The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is inviting everyone who is opposed to the anti-counterfeiting trade agreement (ACTA), or to provisions of ACTA (or how it is being negotiated) to support a “firm, simple declaration against ACTA.” People can sign the declaration which includes 11 demands about ACTA if it is to be implemented, or provides an alternative of abandoning ACTA entirely.
The FSF does not want to seem opposed to the Wellington Declaration however, but a post from Richard Stallman of FSF does point out some details about it that he “cannot put his name to.” New Zealand citizens held a public meeting dubbed PublicACTA to criticize a secret meeting of government representatives. The attendees published the Wellington Declaration (which you can sign), calling on the negotiators to reject several injustices suspected to appear in the controversial treaty.
Stallman however points out that while the Wellington Declaration condemns the plan for ACTA to prohibit devices that can break digital restrictions (DRM, digital handcuffs etc.), it goes ahead to suggest instead that a limited prohibition, along the lines of Article 11 of the WIPO Internet Treaty. This would result in government backing being given to certain kinds of digital handcuffs, according to Stallman, and he is concerned that to accept that much without a fight would tempt ACTA negotiators to try for “more.”
He also takes issue with the declaration’s praise of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) as a “public, inclusive and transparent” forum for negotiation agreements about copyrights and other related issued. “I don’t recall seeing WIPO become a force for good in the world,” Stallman comments.
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Result for: cooperation
The European Commission has cleared the proposed merger of Orange and T-Mobile in the UK, a deal that would create the largest mobile operator in the United Kingdom. The Commission cleared the merger after Orange and T-Mobile agreed to make changes to ensure competition in the market and to give up some of the wireless spectrum that would be allocated to the new company.
“I am happy that we managed to resolve the competition issues in this case quickly in close cooperation with the Member State concerned,” European Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said in a statement. The Commission had raised concerns about the merger, in particular what effect it would have on 3UK, owned by Hong Kong-based conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa.
“With the merger… there will be only four players in the UK, hence the concerns about the fate of 3UK,” it said,” the commission said.
“In order to address the competition concerns… the parties concluded a revised agreement with 3UK which will secure its position as a competitive force on the market. The Commission concluded that the commitments offered by the parties remedy the identified competition concerns.”
Result for: cooperation
Last week at Cable-Tec, the cable television industry’s technical tradeshow, Panasonic showed off TVs and set-top boxes featuring tru2way support. Introduced last year, tru2way is an add-on to CableCard, a technology which enables the decryption of digital (QAM) signals from US cable television operators.
Unlike basic CableCard technology, which doesn’t work with interactive services like Video On Demand (VOD), tru2way is designed to be a complete replacement for traditional cable company provided digital cable receivers.
There’s been quite a bit of interest from consumer electronics manufacturers, most notably Panasonic. Earlier this year an official from the National Cable Trade Association told the FCC “cooperation and open communication between cable and CE has never been better.”
Unfortunately the date by which most US cable customers were supposed to have access to tru2way compatible service (July 9,2009) has come and gone.
The longer it takes cable companies to bring tru2way to consumers, the more entrenched competition from new internet-based services will be and the more ground they’ll have to make up. Offerings like Netflix Watch Instantly and Xbox Live seem to gain in popularity every day.
Cable company executives are used to thinking of their companies as established incumbents. But the market they’re hoping to capture with tru2way enabled devices is one that’s still being defined. Continued delays mean more time for other companies to establish the kind of dominance cable once enjoyed in the home entertainment landscape.
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