ... and Bush Co. did not want the ACLU and other bleeding heart liberal anti war groups holding up the process, not that have not managed to make a mess of things in the current situation ......

I'd would have done like an episode of "The Unit" kept 'em off shore in the hold of a freighter or Ro Ro .....

 

[itsbob]

Problem is, and why the military kept the terrorists @ Club Gitmo off of US Soil, US Constitutional Rights apply to anyone here ... and Bush Co. did not want the ACLU and other bleeding heart liberal anti war groups holding up the process, not that have not managed to make a mess of things in the current situation ......

I'd would have done like an episode of "The Unit" kept 'em off shore in the hold of a freighter or Ro Ro .....

AND, they aren't 'here' until they pass through customs..