| The referenced post is an opinion piece. It is not a secret agreement; you can download a PDF file of the agreement here. There is nothing at other major news sites about Obama 'ratifying' ACTA. He signed it October 1, 2011 (when representatives of other countries did the same) as an 'executive agreement' that does not require a Senate vote. However, because of that it does not have the force of law. Congress has to write and pass laws that implement the specific provisions of ACTA, and that hasn't happened. Obama can't implement an executive order on issues that are given to the control of Congress. I've applied the salt shaker to this; it's important to know about the issue but the writer of this piece is a bit ... hysterical. |
ACTA is much more dangerous than SOPA, PIPA or OPEN, because it is the accord that legalizes internet censorship on a global basis. That is why presidents and prime ministers around the world have signed the agreement without any review from their congresses, parliaments, or review by their people.
As explained by senator Joe Lieberman, the United States president will have the power to shut down portions of the Internet in order to protect corporate intellectual property. This power has been labeled the Internet "kill switch"; and with good reason, because in reality, the president will be able to prevent Americans' access to anything he doesn't want them to see.
The global agreement surrenders Internet sovereignty to the multinational corporations and Internet service providers that will be in charge of monitoring Internet user activity in order to censor anything deemed as an illegal transfer of information anywhere along the information pipeline under their control.
ACTA has been known publicly since 2008, when the secret meetings creating it were leaked to the press, despite efforts to arrest those responsible for the leaks.
"ACTA is legislation laundering on an international level of what would be very difficult to get through most Parliaments," said Stravros Lambrinidis, Member of the European Parliament.
Neither the US congress nor the European Parliament has had representation in ACTA negotiations.
"It is extremely regrettable that democratic debate has been eliminated from talks that could have a major impact on such a fundamental freedom as free expression," said Reporters without Borders.
"We can only assume that the final text could do great harm in developing countries and undermine the balance between the protection of intellectual property and the need to provide affordable medicines for poor people," added Rohit Malpani, OXFAM, from a press release criticising possible impact of ACTA. "We are in danger of ending up with the worst of both worlds, pushing IP rules, which are very effective at stopping access to life-saving drugs but are very bad at stopping or preventing fake drugs," warns Michelle Childs of Médecins Sans Frontières.
Among all of the things ACTA will help control is the free circulation of medical information. Parts of ACTA mirror legislation introduced in the United States, which could ban the publication of health oriented websites. ACTA will oversee issues such as generic drugs and food patents.
It is also vital to the implementation of the United Nations radical environmentalist program, Agenda 21.
With ACTA, Internet Service Providers will be obligated to use invasive procedures to make sure no user infringes what corporations say is a violation of copyright laws. Failure to detect and denounce such breach will result in the IP and Internet user receiving massive fines, and after three warnings, individuals who are considered repetitive offenders will be sent to jail and banned from the Internet.
The IP that fails to stop the supposed violation of corporate interests will be taken off the air. The outrageous part of this is that the party -corporation- whose property was supposedly used without permission doesn't even have to prove that the user or the IP violated its intellectual property. It is enough to make three accusations.