ACTA: Criminalizing Freedom

The deal

The "Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement" (ACTA) is currently being negotiated behind closed doors. Involved parties include the US, EU, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Mexico, and Switzerland. Since this treaty is being negotiated in secret what we do know comes from a document which was leaked on WikiLeaks.

Clearly this treaty is supported by big media companies and big proprietary software companies to 'protect' 'intellectual property'. However, the implications of this treaty, based on what we know, could have devastating effects on the sharing of Free Software. In the US, treaties which are ratified by the Senate carry the force of law. Normally, in the course of legislating a given bill, the bill is public as well as the debate on the bill. In short, the process is transparent. In the case of ACTA there is no public disclosure of the proposals. No public input or debate. Once the text of the treaty is finalized it need only be approved by one house of Congress. When ratified it becomes 'the law of the land'. The lack of transparency is troubling.

There are a few US Representatives involved in the drafting and negotiation of this treaty. Chief among them is Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA). His top four campaign contributors in 2006 were Time Warner, News Corp, Sony Corporation of America, and Disney. Coincidence? I don't think so.

Ramifications

ACTA could potentially force ISPs to police all traffic moving across their networks. Those in the US who use GNU/Linux and who download codecs from foreign mirrors (due to disastrous software patents) in order to use legally purchased content may be prevented from doing so. Media companies would love to end not only file sharing but the client software which enables it. This treaty could have detrimental effects on legitimate uses of p2p software. Such as in downloading Linux distributions. Of course as with anything, there will be unintended consequences. In many cases the unintended consequences are the intended goal of those who lobby officials.

This treaty is an end-run around the legitimate legislative process. It is done to further enrich content companies to the detriment of the people and their freedom. There are a few groups actively opposing this treaty such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

What do you think?