In early February, Stockholm shops were cleaned out of Guy Fawkes masks. The reason was demonstrations in central Stockholm against the ACTA agreement. I understand the indignation over an agreement that was negotiated behind closed doors after the US demanded secrecy. It does not improve matters that most of the information to have leaked from the negotiations are pieces of the agreement that have now been removed, such as those sharing illegal files will be cut off from the internet.
In reality, the agreement doesn’t differ markedly from Swedish legislation. The largest problem with ACTA is the rumours that have circulated and the fact that no one seems to have read the actual agreement (Swedish link). Many confuse the ACTA trade agreement with the SOPA and PIPA proposed US bills. The purpose of ACTA is to reach a joint agreement between countries that details how breaches to copyrights, patents, and trademarks will be handled. Since the agreement does not do anything aside from influence other countries to hold to the same minimum requirements that we have, the conclusion must be that Swedes are upset about our current legislation.
I confess, I am partisan. As an author, I often land up in debates on copyrights. Hopefully this will happen more rarely, since the countries that signed ACTA agree to inform the public about the advantages of respecting intellectual property rights.
One common argument for free file sharing is that we should not make criminals of an entire generation. But I have never received an answer to my question of what happens when the antipiracy protection no longer can technically be cracked by just anyone. How many people need to do something for it to be a criminal act? Fifty percent of a generation? Five percent? One half of a percent?
“Antiquated business models should not be given CPR,” I also hear often. I love to present my books in new ways and try new business models. But it is my choice how I want to distribute decades of work, and what I want to charge. With ACTA, countries pledge to work together to counteract illegal copying.
The goal of the Swedish Pirate Party is to lower copyright protection to five years for “commercial” works. Today, copyrights on Swedish books is one of Sweden’s most growing exports. It would die a fast death since foreign publishing houses would wait five years before publishing. Sweden is such a small market that many full-time authors and scriptwriters would lose their jobs. To suggest that it would not be detrimental to society is nonsense.
The only thing I can agree with the Swedish Pirate Party about is that it is discouraging to see how little space the internet has received in cultural politics. With the technical acceptance that we find in Sweden otherwise, our companies could potentially be some of the world’s most successful suppliers of technically supported culture. ACTA will at least give us help to protect it abroad.
Åsa Schwarz
This is a translation of Åsa Schwarz column in Computer Sweden.
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