Side note: this topic is NOT a place to hate on conservatives/liberals, it is for discussing the ACTA and why it absolutely must not be signed by the United States, or any nation, for that matter.Copied and pasted from Wikipedia.The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (or ACTA, hereinafter) is a proposed plurilateral agreement for the purpose of establishing international standards on intellectual property rights enforcement. ACTA would establish a new international legal framework that countries can join on a voluntary basis and would create its own governing body outside existing international institutions such as the World Trade Organization (WTO), the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), or the United Nations. Negotiating countries have described it as a response "to the increase in global trade of counterfeit goods and pirated copyright protected works." The scope of ACTA is broad, including counterfeit goods, generic medicines, and copyright infringement on the Internet. Because it is in effect a treaty, ACTA would overcome many court precedents defining consumer rights as to "fair use" and would either change or remove limitations on the application of intellectual property laws.
After a series of draft text leaks in 2008, 2009 and 2010 the negotiating parties published the
official version of the current draft on 20 April 2010. The idea to create a plurilateral agreement on counterfeiting was developed by Japan and the United States in 2006. Canada, the European Union and Switzerland joined the preliminary talks throughout 2006 and 2007. Official negotiations began in June 2008, with Australia, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea and Singapore joining the talks. It is planned for negotiations to finish in September 2010. (Read the Wikipedia article for more information.)
This is an absolute outrage. This is the first and probably only time that I'll say, forget the government. If you read between the lines, this treaty would give governments around the world,
including ours, the complete right and ability to
fully monitor any person's activity on the Internet. Websites you visit, things you download, chats you have with friends or family, would all be 100% known to the government. It's basically like having Big Brother on the Internet. People against the ACTA (such as myself and, I hope, most of if not all of you) are pushing the fact that their stance on the issue is "not about piracy; it's about privacy."
Tell your friends about it, tell your parents about it, bring it up in school as a subject for discussion, whatever, just get this out there. Call your Congressmen and tell them to not allow ACTA to pass, because even though President Obama is in support of ACTA, it cannot be enacted unless two thirds of Congress agree with him. Also,
SPREAD THIS VIDEO. Post it on other forums. Post it on your Facebook / Twitter / MySpace account(s). Do whatever you have to do to make it known to as many people as possible.
Allowing the creation of this treaty will inevitably cause one of the biggest revolts ever to occur on the Internet. It is unconstitutional, yes, however, being as it is a treaty, it completely circumvents the Constitution.
Stop ACTA.
For more information on ACTA and for what you can do to help, check out the following websites:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Counterfeiting_Trade_Agreementhttp://www.anti-acta.com/http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE67J5A220100821http://www.occultusterra.com/http://ifmovement.org/http://www.stopp-acta.info/english/get+involved/petition/petition.htmlhttp://www.ustr.gov/actahttp://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100129/0505077972.shtmlhttp://www.anti-acta.com/reload.php (known as "Google Raid" to the site that created this page, it is a reload website on
www.anti-acta.com that refreshes a specific Google search automatically. Keeping this open in another window will help us by making us a trend search, so that Google will suggest our message when people search similar topics)
Thanks to Osak for making a tl;dr, even though you should definitely read the whole thing, or at least visit the links.
Can I make a TL;DR?
TL;DR:
ACTA will have the right to seize your device and arrest/charge you for downloading illegal things.
It won't do stuff too because you can't prevent piracy, it would be a huge disadvantage for those who don't pirate.
THIS JUST IN: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/09/european-parliament-passes-anti-acta-declaration.ars
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