Obama administration denies Freedom of Information request on new Copyright treaty, citing ‘National Security’ issues
Ok, file this in the WTF department?
The Obama administration is negotiating a new treaty to cover copyright infringement, a rather ominous act that is going to include a whole slew of provisions privacy rights advocates will like run from in horror. A new twist was reported in Wired today
The White House this week declared (.pdf) the text of the proposed treaty a “properly classified” national security secret, in rejecting a Freedom of Information Act request by Knowledge Ecology International.
In fairness, Bush used a similar defense against a FOIA from the EFF, but the fact that Obama is continuing that trend is worrying to so many who thought ‘Change’ was coming.
The treaty is subject to considerable speculation as to the contents, but one of the main concerns focuses around the idea the proposed trade accord would outlawpeer-to-peer file sharing, subject iPods to border searches and allow internet service providers to monitor their customers’ communications. If you believe the wacky and highly distorted Russia Today, it may also include giving government’s the right to scan people’s computers in their homes. (hat tip to Ehomeupgrade, a blog you should be reading by the way).
We’ll try to dig and get some more information on this one. I suspect we’ll be hearing more about this treaty in the next year or so.
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