ACTA - a bad deal is being made, and your privacy is at stake...

Superficially, it purports to control licensing and policing of pharmaceuticals, copyrighted works, other intellectual properties, and the control of piracy.  However, there are also provisions being incorporated into the agreement which endanger the freedom to communicate freely, and exchange information internationally via the internet. Some of these regulations may be binding on citizens without the benefit of legislative process once the treaty is in place. This treaty, as with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1996, has been very quietly brought to the threshold of ratification with next to no public awareness or discussion of its provisions. 

If you are interested in learning more about this subject, it can only help. It seems to me that at this point corporate-ownership interests have come to dominate the formation of these laws and treaties, to the detriment of all.

If there in no path nor time-line in law for art, stories,songs, music, inventions, "designed"seeds or genes, molecules,  common medicines, common computer programs and sub-programs, etc, etc,  to sensibly pass into a free and public domain for the common good,  then we have allowed all human endeavor to be stolen and sold back to us, ever after.

Many provisions which have been discussed for incorporation into ACTA could mandate searches, seizure, and destruction of personal property without a warrant. Many of the web provisions discussed could lead to restricted access and filtering of web use that would stifle free communication and exchange of ideas worldwide.

Yes, piracy and copyright infringement is rampant, and a serious problem, but the solutions should not be bartered out by agreements crafted by multi-national mega-corporations, and without regard to issues of fair-use, and a need for knowledge and culture to pass into a common domain of shared use over time.  We are truly at a cross-roads beyond which, if the wrong turn is made, the public domain may pass into history, and the free forum of the internet be closed and lost hereafter.

Want to learn more:  please read, Wikipedia - Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement .

The video below is lengthy (~80 minutes), but allows you to see and hear some of the lobbyists and counter-advocates discussing the issues involved.

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