[d@DCC] ACTA petition draft

From: Russell McOrmond <russell _-at-_ flora.ca>
To: "General Copyright Discussions (questions, organizing, etc)" <discuss (at) list.digital-copyright.ca>
Date: Sat, 07 Nov 2009 11:51:43 -0500

I am wanting to create an ACTA petition, much like the existing 2
petitions we are running.  Draft is at (and I will include current text
below):

http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AYfsXEVKXnG-ZGNkNzRubW1fNGR3NGR2Z2Rr&hl=en

  The primary idea is to educate parliamentarians on what is happening,
and to try to drag this out from under secrecy.  There are enough
citizens informed on these issues to get enough signatures for a few
different tablings of signatures.

  I'm also wanting to educate politicians on related issues such as
misunderstandings of the lack of obligations that signing a treaty
creates, as well as the harm of legalising TPMs and the stupidity of
"three strikes" type policies.  Comments very welcome, and soon as I
think it is best to get this out there while the issue still has some
media attention.

------------

To the House of Commons in Parliament Assembled
We, the undersigned Canadians or residents of Canada draw attention of
the House of Commons to the following:
THAT representatives of the Canadian government are participating in
negotiations of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA);
THAT traditional definitions of counterfeiting involve passing something
off fraudulently or deceptively, usually being dishonest about the
origins or content of something;
THAT ACTA is being negotiated in secret and claims to be focused on
counterfeiting, but leaked contents make clear this is primarily a
copyright treaty with origins from companies who see new media such as
the Internet as a threat to their traditional business models;
THAT Canada already has a "one proven strike" law with the currently
excessively high statutory damages, and that "three strikes" provisions
are intended to enable severe punishment without requiring proof of
infringement;
THAT digital locks applied to technology without the owner holding the
keys should be understood as an attack on the basic property rights of
technology owners;
THAT audiences of digital content should be able to access content with
the technology of their choice, and that Canada should not create the
anti-competitive harm to our economy by enabling copyright holders to
tie the access and use of digital content to devices "authorised" by the
copyright holder;
THAT the Conservative government included in their 2006 election
platform that "a Conservative government will place international
treaties before Parliament for ratification."
THAT while signing a treaty is to ratification as dating is to marriage,
some parliamentarians believe that signing a treaty creates an
obligation for Canada to ratify;

THEREFORE, your petitioners call upon Parliament to table ACTA in
parliament before Canada makes any gestures which any MP would believe
creates an obligation for Canada. This may include tabling and studying
at committee drafts of the treaty before the next meeting, as well as a
full debate in the house before signing. The government should table any
directives to the trade negotiators. The government should commit to
full public consultations on the ACTA treaty alone, separate from any
other domestic policy issues, before and after tabling any enabling
legislation. The government should not create punishments for alleged or
proven infringement that are disproportionate to the harm by any
individual potential infringer, such as locking technology owners out of
their own technology or severing Internet connections

-- 
 Russell McOrmond, Internet Consultant: <http://www.flora.ca/>
 Please help us tell the Canadian Parliament to protect our property
 rights as owners of Information Technology. Sign the petition!
 http://www.digital-copyright.ca/petition/ict/

 "The government, lobbied by legacy copyright holders and hardware
  manufacturers, can pry my camcorder, computer, home theatre, or
  portable media player from my cold dead hands!"
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