ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement)

[MBS]

Can someone who has a decent understanding of legal jargon tell me if I have this correct?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Counterfeiting_Trade_Agreement

Essentially, government officials have the right to search any mp3 player, laptop or cellphone and, if said items have copyrighted content that are deemed "questionable", then it could be confiscated and destroyed.

The thing that's weirding me about this whole thing is the phrase

The proposed agreement would allow border officials to search..

So, only border patrol would be able to search these items?

Your thoughts?

[Against Miik!]

I'm not sure who is legally allowed to search these items, but yes, you have it right.

The item doesn't even have to be questionable, its your word vs theirs. If you take an electronic device on an international flight, it is considered an extension of yourself, and can be searched. Failure to comply will result in you not be allowed to board the flight or cross the border, or whatever.

Often times, they will take said item, have you board the plane, and promise to return it at a later date. In some cases, this will not happen.

If you do a little hunt on google, you will certainly be able to find some horror stories of this very thing happening. I know of the millions that board flights everyday, this thing doesn't happen very often, but even still, I will probably never take a laptop on a plane. I don't have anything to hide, but I'd still rather not deal with the hassle.

[Volumnius Flush]

Martial law, here we come!

[stevensonmat2]

I think you mean martian law.

[Aaron]

Martin's Law.

[Knifeboy]

What pisses me off about this, is that they have no way of determining if what you have on your mp3 player is illegal

[Dr Hooch]

if you're not in full time employment and can fill an ipod some of it's illegal

[Aaron]

What? lol. You can buy music legally and cheaply online.

[Volumnius Flush]

I think you mean martian law.

No. I definitely mean martial law, here we come!

[Sunshine]

Uh, wow.
Thanks for scaring the crap out of me, now I'm slightly nervous about going to Japan with my laptop and iPod.
I mean. They're kind of important, and there's no way in HELL I'd ever EVER check my laptop.
Maybe if I let the battery run they wouldn't bother tryin' to plug it in and check..

[Aaron]

:lol: VF you really don't understand humour do you.

[Jude]

if you're not in full time employment and can fill an ipod some of it's illegal

lol

[Sunshine]

Yeah, that's bull.
Some people just have really large music collections.
Or their parents listen to cool music.

[Jude]

It's completely preposterous because unless they develop some kind of magic matrix-like robot to make sure your music is legal they have no way of knowing

If this is even for real then it's a scare tactic at most

[Volumnius Flush]

:lol: VF you really don't understand humour do you.

It's a product of my disability. But I get humor sometimes, I just don't get what was so funny about "martian law".

[stevensonmat2]

It's a joke from a tv show called 'sealab 2021'.

[Volumnius Flush]

It's a joke from a tv show called 'sealab 2021'.

Based off the old 70's cartoon?

[Dr Hooch]

What? lol. You can buy music legally and cheaply online.

"cheaply"? OK what is it like a dollar a song, on itunes? According to apple a 160GB ipod can hold "40,000 songs" so that's $40k?

I ACUIRE ( <_< ) almost all my music and I have just under 40GB

[Against Miik!]

Uh, wow.
Thanks for scaring the crap out of me, now I'm slightly nervous about going to Japan with my laptop and iPod.
I mean. They're kind of important, and there's no way in HELL I'd ever EVER check my laptop.
Maybe if I let the battery run they wouldn't bother tryin' to plug it in and check..

Don't count on it. Even if you take the battery out and say you don't have one, they will just pull the drive. Your best bet is encryption, although that can make you look suspicious.

[Aaron]

Just say you changed laptops recently and you data-cabled it across rather than re-rip the CDs. Or... run a dual-boot of two OSs and keep your music on the one that doesn't autoload.