[governance] FW: [A2k] Forbes: If You Thought SOPA Was Bad,Just Wait Until You Meet ACTA

Tue Jan 24 11:25:42 EST 2012

Internet governance by another name...

M

-----Original Message-----
From: a2k-bounces at lists.keionline.org
[mailto:a2k-bounces at lists.keionline.org] On Behalf Of Thirukumaran
Balasubramaniam
Sent: Tuesday, January 24, 2012 4:36 AM
To: a2k at lists.keionline.org
Subject: [A2k] Forbes: If You Thought SOPA Was Bad,Just Wait Until You Meet
ACTA

http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2012/01/23/if-you-thought-sopa-was-bad-
just-wait-until-you-meet-acta/

E.D. Kain, Contributor

I write tech policy, nerd culture, and our hyper-connected future.

Tech

1/23/2012 @ 11:10AM |40,241 views

If You Thought SOPA Was Bad, Just Wait Until You Meet ACTA

Image by mermadon 1967 via Flickr

When sites like Wikipedia and Reddit banded together for a major blackout
January 18th, the impact was felt all the way to Washington D.C. The
blackout had lawmakers running from the controversial anti-piracy
legislation, SOPA and PIPA, which critics said threatened freedom of speech
online.

Unfortunately for free-speech advocates, censorship is still a serious
threat.

Few people have heard of ACTA, or the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement,
but the provisions in the agreement are just as pernicious as anything we
saw in SOPA. Worse, the agreement spans virtually all of the countries in
the developed world, including all of the EU, the United States, Switzerland
and Japan.

Many of these countries have already signed or ratified it, and the cogs are
still turning. The treaty has been secretly negotiated behind the scenes,
with unelected bureaucrats working closely with entertainment industry
lobbyists to craft the provisions in the treaty. The Bush administration
started the process, but the Obama administration has aggressively pursued
it.

Indeed, we've already signed on to the treaty. All it needs now is Senate
ratification. The time to stop the treaty is now, and we may need a second
global internet blackout to call attention to it.

Here's a quick video primer:

ACTA bypasses the sovereign laws of participating nations, forcing ISP's
across the globe to adopt these draconian measures.

Worse, it goes much further than the internet, cracking down on generic
drugs and making food patents even more radical than they are by enforcing a
global standard on seed patents that threatens local farmers and food
independence across the developed world.

Despite ACTA's secrecy, criticism of the agreement has been widespread.
Countries like India and Brazil have been vocal opponents of the agreement,
claiming that it will do a great deal of harm to emerging economies.

I'll have more on the agreement as it emerges. But to briefly sum up, ACTA
contains global IP provisions as restrictive or worse than anything
contained in SOPA and PIPA.

	. ACTA spans virtually all of the developed world, threatening the
freedom of the internet as well as access to medication and food. The threat
is every bit as real for those countries not involved in the process as the
signatories themselves.
	. ACTA has already been signed by many countries including the US,
but requires ratification in the EU parliament and the US Senate.
	. The entire monstrosity has been negotiated behind closed doors and
kept secret from the public. Technocrats, beholden to the deep pockets of
the entertainment lobby, have masked the agreement behind the misnomer of
"anti-counterfeiting" when in fact it goes much, much further. If you
thought SOPA would break the internet, ACTA is much worse. And it could
become law across the global economy without so much as a murmur of
opposition.

Worse still, it's not alone. Even more restrictive provisions exist in
another trade agreement currently being hammered out by various nations.

According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, there are "other
plurilateral agreements, such as the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement
(TPP), which contains a chapter on IP enforcement that would have state
signatories adopt even more restrictive copyright measures than ACTA.
Similarly, negotiations over TPP are also held in secret and with little
oversight by the public or civil society. These initiatives, negotiated
without participation from civil society or the public, are an affront to a
democratic world order. EFF will remain vigilant against these international
initiatives that threaten to choke off creativity, innovation, and free
speech, and will stand with EDRi, FFII, La Quadrature du Net and our other
EU fellow traveller organizations in their campaign to defeat ACTA in the
European Parliament in January."

The global economy needs to be seen as separate from those nations which
comprise the global community of states. Civil society and a free global
economy are not the same thing as the bogeyman so often referred to simply
as "globalism."

The free flow of goods and information is as much threatened by the global
state apparatus as it is assisted by it, and industries with a vested
interested in maintaining the status quo through draconian protectionist
measures are now threatening the last frontier of the truly free economy.

By threatening the internet and free speech, the entertainment industry
threatens its own existence. But with only short-term profits in mind, this
will not deter them.

Yes, our lawmakers fled from SOPA and PIPA when push came to shove, but they
have ACTA to fall back on. Notably, few of them are speaking out against
this even more dangerous treaty. Not surprisingly one of the lone voices of
dissent is Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) who has spoken out against the treaty.

"It may be possible for the U.S. to implement ACTA or any other trade
agreement, once validly entered, without legislation if the agreement
requires no change in U.S. law," he wrote. "But regardless of whether the
agreement requires changes in U.S. law . the executive branch lacks
constitutional authority to enter a binding international agreement covering
issues delegated by the Constitution to Congress' authority, absent
congressional approval."

Even absent US participation, however, we should all be worried about the
implications of this and other trade agreements on the global economy, the
ripple effects of which would reach all of us regardless of geographical
location.

Remember, when one of these bills or trade agreements falls, another rises
up to take its place. ACTA has been in the works for several years. SOPA
almost passed into law unopposed. The threat to civil society isn't going
away.

If you care about freedom of speech, or if you have participated in SOPA
protests, please help spread the word about ACTA. You can sign a petition to
stop it here.

For more information please visit:

EFF's International Issue Page on ACTA: https://www.eff.org/issues/acta

European Digital Rights' (EDRi) coverage here: www.edri.org/stopacta

La Quadrature du Net's coverage here: http://www.laquadrature.net/en/acta

Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure's (FFII) blog on ACTA
http://acta.ffii.org/

Twitter hash tags: #ACTA

Twitter accounts:

@StopActaNow

@ffii

@EDRi_org

@laquadrature

-- 

Thiru Balasubramaniam
Geneva Representative
Knowledge Ecology International (KEI)

thiru at keionline.org

Tel: +41 22 791 6727
Mobile: +41 76 508 0997

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