summaryrefslogtreecommitdiff
path: root/talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/en/hague.html
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
Diffstat (limited to 'talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/en/hague.html')
-rw-r--r--talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/en/hague.html282
1 files changed, 282 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/en/hague.html b/talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/en/hague.html
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..10511f3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/en/hague.html
@@ -0,0 +1,282 @@
+<!--#include virtual="/server/header.html" -->
+<!-- Parent-Version: 1.77 -->
+<title>Harm from the Hague
+- GNU Project - Free Software Foundation</title>
+<!--#include virtual="/philosophy/po/hague.translist" -->
+<!--#include virtual="/server/banner.html" -->
+<h2>Harm from the Hague</h2>
+
+<p>
+By <a href="http://www.stallman.org">Richard Stallman</a>, June 2001</p>
+
+<p>
+Europeans have energetically opposed and thwarted the attempt to
+introduce software patents in Europe. A proposed treaty, now being
+negotiated, threatens to subject software developers in Europe and
+other countries to U.S. software patents &mdash; and other harmful
+laws from around the world. The problem is not just for programmers;
+authors of all kinds will face new dangers. Even the censorship laws
+of various countries could have globalized effect.</p>
+
+<p>
+The Hague treaty is not actually about patents, or about copyrights, or
+about censorship, but it affects all of them. It is a treaty about
+jurisdiction, and how one country should treat the court decisions of
+another country. The basic idea is reasonable enough: if someone hits
+your car in France or breaks a contract with your French company, you
+can sue him in France, then bring the judgment to a court in whichever
+country he lives in (or has assets in) for enforcement.</p>
+
+<p>
+The treaty becomes a problem when it is extended to distribution of
+information &mdash; because information now travels normally and
+predictably to all countries. (The Internet is one way, but not the
+only way.) The consequence is that you could be sued about the
+information you distributed under the laws of <strong>any</strong>
+Hague country, and the judgment would probably be enforced by your
+country.</p>
+
+<p>
+For instance, if you release a software package (either free or not)
+in Germany, and people use it in the U.S., you could be sued for
+infringing an absurd U.S. software patent. That part does not depend
+on Hague &mdash; it could happen now. But right now you could ignore
+the U.S. judgment, safe in Germany, and the patent holder knows this.
+Under the Hague treaty, any German court would be required to enforce
+the U.S. judgment against you. In effect, the software patents of any
+signatory country would apply to all signatory countries. It isn't
+enough to keep software patents out of Europe, if U.S. or Japanese or
+Egyptian software patents can reach you there.</p>
+
+<p>
+But patent law is not the only area of law that could wreak havoc if
+globalized by the Hague treaty. Suppose you publish a statement
+criticizing a public figure. If copies are read in England, that public
+figure could sue you under the strict U.K. libel law. The laws of your
+country may support the right to criticize a public figure, but with the
+Hague treaty, they won't necessarily protect you any more.</p>
+
+<p>
+Or suppose you publish a statement comparing your prices with your
+competitors' prices. If this is read in Germany, where comparative
+advertising is illegal, you could be sued in Germany and the judgment
+brought back to you wherever you are. (Subsequent note: I've received
+word that this law may have been changed in Germany. The point is the
+same, though&mdash;any country could have such a law, and some other
+European countries may still have one.)</p>
+
+<p>
+Or suppose you publish a parody. If it is read in Korea, you could be
+sued there, since Korea does not recognize a right to parody. (Since
+the publication of this article, the Korean Supreme Court affirmed the
+right to parody, but the general point remains.)</p>
+
+<p>
+Or suppose you have political views that a certain government prohibits.
