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www/philosophy hague.html
|
From: |
Yavor Doganov |
|
Subject: |
www/philosophy hague.html |
|
Date: |
Mon, 23 Apr 2007 21:35:57 +0000 |
CVSROOT: /web/www
Module name: www
Changes by: Yavor Doganov <yavor> 07/04/23 21:35:57
Modified files:
philosophy : hague.html
Log message:
* Templated.
* Removed (commented) two dead links.
CVSWeb URLs:
http://web.cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewcvs/www/philosophy/hague.html?cvsroot=www&r1=1.21&r2=1.22
Patches:
Index: hague.html
===================================================================
RCS file: /web/www/www/philosophy/hague.html,v
retrieving revision 1.21
retrieving revision 1.22
diff -u -b -r1.21 -r1.22
--- hague.html 6 Sep 2005 09:39:57 -0000 1.21
+++ hague.html 23 Apr 2007 21:35:37 -0000 1.22
@@ -1,43 +1,20 @@
-<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
-<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
- "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd";>
-<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"; xml:lang="en">
-
-<head>
+<!--#include virtual="/server/header.html" -->
<title>Harm from the Hague - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation
(FSF)</title>
-<meta http-equiv="content-type" content='text/html; charset=utf-8' />
-<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/gnu.css" />
-<link rev="made" href="mailto:address@hidden"; />
-</head>
-
-<!-- This document is in XML, and xhtml 1.0 -->
-<!-- Please make sure to properly nest your tags -->
-<!-- and ensure that your final document validates -->
-<!-- consistent with W3C xhtml 1.0 and CSS standards -->
-<!-- See validator.w3.org -->
-
-<body>
-
-<p><a href="#translations">Translations</a> of this page</p>
-
-<h3>Harm from the Hague</h3>
-<p>
-<a href="/graphics/agnuhead.html"><img src="/graphics/gnu-head-sm.jpg"
- alt=" [image of the Head of a GNU] "
- width="129" height="122" /></a>
-</p>
+<!--#include virtual="/server/banner.html" -->
+<h2>Harm from the Hague</h2>
<p>
-By <a href="mailto:address@hidden";>Richard Stallman</a>, June 2001</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 -- 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>
+negotiated, threatens to subject software developers in Europe and
+other countries to U.S. software patents — 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
@@ -46,24 +23,28 @@
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 -- 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 --
-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>
+information — 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 — 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
@@ -71,98 +52,117 @@
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--any country could have such a law, and some other European
-countries may still have one.)</p>
+same, though—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
--- their democracy movement depends on the outcome.</p>
+joined the case in support of Yahoo. But they knew what they were
+doing — 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 -- 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
-"scandalizes the courts." 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>
+also prohibited — 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 “scandalizes the courts.” 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 "manifestly incompatible with public
-policy." 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>
+ignore a foreign judgment that is “manifestly incompatible with
+public policy.” 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 ISP either has assets in other countries or communicates to
-the world through larger ISPs that have them. A censorship judgment
-against your site, or any other kind, could be enforced against your
-ISP, or your ISP's ISP, in any other country where it has assets -- and
+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 — 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 ISP 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 "I boycott Danone.") Danone
-sued not only him but his site hosting company and domain name registrar
-for "counterfeiting of goods" -- and in April 2001 received a ruling
-prohibiting Malnuit from mentioning the name "Danone" either in the
+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
+“I boycott Danone.”) Danone sued not only him but his site
+hosting company and domain name registrar for “counterfeiting of
+goods” — and in April 2001 received a ruling prohibiting
+Malnuit from mentioning the name “Danone” 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>
+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 ISP or its ISP's ISP.</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
@@ -174,6 +174,7 @@
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
@@ -188,11 +189,12 @@
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 ("intellectual property") should be excluded
-from the scope of the Hague treaty, because these laws vary considerably
-between countries.</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 (“intellectual
+property”) 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
@@ -201,13 +203,18 @@
