IP: Hague Convention, Intellectual Property Control

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> Date: Thu, 06 Sep 2001 21:33:21 -0400
> To: dave () farber net
> From: Dave Burstein <daveb () dslprime com>
> Subject: Hague Convention, Intellectual Property Control
>
> Dave
>
> About to quietly slip through, The Hague Treaty is important because it 
> will enforce in dozens of countries laws many of us question constantly: 
> DMCA, arbitrary contracts, extraordinarily strong protections for 
> corporate rights, foreign jurisdiction even if the laws conflict, the 
> ability to sue half a world away under different law. Because it's being 
> done with little publicity, even a few individuals can have a significant 
> impact. That's why Jamie Love, Richard Stallman, and I are testifying in 
> DC next Tuesday, alongside the MPAA, AT&T and the usual suspects. (below)
>
> The best discussion of the issues, and what to do, is at
>
> http://www.cptech.org/ecom/jurisdiction/hague.html
>
> The American Library Association urged U.S. negotiators "to remove 
> intellectual property cases, including copyright cases, from the scope of 
> the draft."
>
> I wrote this note to the other panelists, after Richard Stallman got the 
> speaker's program as an attachment, and replied "You sent the attachment 
> in Microsoft Word format, a secret proprietary format, so I cannot read 
> it. If you send me the text in ASCII, HTML, or PDF, then I could read it."
> My additional thoughts: Just as we should not implicitly force the use of 
> U.S./Microsoft software, neither should Americans have imposed on them 
> foreign laws. In particular, I as a writer do not want to fear court 
> proceedings if my work, not considered libelous under U.S. law, is 
> unacceptable in Singapore, Croatia, or Spain. They don't have 
> the  precedents of Times vs. Sullivan, or the rule of "absence of malice", 
> and the practicalities of defending myself would have a severe chilling 
> effect.
> > The corollary is that we should not impose our laws, about which we have 
> > major disagreements, on other nations. I'm an author, and want to collect 
> > royalties. But I don't think protecting my royalties requires imposing on 
> > other nations policies they disagree with. In particular, if Brazil wants 
> > to set the price of textbooks at a figure that allows poor children to go 
> > to school, or Sweden believes in streaming radio without additional 
> > royalties beyond those already paid by the radio station, that should be 
> > their right. In this country, we have strong disagreements about many of 
> > these issues, and in a decade may choose to reverse some of the 
> > legislation. For example, the Chief Technologist of the FCC, Dave Farber, 
> > calls the DMCA "one of the worst laws I have ever seen. It will have a 
> > chilling effect on research around the world."  While many on this panel 
> > disagree with that point of view, the absence of national consensus is 
> > clear. How then America insist it be incorporated into international law? 
> > Similarly, our likely royalty rates on streaming music will make Internet 
> > Radio generally impractical as a mass medium in a country as rich as the 
> > United States. It is clearly not right in many other nations.
> >
> >     Rights need to be weighed. I believe the lowering the price of 
> > schoolbooks in a poor nation is a noble government effort; my publisher, 
> > Wiley, probably disagrees. I place the efficiency of the public library, 
> > where books - now electronic - are available to all higher than my own 
> > royalties. Honorable people can disagree with my opinions; they should 
> > not be imposed on nations by fiat.
> >
> >     We do not want to become again "ugly Americans." We will pay a price 
> > for extending our rules around the world that is much greater than the 
> > incremental royalties. We will pay a second price, chilling freedom of 
> > speech in America, as well.
> >
> >     Dave Burstein
> > PUBLIC HEARING ON
> > DRAFT CONVENTION ON JURISDICTION AND FOREIGN JUDGMENTS IN CIVIL AND 
> > COMMERICAL MATTERS
> >
> > September 11, 2001
> > 9:30 a.m.  5:00 p.m.
> > Patent Theater, Crystal Park 2
> > 2121 Crystal Drive, 2nd Floor
> > Arlington, Virginia
> >
> > SCHEDULE
> >
> >
> > 9:30            Opening Remarks
> >                 Robert L. Stoll, Administrator for External Affairs
> >
> >                 Jennifer Lucas
> >                 Attorney Advisor
> >
> > 10:00           Marc E. Hankin
> > American Bar Association Intellectual Property Law Section Committee On 
> > Draft Hague Convention
> >
> > 10:15           Judith Sapp
> >                 International Trademark Association (INTA)
> >
> > 10:30           James Love
> >                 Consumer Project on Technology
> >
> > 10:45           Michael Sondow
> >                 International Congress of Independent Internet Users 
> > Ltd. (ICIIU)
> >
> > 11:00           Kathryn A. Kleiman
> >                 Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
> >
> > 11:15           Sarah B. Deutsch
> >                 Verizon Communications
> >
> > 11:30           Ed Black
> >                 Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA)
> >
> > 11:45           Barbara Wellbery
> >                 Yahoo!
> >
> > 12:00  1:00     Lunch Break
> >
> > 1:00            Alan Kasper
> >                 American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA)
> > Patent and Trademark Section
> >
> > 1:15            Judith Saffer
> >                 American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA)
> > Copyright Section
> >
> > 1:30            Dave Burstein
> >                 DSL Prime
> >
> > 1:45            Mark Bohannon
> >                 Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA)
> >
> > 2:00            Emery Simon
> >                 Business Software Alliance (BSA)
> >
> > 2:15            Richard Stallman
> >                 Free Software Foundation
> >
> > 2:30            Break
> >
> > 2:45            Laura Kaster
> >                 AT&T
> >
> > 3:00            Shira Perlmutter
> >                 AOL Time Warner Inc.
> >
> > 3:15            Troy Dow
> >                 Motion Picture Association of America
> >
> > 3:30            Vergil Bushnell
> >                 Computer Science Student, University of Maryland
> >
> > Special Correspondent, The Personal Computer Show, WBAI-99.5FM, 8 p.m. 
> > Wednesdays
> > Three time winner of Best Radio Show from the Computer Press Association;
> > Editor,DSL Prime; Co-author with Jennie Bourne of "DSL: A Wiley Tech 
> > Brief" forthcoming
> > "The power of the printing press belongs solely to those who own the
> > presses" A.J. Leibling -
> > The Internet is the cheapest printing press ever invented



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