+You could be sued in that country, and the judgment against you there
+would be enforced wherever you live.</p>
+
+<p>
+Not long ago, Yahoo was sued in France for having links to U.S. sites
+that auctioned Nazi memorabilia, which is lawful in the U.S. After a
+French court required Yahoo France to block such links, Yahoo went to
+court in the U.S., asking for a ruling that the French judgment cannot
+be applied to the parent company in the U.S.</p>
+
+<p>
+It may come as a surprise to learn that exiled Chinese dissidents
+joined the case in support of Yahoo. But they knew what they were
+doing &mdash; their democracy movement depends on the outcome.</p>
+
+<p>
+You see, Nazism is not the only political view whose expression is
+prohibited in certain places. Criticism of the Chinese government is
+also prohibited &mdash; in China. If a French court ruling against
+Nazi statements is enforceable in the US, or in your country, maybe a
+Chinese court ruling against anti-Chinese-government statements will
+be enforceable there too. (This might be why China has joined the
+Hague treaty negotiations.) The Chinese government can easily adapt
+its censorship law so that the Hague treaty would apply to it; all it
+has to do is give private individuals (and government agencies) the
+right to sue dissident publications.</p>
+
+<p>
+China is not the only country to ban criticism of the government; as
+of this writing, the government of Victoria (Australia) is suing to
+suppress a book called Victoria Police Corruption on the grounds that
+it &ldquo;scandalizes the courts.&rdquo; This book is available on the
+Internet outside Australia. Australia is a Hague treaty participant;
+if the treaty applies to such cases, an Australian court judgment
+against the book could be used to suppress it elsewhere.</p>
+
+<p>
+Meanwhile, works that criticize Islam have faced increasing censorship
+in Egypt, a Hague treaty participant; this too could be globalized by
+the Hague treaty.</p>
+
+<p>
+Americans may turn to the First Amendment to protect them from foreign
+judgments against their speech. The draft treaty permits a court to
+ignore a foreign judgment that is &ldquo;manifestly incompatible with
+public policy.&rdquo; That is a stringent criterion, so you cannot
+count on it to protect you just because your conduct is legal where
+you are. Just what it does cover is up to the particular judge. It
+is unlikely to help you against broad foreign interpretations of
+copyright, trademarks or software patents, but U.S. courts might use
+it to reject outright censorship judgments.</p>
+
+<p>
+However, even that won't help you if you publish on the Internet,
+because your <abbr title="Internet service provider">ISP</abbr> either
+has assets in other countries or communicates to the world through
+larger <abbr>ISP</abbr>s that have them. A censorship judgment
+against your site, or any other kind, could be enforced against
+your <abbr>ISP</abbr>, or your <abbr>ISP</abbr>'s
+<abbr>ISP</abbr>, in any other country where it has assets &mdash; and
+where there is no Bill of Rights, and freedom of speech does not enjoy
+the same exalted status as in the U.S. In response, the ISP will shut
+off your site. The Hague treaty would globalize pretexts for
+lawsuits, but not the protections for civil liberties, so any local
+protection could be bypassed.</p>
+
+<p>
+Does suing your <abbr>ISP</abbr> seem far-fetched? It already
+happens. When the multinational company Danone announced plans to
+close factories in France, Olivier Malnuit opened a site,
+jeboycottedanone.com, to criticize this. (The name is French for
+&ldquo;I boycott Danone.&rdquo;) Danone sued not only him but his site
+hosting company and domain name registrar for &ldquo;counterfeiting of
+goods&rdquo; &mdash; and in April 2001 received a ruling prohibiting
+Malnuit from mentioning the name &ldquo;Danone&rdquo; either in the
+domain name or in the text of the site. Even more telling, the
+registrar removed the domain in fear before the court made a
+ruling.</p>
+
+<p>
+The natural response for French dissidents is to publish their
+criticism of Danone outside France, just as Chinese dissidents publish
+their criticism of China outside China. But the Hague treaty would
+enable Danone to attack them everywhere. Perhaps even this article
+would be suppressed through its <abbr>ISP</abbr> or
+its <abbr>ISP</abbr>'s <abbr>ISP</abbr>.</p>
+
+<p>
+The potential effects of the treaty are not limited to laws that exist
+today. When 50 countries know that their court judgments could be
+enforced throughout North America, Europe and Asia, they would have
+plenty of temptation to pass laws just for that purpose.</p>
+
+<p>
+Suppose, for example, that Microsoft would like to be able to impose
+copyright on languages and network protocols. They could approach a
+small, poor country and offer to spend $50 million a year there for 20
+years, if only that country will pass a law saying that implementing a
+Microsoft language or protocol constitutes copyright infringement. They
+can surely find some country which would take the offer. Then if you
+implement a compatible program, Microsoft could sue you in that country,
+and win. When the judge rules in their favor and bans distribution of
+your program, the courts in your country will enforce the judgment on
+you, obeying the Hague treaty.</p>
+
+<p>
+Does this seem implausible? In 2000, Cisco pressured Liechtenstein, a
+small European country, to legalize software patents. And IBM's chief
+lobbyist threatened many European governments with a termination of
+investment if they did not support software patents. Meanwhile, the
+U.S. trade representative pressured Middle Eastern country Jordan to
+allow patents on mathematics.</p>
+
+<!-- The following link is dead, disabled - mhatta 2002/9/30 -->
+<!--
+<A HREF="http://www.usjoft.com/usjoft/memopro/memopro.html">patents on
+mathematics</A>.<p>
+-->
+<p>
+A meeting of consumer organizations
+(<a href="http://www.tacd.org">http://www.tacd.org</a>) recommended in
+May 2001 that patents, copyrights and trademarks (&ldquo;intellectual
+property&rdquo;) should be excluded from the scope of the Hague
+treaty, because these laws vary considerably between countries.</p>
+
+<p>
+That is a good recommendation, but it only solves part of the problem.
