a comment to: Embattled ACTA Negotiations Next Week In Geneva; US Sees Signing This Year [1]:
I didn't yet manage to get really safe information on what ACTA actually does (that's a marker for 'this is dangerous' in itself), but what I see on wikileaks sounds horrible:
"The deal would create a international regulator that could turn border guards and other public security personnel into copyright police. The security officials would be charged with checking laptops, iPods and even cellular phones for content that "infringes" on copyright laws, such as ripped CDs and movies."
- http://wikileaks.org/wiki/ACTA_trade_agreement_negotiation_lacks_transpa... [2]
'Check my laptops content'???
What about my electronic diary, then?
Without a clear judges sentence, noone is allowed to look at my private files, and should they remove that restriction, they can as well remove all privacy.
And it gets worse:
"The guards would also be responsible for determining what is infringing content and what is not."
and worse:
"Mr. Fewer and Mr. Geist said, once Canada signs the new trade agreement it will be next to impossible to back out of it.
In a situation similar to what happened in the Softwood Lumber trade dispute, Canadians could face hefty penalties if it does not comply with ACTA after the agreement has been completed."
Ouch!
That doesn't sound like a treaty between nations, but more like some big players conspiring to create law which binds all others, and that clearly is antidemocratic.
So a big question looms: What can we do against ACTA?
Ways to act I found:
Links:
[1] http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/index.php?p=1071
[2] http://wikileaks.org/wiki/ACTA_trade_agreement_negotiation_lacks_transparency
[3] https://www.fsf.org/campaigns/acta
[4] http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&q=acta+%22trade+agreement%22&scoring=d