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; for more information, see
+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
+-->
+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
@@ -215,59 +222,24 @@
<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>
-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>
-
-<hr />
-<h4><a href="/philosophy/philosophy.html">Other Texts to Read</a></h4>
-<hr />
-
-<!-- All pages on the GNU web server should have the section about -->
-<!-- verbatim copying. Please do NOT remove this without talking -->
-<!-- with the webmasters first. -->
-<!-- Please make sure the copyright date is consistent with the document -->
-<!-- and that it is like this "2001, 2002" not this "2001-2002." -->
-
-<div class="translations">
-<p><a id="translations"></a>
-<b>Translations of this page</b>:<br />
-
-<!-- Please keep this list alphabetical, and in the original -->
-<!-- language if possible, otherwise default to English -->
-<!-- If you do not have it English, please comment what the -->
-<!-- English is. If you add a new language here, please -->
-<!-- advise address@hidden and add it to -->
-<!-- - in /home/www/bin/nightly-vars either TAGSLANG or WEBLANG -->
-<!-- - in /home/www/html/server/standards/README.translations.html -->
-<!-- one of the lists under the section "Translations Underway" -->
-<!-- - if there is a translation team, you also have to add an alias -->
-<!-- to mail.gnu.org:/com/mailer/aliases -->
-<!-- Please also check you have the 2 letter language code right versus -->
-<!-- http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/IG/ert/iso639.htm -->
+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>
-[
- <a href="/philosophy/hague.html">English</a>
-| <a href="/philosophy/hague.es.html">Español</a> <!-- Spanish -->
-| <a href="/philosophy/hague.de.html">Deutsch</a> <!-- German -->
-| <a href="/philosophy/hague.fr.html">French</a> <!-- French -->
-| <a href="/philosophy/hague.it.html">Italiano</a> <!-- Italian -->
-| <a href="/philosophy/hague.pl.html">Polski</a> <!-- Polish -->
-| <a href="/philosophy/hague.pt.html">Português</a> <!-- Portuguese
-->
-]
-</p>
</div>
-<div class="copyright">
-<p>
-Return to the <a href="/home.html">GNU Project home page</a>.
-</p>
+<!--#include virtual="/server/footer.html" -->
+<div id="footer">
<p>
Please send FSF & GNU inquiries to
<a href="mailto:address@hidden";><em>address@hidden</em></a>.
-There are also <a href="/home.html#ContactInfo">other ways to contact</a>
+There are also <a href="/contact/">other ways to contact</a>
the FSF.
<br />
Please send broken links and other corrections (or suggestions) to
@@ -276,18 +248,18 @@
<p>
Please see the
-<a href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations
+<a href="/server/standards/README.translations.">Translations
README</a> for information on coordinating and submitting
translations of this article.
</p>
<p>
-Copyright 2001 Richard Stallman
+Copyright © 2001 Richard Stallman
<br />
-Copyright (C) 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
-51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110, USA
-<br />
-Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is
+Copyright © 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
+</p>
+<address>51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110, USA</address>
+<p>Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is
permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is
preserved.
</p>
@@ -295,10 +267,45 @@
<p>
Updated:
<!-- timestamp start -->
-$Date: 2005/09/06 09:39:57 $ $Author: wkotwica $
+$Date: 2007/04/23 21:35:37 $
<!-- timestamp end -->
</p>
</div>
+<div id="translations">
+<h4>Translations of this page</h4>
+
+<!-- Please keep this list alphabetical. -->
+<!-- Comment what the language is for each type, i.e. de is German. -->
+<!-- Write the language name in its own language (Deutsch) in the text. -->
+<!-- If you add a new language here, please -->
+<!-- advise address@hidden and add it to -->
+<!-- - /home/www/bin/nightly-vars either TAGSLANG or WEBLANG -->
+<!-- - /home/www/html/server/standards/README.translations.html -->
+<!-- - one of the lists under the section "Translations Underway" -->
+<!-- - if there is a translation team, you also have to add an alias -->
+<!-- to mail.gnu.org:/com/mailer/aliases -->
+<!-- Please also check you have the 2 letter language code right, cf. -->
+<!-- <URL:http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/IG/ert/iso639.htm> -->
+<!-- Please use W3C normative character entities. -->
+
+<ul class="translations-list">
+<!-- German -->
+<li><a href="/philosophy/hague.de.html">Deutsch</a> [de]</li>
+<!-- English -->
+<li><a href="/philosophy/hague.html">English</a> [en]</li>
+<!-- Spanish -->
+<li><a href="/philosophy/hague.es.html">Español</a> [es]</li>
+<!-- French -->
+<li><a href="/philosophy/hague.fr.html">French</a> [fr]</li>
+<!-- Italian -->
+<li><a href="/philosophy/hague.it.html">Italiano</a> [it]</li>
+<!-- Polish -->
+<li><a href="/philosophy/hague.pl.html">Polski</a> [pl]</li>
+<!-- Portuguese -->
+<li><a href="/philosophy/hague.pt.html">Português</a> [pt]</li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+</div>
</body>
</html>
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