Travel with Computers/iPods? Watch yourself!

[GrobbeeTrull2.0]

Copyright Police may seize iPods, Macs under G8 trade deal | 9 to 5 Mac

Basically, governments all over the world are working out ways to stop you, search your hard drives if you're traveling, and make sure you're not "copywright infringing."

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

iPods, iPhones, laptops and other digital devices could be seized by customs officials worldwide under a new top-secret copyright policing deal being worked out between the G8 nations, reports claim.

Nations including Canada, the US and various European states (including the UK, which sits on the G8) are secretly agreeing a new pan-global state police deal in which information held on iPods and other devices could be subject to investigation by customs officials tasked with a new role, as copyright police.

Dubbed the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), signatory nations will form an international coalition against copyright infringement.

The deal’s up for discussion at the next G8 meeting in Tokyo in July, It creates rules and regulations to govern private copying and copyright laws, and posits the founding of an international regulator, “that would turn border guards and other public security personnel into copyright police,” reports Ottawa Citizen, the National Post and other Canadian media outlets.

These copyright police would be given the job of checking laptops, iPods, iPhones and other personal devices for content that “infringes” on copyright laws, “including ripped CDs and DVDs”. To make this Stalinist proposition even more annoying, front line security staff will be empowered to decide what content infringes on copyright laws. And also makes any content copied from DVD or a digital video recorder open to scrutiny by officials.

It’s likely these lunatic new proposals are being drawn up in secret in order to outflank any outcry by privacy advocates or any true intellectual discussion as to whether such protectionism should be applied in favour of content creation firms.

Officials will be able to levy fines or seize goods even in the absence of any complaints by rights holders. And searches will be allowed even without a lawyer present. And ISPs will be forced to hand over personal information on any alleged copyright infringers - no actual proof will be required. And, to make it even more Orwellian, ACTA will be unaccountable to any existing trade organisation, effectively meaning the RIAA and other such bodies will run a public/private international police force with the right to search, fine and confiscate property without any accountability. Local Canadian privacy advocates point out that governments have been privately negotiating these new proposals without consultation, and that the proposals revealed yesterday only surfaced due to the application of freedom of information type

[Zarcath]

RIAA > Patriot Act?

[chaos]

John C Dvorak was talking about this on some podcast I was listening to. They were talking about using multiple layers of encryption to obfuscate the actual contents of the drive, not sure how effective that is when they could just confiscate the drive based on suspicion.

[Sharmai]

I can't see how they are going to enforce this in a meaningful enough way to not piss off a ton of people. Everyone has ipods, iphones, and laptops. Searching all of these and verifying for legal content? In a non time consuming way? For what millions of daily passengers? HAHAH

And what if your ipod/iphone/laptop is locked? Are they allowed to crack it? Beautiful really. Riaa in its deaththrows..

[Sunnyd]

It will be interesting to see how this pans out, but I have to say it comes as no surprise really, considering the reports of border agents copying data from laptops/pda's as people enter the country.
Indeed:

In a recent ruling, a three-judge panel of that court determined that border agents could examine the contents of a laptop without reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing.

Taken from here.

[Sunnyd]

Originally Posted by Sharmai

And what if your ipod/iphone/laptop is locked? Are they allowed to crack it? Beautiful really. Riaa in its deaththrows..

In a word yes.
They will ask you toenter in your password, and if you fail to do so they can detain you or refuse you entry into the country.
In the UK if you fail to provide any passwords needed you can get a 2-5 year jail term.

In the US there is a case going on where a man is being forced to provide his encryption key, even if when doing so he could possibly incriminate himself in a crime (violating his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination).

A nifty article by a UK paper on visiting the states with a laptop can be found here.

[Sharmai]

What if its my sister's laptop, ipod, etc? I don't have the password? (Assuming your not actually listening to it when they find you that is).

So great we now are entering into the encryption age. NEW Ipod encryption travel software 2.12!! Hide your files so they can't see you! 19.95 free updates for the next 3 months!!

[Zarcath]

I can't wait for the first case of a man smuggling a harddrive up his butt to surface.

I'm looking at you quineloe.

[Sharmai]

Ok so I have to provide them with the encryption key right? Ok so encrypt it with a 28 page varying lengths, symbols, languages, etc. encryption key that would confuse the best of scanners and keep it with you. When they ask for the key say "Here I made copies of it just for you - When your finished with the drive mail it to me at this address"

Then put "Hello World!" as the only thing on the drive.

[Radahr Manasponge]

This is one of the reasons I ship everything.

I take ONLY the immediate necessities with me when I fly. Keys, wallet, smokes & matches, a book to read. Everything else is shipped ahead or behind.

I started doing this back in the late 90s actually, when the amount of tools and gear I typically travelled with made me look like a terrorist (even BEFORE 9/11).

Given how bad the security bullshit is now, and how terrible the airlines are with losing baggage, having things go 'missing' when the TSA pokes through our shit, etc, I can't see a reason NOT to ship my stuff separately.

[Etoille]

Originally Posted by Radahr Manasponge

This is one of the reasons I ship everything.

I take ONLY the immediate necessities with me when I fly. Keys, wallet, smokes & matches, a book to read. Everything else is shipped ahead or behind.

I started doing this back in the late 90s actually, when the amount of tools and gear I typically travelled with made me look like a terrorist (even BEFORE 9/11).

Given how bad the security bullshit is now, and how terrible the airlines are with losing baggage, having things go 'missing' when the TSA pokes through our shit, etc, I can't see a reason NOT to ship my stuff separately.

And with American Airlines charging 15 dollars for the first bag and everyone else including american charging 25 dollars for the second bag youre better off sending your shit UPS anymore.

[GrobbeeTrull2.0]

I'm not sure this is a music only thing - it applies to any portable storage, laptops, etc.

Also it is more "political" than anything, but ok!

[Daerath]

Originally Posted by GrobbeeTrull2.0

I'm not sure this is a music only thing - it applies to any portable storage, laptops, etc.

Also it is more "political" than anything, but ok!

Calling BS on this one. There aren't any major media references to this, just sites like somethingawful and abovetopsecret, both of which are completely suspect. If it were legit, there would be some reference to it on a more credible news site.

Besides, it wouldn't be impossible to hide the data anyway. You can embed any type of data you want into jpgs using steghide or similar software. You can bet if something like this were going to happen that there would be far more sophisticated software released soon after to let you easily hide whatever you want on your laptop, thumb drive, etc.

Oh, and to those of you saying that you'd just ship your luggage, well, customs does randomly inspect material shipped via UPS, Fedex, etc.

[Menoz]

How are they going to know whether the songs on my ipod or legitimately purchased or not. This is stupid.

[Daerath]

Originally Posted by Menoz

How are they going to know whether the songs on my ipod or legitimately purchased or not. This is stupid.

They can't.