+Patents and bizarre extensions of copyright are just two of many excuses
+used for suppression of publication in certain countries. To solve the
+problem thoroughly, all cases about the legality of distributing or
+transmitting particular information should be excluded from
+globalization under the treaty, and only the country where the
+distributor or transmitter operates should have jurisdiction.</p>
+
+<p>
+In Europe, people opposed to software patents will be active in
+working to change the Hague treaty.
+<!-- link dead, disabled - yavor, 24 Apr 2007 -->
+<!-- ; for more information, see
+<a href="http://www.noepatents.org/hague">http://www.noepatents.org/hague</a>.
+-->
+In the U.S., the Consumer Project for Technology is taking the
+lead; for more information, see
+<a href="http://www.cptech.org/ecom/jurisdiction/hague.html">http://www.cptech.org/ecom/jurisdiction/hague.html</a>.</p>
+
+<p>
+A diplomatic conference is slated to begin today (June 6, 2001) to work
+on the details of the Hague treaty. We should make ministries and the
+public aware of the possible dangers as soon as possible.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<!-- link dead, disabled - yavor, 24 Apr 2007 -->
+<!--
+You can read a draft of the Hague
+treaty <a href="http://www.hcch.net/e/conventions/draft36e.html">here</a>.</p>
+-->
+<p>
+There is more information about the problems with the Hague
+at <a href="http://web.lemuria.org/DeCSS/hague.html">http://web.lemuria.org/DeCSS/hague.html</a>.</p>
+</div><!-- for id="content", starts in the include above -->
+<!--#include virtual="/server/footer.html" -->
+<div id="footer">
+<div class="unprintable">
+
+<p>Please send general FSF &amp; GNU inquiries to <a
+href="mailto:gnu@gnu.org">&lt;gnu@gnu.org&gt;</a>. There are also <a
+href="/contact/">other ways to contact</a> the FSF. Broken links and other
+corrections or suggestions can be sent to <a
+href="mailto:webmasters@gnu.org">&lt;webmasters@gnu.org&gt;</a>.</p>
+
+<p><!-- TRANSLATORS: Ignore the original text in this paragraph,
+ replace it with the translation of these two:
+
+ We work hard and do our best to provide accurate, good quality
+ translations. However, we are not exempt from imperfection.
+ Please send your comments and general suggestions in this regard
+ to <a href="mailto:web-translators@gnu.org">
+ &lt;web-translators@gnu.org&gt;</a>.</p>
+
+ <p>For information on coordinating and submitting translations of
+ our web pages, see <a
+ href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations
+ README</a>. -->
+Please see the <a
+href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations README</a> for
+information on coordinating and submitting translations of this article.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Copyright &copy; 2001 Richard Stallman<br />
+Copyright &copy; 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc.</p>
+
+<p>This page is licensed under a <a rel="license"
+href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/us/">Creative
+Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License</a>.</p>
+
+<!--#include virtual="/server/bottom-notes.html" -->
+
+<p class="unprintable">Updated:
+<!-- timestamp start -->
+$Date: 2014/04/12 12:40:10 $
+<!-- timestamp end -->
+</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+</body>
+</html>