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Official White House Response to Investigate Chris Dodd and the MPAA for bribery after he publicly admited to bribing politicans to pass legislation.
Why We Can't Comment

Thank you for signing this petition. We appreciate your participation in the We the People platform on Whitehouse.gov. However, consistent with the We the People Terms of Participation and our responses to similar petitions in the past, the White House declines to comment on this petition because it requests a specific law enforcement action.

Dodd infamously went on Fox News after SOPA/PIPA died and said, "Those who count on quote 'Hollywood' for support need to understand that this industry is watching very carefully who's going to stand up for them when their job is at stake. Don't ask me to write a check for you when you think your job is at risk and then don't pay any attention to me when my job is at stake."

Chris Dodd served in the U.S. Senate for 30 years and is now the head of the MPAA.

Isn't that precious? And it's absolutely no surprise on two counts. First, the Justice Department is loaded with former Hollywood attorneys from the MPAA, so they'd have some difficulty sorting out conflicts of interest, if they wanted to bother with that. Second, by not publically calling for a 'specific law enforcement action', if it falls off of law enforcement's radar and nothing happens, everybody's happy.

TechDirt's comments: http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120131/23021017604/white-house-says-it-cant-comment-possible-chris-dodd-investigation.shtml

https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions/!/response/why-we-cant-comment

http://politics.slashdot.org/story/12/02/01/0218206/white-house-refuses-to-comment-on-petition-to-investigate-chris-dodd

On Thursday, 22 countries signed the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement in Tokyo, it was largely written by Hollywood.

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/12/01/26/1746202/acta-signed-by-22-eu-countries

Shortly after the signing, the EU parliamentary chief who was in charge of this project resigned. ""I want to denounce in the strongest possible manner the entire process that led to the signature of this agreement: no inclusion of civil society organisations, a lack of transparency from the start of the negotiations, repeated postponing of the signature of the text without an explanation being ever given, exclusion of the EU Parliament's demands that were expressed on several occasions in our assembly."

"As rapporteur of this text, I have faced never-before-seen manoeuvres from the right wing of this Parliament to impose a rushed calendar before public opinion could be alerted, thus depriving the Parliament of its right to expression and of the tools at its disposal to convey citizens' legitimate demands."

"Everyone knows the ACTA agreement is problematic, whether it is its impact on civil liberties, the way it makes Internet access providers liable, its consequences on generic drugs manufacturing, or how little protection it gives to our geographical indications."

"This agreement might have major consequences on citizens' lives, and still, everything is being done to prevent the European Parliament from having its say in this matter. That is why today, as I release this report for which I was in charge, I want to send a strong signal and alert the public opinion about this unacceptable situation. I will not take part in this mascarade."

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/12/01/27/026249/eu-acta-chief-resigns


So Hollywood is going to get SOPA one way or another. Now the entire world has the best government that money can buy.

If you have a business with extensive intellectual property holdings, the TPP (Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement) is probably a great treaty for you. But just like ACTA, it's being negotiated pretty much in total secrecy. And just like ACTA, it's been leaked.

Some of the provisions would make the U.S. patent (USPTO) a rubber-stamp for applications (which sucks because Congress is actually looking at making some significant improvements there), ISP's would become extensions of Hollywood when it comes to copyright enforcement, parallel import would be banned (no more gray market goods), criminal enforcement would be REQUIRED for DRM circumvention(!). I'm sure there's more lovely stuff in it.

The Techdirt article also has links to more info at the EFF with more details and a list of all Congresscritters in both the House and Senate so you can easily contact them and express displeasure.

I just wish they would try to negotiate this in the open. There's no reason for this to be secret, except for the fact that Hollywood wants to be able to totally side-step the normal method for creating laws and gain a fait accompli over everyone.

Now, as if this isn't bad enough, they want a VERY fast approval: they want it all to be wrapped up in November OF THIS YEAR.

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110311/00104713434/us-proposals-secret-tpp-son-acta-treaty-leaked-chock-full-awful-ideas.shtml

https://secure.eff.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=471

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/03/11/2134224/Son-of-ACTA-Worse-Than-Original


[EDITED 15-JUNE-2013 TO ADD TOR TAG]

Fed up with the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), India hopes to whip up an anti-ACTA chutney so spicy that negotiators have no choice but to purge every trace of the loathed agreement from their systems.

Though countries like Morocco are involved, rich countries have driven the ACTA process. The World Trade Organization—ignored. The World Intellectual Property Organization—bypassed. Instead of using the very fora that they played such a role in establishing, countries like the US, EU, Canada, Japan, and Australia formed a coalition of the willing. ACTA has been negotiated in secret, though the recently released negotiating draft text envisions a permanent secretariat that will receive new members.

In other words, existing international institutions, where countries like Brazil, China, and India have recently acquired some real power, will be bypassed to create the tough new restrictions in ACTA.

India raising hell, I think, is a good thing. India's objection is not over media anti-piracy and copyright, but over pharmaceuticals. There's some very nasty patent protections that extend even if country X doesn't recognize country Y's patents or have different term limits or such.

But what really ticks me off is the secret negotiating aspect of this treaty, and as the article points out, bypassing WTO and WIPO to institute it. It's like the USA trying to get everyone to sign on to DMCA, but not being very above-board about it. DMCA is now crawling out of the grave in Canada again, so we'll see what happens there. In Canada, currently, if you buy an iPod or Music CD-Rs, you pay an additional tax that supposedly helps reimburse artists for losses due to piracy, but that money never seems to trickle down from the studios for some strange reason.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/06/india-vows-to-sabotage-acta.ars

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/06/02/2157252/India-Attempts-To-Derail-ACTA?art_pos=12

"Cory Doctorow is reporting on a leaked copy of the 'internet enforcement' portion of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. He describes it as reading like a 'DMCA-plus' with provisions for third-party liability, digital locks, and 'a duty to technology firms to shut down infringement where they have "actual knowledge" that such is taking place.' For example, this could mean legal responsibility shifting to Apple for customers copying mp3s onto their iPods." Adds an anonymous reader, "Michael Geist points out that the leaks demonstrate that ACTA would create a Global DMCA and move toward a three-strikes-and-you're-out system. While the US has claimed that ACTA won't establish a mandatory three strikes system, it specifically uses three-strikes as its model."

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/02/21/2136238/ACTA-Internet-Chapter-Leaked-mdash-Bad-For-Everyone?art_pos=10

I think it's a little much to say bad for everyone. It's Hollywood's wet dream.

So what he's saying is the ??AA has told the government, through the ??AA attorneys now working in the Justice Department, that other countries would walk away and they got the ambassador to follow that line.

In other words, "We must screw the public, it's for their own good. Our profit has nothing to do with it."

http://keionline.org/node/706

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/12/07/1417209/Ambassador-Claims-ACTA-Secrecy-Necessary?art_pos=3