Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Beijing Treaty on audiovisual performance rights

Well, Al Yankovic who parodied "Gangsta's Paradise" will be going to prison as this agreement called the Beijing Treaty on Audiovisual Performance Rights has been signed. But it will not go into force until it's ratified by 30 member states, including the US and the EU which will take at least a year or more. The US Senate has yet to schedule a hearing on the treaty. An unanimous approval is likely before it reaches the full Senate floor for ratification. Like all other treaties, The Beijing Treaty requires 2/3 of the majority (67 aye votes)

This treaty is exactly similar to ACTA and TPPA which criminalizes:

- Parodies (Youtube Poops, Rick Rolls, etc.) Al Yankovic (whom I mentioned above) and Cletus T. Judd will be going to prison since they're parodying other song artist's work

- Modifications and remixes of audio, including the using of audio modification software including Audacity, even if it's for private use.

- Personal and private use audiovisual work which means the Actors will be watching you through wireless surveillance cameras. This may lead to mandatory DRM human brain implants. No more singing in the shower or participating in Karaokes, or singing happy birthday, or school plays, or in public, etc. Same as the previous draft of ACTA. You will even have to pay to listen to the audio over again. No more showing movies to family and friends. Justin Bieber is going to prison for singing a copyrighted song.

- Modifying, Cropping, and distributing images using Photoshop and Wikipedia. (If you crop the head of Lindsey Lohan, Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus, one of the members of Big Time Rush and portray them in a pornographic image, you will not only be sued but be put in prison as well. And Wikipedia will have to abide by the Treaty's rules or they'll be shut down.

- Reselling copyrighted audiovisual work is illegal under this treaty. So if you plan on a garage or yard sale, forget it or you will go to prison. In fact, under TPPA, as I mentioned in my last article, you may want to forget selling your clothes, TV, bed, dressers, appliances, etc. Because it's illegal to resell as this treaty and TPPA kills the "First Sale" clause. Ebay will be forced to shut down.

This treaty does not apply to digital artwork only audio and video.

Everyone of you in the EU, US, Canada, New Zealand, Austrailia, and other countries can fight back and tell your Senator or Parliament member to vote NO on Ratification.  US Senators requires 34 No votes to block it.

If it Senate fails to ratify, the president can declare accession to the treaty by executive order, officially joining the treaty. Accession means that a country can join to adopt the treaty without ratification. Accession counts the same toward ratification. 30 Accessions without ratification can still enforce the treaty.

Sunday, June 24, 2012

TPPA and its' cause

You have heard about Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement that has gone through secret negotiations.

What is that TPPA would do is that it will:

- Allow big companies to sue governments and force them to change their laws, in other means that government programs like food stamps, social security, and Medicare would cut it's funding in favor for tax commodities. This will make Middle class poverty much worse.

- It will cost millions of jobs rather creating more.

- It would force us to surrender our sovereignty even ban the "Buy America" clause.

- It will put foreign anime licensing companies out of business because of limitations on foreign imports and exports.

- Retail and online outlets could go out of business as well

- Manga artists love their fans but big publishing companies will put a stop to that under TPPA. Manga artists could be punished by big companies.

- DeviantArt and FanFictionNet will be shut down under this agreement.

- It kills the First Sale doctrine. So you can't sell your mattress or car or anything you own without the manufacturer's permission.

- Criminal punishments applies to cosplay and non-profit infringement (except for educational use in Libraries and Public Broadcasting) such as fandomized versions of TV shows, anime, manga, movies, and published works.

Congressman Darrel Issa posted the copyright section of the TPPA on Keep The Web Open website.

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

ADV: Funimation is an Illegal Monopoly

ADV (Section23/Sentai Filmworks/ASV Holdings) counter-sued and accused accused FUNimation as an illegal monopoly.

Trolls on the ANN forum have responded to the article.

 "(expletive) dubs, (expletive) use of voice actors, (expletive) business practices, blah blah blah"

Apparently, people don't want to buy legal DVDs and downloading things for free, aka piracy.

One poster commented:

"I'm pretty sure he's parodying the common idea that fansubs are the reason the industry is crashing."

While online piracy are common through fansubbing is the cause of the anime industry in jeopardy, global currencies are declining, the Eurozone is near an end due to Greece election and other bailouts including Portugal and Spain. Germany handles the Euro common currency.

The few responses in the ANN forums that all favor for FUNimation to close its doors if the Harris County Texas District Judge sides with ADV.  Most of all it could not only cost FUNimation's CEO Gen Fukunaga to lose his business, it could cost his citizenship and risk deportation back to Japan, just remember what happened to News Corp and the phone hacking scandal. If the Federal Government find that Rupert Murdoch was not only running an illegal monopoly, but an illegal duopoly, he would not only risk to lose the Dow, the Fox networks, News corp owned newspapers including the Miami Sun, and his business, but he would also lose his US citizenship and risk deportation, and the UK would sentence him to imprisonment. But the US Feds did nothing, because they didn't have enough evidence to prove it. They didn't remember if News Corp did the hacking. Most of all, UK incidents have no connection to the US.

The fate of FUNimation rests in the hands of the District Judge.