Caution to Travelling JETs

Submitted by seanP on Mon, 2008/08/04 - 14:42.

In the last year there has been under-the-radar talks and lobbying between the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) and world governments and the EU to conduct random border searches of laptops, MP3 players, and other digital storage devices (e.g. external hardrives) for pirated movies, music, and software. Also, it will pressure ISPs into supplying information about users. Until recently it seemed like this would be a slow process and it was on the agenda for discussion at the G8 conference in Japan a couple of months ago. if you want to find out more, check out ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement) at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Counterfeiting_Trade_Agreement

And also the latest news story that suggests this proceedure has come into effect in America for people entering the country, because of terrorism fears:
http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSN0126069520080801

Is this another step towards a big brother state, and a severe reduction in individual privacy and rights?

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Hyakuman's picture

Ah... It's not gonna fly,

Submitted by Hyakuman on Mon, 2008/08/04 - 22:12.

Ah... It's not gonna fly, none of these RIAA pleas ever do, and ever should. Privacy is one of the constitutional rights in most countries' charters, and there's nothing that the RIAA can do about it.

seanP's picture

Privacy is only available once you're in!

Submitted by seanP on Wed, 2008/08/06 - 14:45.

All customs authorities, USA or elsewhere have complete authority to invade privacy to enforce the laws of the country and also to protect the country and it's people and property. This means reasonable suspicion is not required for any search. But if you are in the clear your right to privacy is then enforced, i.e. they obliterate any backup and documentation of your hardware contents. At the moment, it seems stopping terrorism and child pornography is on the agenda, and I can't find any reference to anyone being prosecuted for copyright infringement by detection at customs. But, note the governments are talking about this, they did at the G8 conference and it is under secrecy, no results of the discussion are published. If you doubt its being looked at, here's a link on the European website looking at copyright infringement on a largescale for commercial benefit.
http://ec.europa.eu/trade/issues/sectoral/intell_property/fs231007_en.ht...

With the size of todays storage devices, the quantity of downloaded material is increasing per individual. It is estimated teenagers on average have about 800 illegally downloaded songs, about 50% of their music on their ipods. How long before the little people are classed as major criminals? The answer is no time at all, the RIAA already have made moves to prosecute even 8 year old kids!