Attn bloggers: Y'all know where to find me

Updated below.

I'd like to assure those of you who are currently relying on free blogging platforms that should the day come when you have to set up an independent site — which could happen sooner than you think — I can assist and my rates are very reasonable.

Now that I have your attention, be advised that there's a set of meetings taking place in Seoul, South Korea that are ostensibly about negotiating the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. But it appears that the Americans have tabled a draft document that, if accepted, would have wide-reaching implications on copyright. Don't take my word for it, here's Michael Geist.

If accurate (and these provisions are consistent with the U.S. approach for the past few years in bilateral trade negotiations) the combined effect of these provisions would to be to dramatically reshape Canadian copyright law and to eliminate sovereign choice on domestic copyright policy.

That post has more information. Cory Doctorow at boing boing has also posted and says the following of one of the proposals:

That ISPs have to proactively police copyright on user-contributed material. This means that it will be impossible to run a service like Flickr or YouTube or Blogger, since hiring enough lawyers to ensure that the mountain of material uploaded every second isn't infringing will exceed any hope of profitability.

I want to be properly skeptical about this but at the same time I regard both Geist and Doctorow as reliable and not normally given to exaggeration. And Doctorow has a point: if Google would literally be required to examine every item coming in to YouTube and every post being queued up to publish on blogspot.com, how practical is it to continue offering those services?

You won't be surprised that all this is supposed to be a secret. National security, don't you know. Disney's future revenues from Mickey Mouse are at stake. (Let him retire already, will ya?) And if what's been leaked about the American proposals is accurate, there's more to be concerned about than just what I've discussed here.

Remember: reasonable rates. Or we could be prepared to let our politicians know that they ratify copyright provisions like this at their peril.

H/t to matttbastard on Twitter for the boing boing link.

Update:

Courtesy of skdadl in comments, there's more at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. This looks like a back-door attempt to give the RIAA and the MPAA everything they could possibly wish for. And a pony.