A recently disturbing (well, a couple of years ago) development has been revealed about a treaty that could threat the very foundations of the internet and the information age. It's makers are keeping it somewhat secret and even suppressing some FOIA request to disclose it. I am referring to the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA for short). This treaty allows the following to become reality:
* Adds third party entities as liable for Intellectual Property Infringements (meaning ISP/web hosts will be held legally liable for clients breaking copyright laws). This alone will kill the internet as we know and love. Sites like YouTube, Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, etc would be forced to spy on users content, activity and even web traffic to ensure there's no illegal infringement activity emerging, or worse simply shut down because it can't cope. This goes way beyond current measures employed. Since this applies to ISPs too, they would be forced to monitor ALL internet traffic in order to prevent being liable for illegal infringing content. This could even span to installing spyware on your computer to search your computer files for anything that could break these laws too.
* Allows customs/police to seize any items you carry to check for Intellectual Property Infringements. So if you just happen to have something on your laptop even by accident while walking down the street or airport; you're fucked as they are granted the right to search, confiscate and destroy the offending device and punish you for it.
I skim through the actual draft of the 2009 ACTA document which was leaked on Wikileaks, and that's the two definite summaries you can make of it already. However there is another rumour floating around which I can't fully confirm via the documents, that is:
* There will impose the MPAA three strikes policy, which is a policy that if you just ACCUSED of hosting, uploading or downloading Intellectual Property Infringing content three times, you will be banned from the internet for a full year, with legal charges filed against you too on top of it.
Ladies and Gentlemen, this ACTA is not what it seems, it's got little to do with what the makers claim it is and they didn't want it to be well known. This treaty will be globally applied to countries participating in it. It can easily be exploited to be converted into the ultimate threat to freedom of speech on the internet.
Here's a link to an actual leaked classified document:
http://www.wikileaks.org/wiki/Classified_US%2C_Japan_and_EU_ACTA_trade_agreement_drafts%2C_2009http://www.wikileaks.org/wiki/Category:ACTA <--- go here to find more leaked documents about ACTA
Here's the official USTR information about ACTA:
http://www.ustr.gov/trade-topics/intellectual-property/anti-counterfeiting-trade-agreement-actaHere's some commentaries of it and the controversies surrounding it:
http://www.encyclopediadramatica.com/ACTAhttp://www.eff.org/press/archives/2009/01/29http://blogs.siliconvalley.com/gmsv/2009/11/draft-of-secret-copyright-treaty-should-give-you-chills.htmlHere's a very hilarious but also serious business take on it by Angry Aussie:
Spread the word in any way people, this is serious business. It's not finalized or passed yet, so awareness must be made now before it's too late!