Secret Copyright Treaty Details Leak: ISPs Worldwide to Become Copyright Cops? [Copyright]

New negotiations for an international Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) kick off today, and this round focuses on a secretive Internet piracy plan drafted by the U.S government. No text has been released, but leaks have surfaced. It's not looking good.
The leaks suggest that countries who sign up to the U.S promoted plan would have to force ISPs to proactively police copyright on user-generated content, cut off those accused (or face liability), and put 'graduated response' clauses in customer contracts. An example of graduated response is France's 'three strikes and your out' law. There, you get two warnings if caught sharing music or movies, then you're banned for up to two years.

This provision would mean that every country that signs up to ACTA must allow content owners such as record companies and Hollywood studios to sue ISPs for failing to stop their subscribers from illegally sharing copyright-protected material such as music and movies.

By the way, two major sources of counterfeiting—Russia and China—aren't in the talks. If you want to get your head further around the issue, these sites do a great job of breaking it all down:
[Gizmodo via Electronic Frontier Foundation and PC World via BoingBoing]

Disney announces new DVD Killer technology

I love companies like Disney. They seem to think that just because they want something some way, it’ll happen. Take for instance their latest scheme. Instead of allowing you to “buy” their movies on DVD, Blu-ray, or even VHS, they are going to allow you to buy access to their content.

Disney doesn’t want you to pass your treasured copies of their movies on to your children, or sell them at garage sales. Oh no… they own that property, and expect to be paid for it without it being loaned, traded, or sold on the secondary market.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Disney’s new technology is called Keychest, and is expected to be rolled out next month. They’ve quietly been talking to electronics manufacturers about including the ability to access the content into their systems, however no information has been revealed about who exactly has bought into Disney’s new plan. The Keychest technology allows an end user to purchase a lifetime license to view a movie across multiple platforms. The movies wouldn’t be something that you can download, instead you would be able to stream the films to your devices over the internet or cable television system. Seems like an attempt to recover from the recent collapse of DVD sales, which has resulted in some companies reporting losses for the first time since 2005.
[CrunchGear]

The latest Stargate Universe trailer clearly shows someone watched BSG

Oh man, Stargate Universe launches on October 2nd. I can’t wait even though the latest trailer shows that the show has clearly taken a more edgy stance, which in my mind at least, isn’t what a Stargate show be. But that’s not new info. The creators have stated that SGU will be different for a while, but this trailer confirms it. The show is going to be darker, full of mystery, and shot to look like Battlestar Galactica. But the simple Star Wars reference at the end of the trailer shows some hope that the show might actually maintain some of its Stargate identity. Hopefully.