ACTA Worse than SOPA and Classified as National Security by Obama and Bush
The demise of SOPA and PIPA, as temporary as it may be, means attention is now turning to ACTA (the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement). ACTA is a trade agreement that has already been signed by the United States and is even worse than SOP/PIPA. Trade Agreements do not require the same type of scrutiny that bills and laws do so ACTA was able to squeak by unnoticed. Australia, Canada, the European Union, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, Switzerland and the United States are all signatories, but pressure is already being applied to other countries to join. The EU has not yet signed ACTA but has to do so before May 2013.
The BRIC group of emerging nations – Brazil, Russia, India and China – are not part of the ACTA movement and have no serious incentive to join. The Indian government may even be forming a movement to counter the act.
As with SOPA and PIPA, ACTA takes a fairly bland idea – the right of companies to profit from their own intellectual property – and turns it into a governmental power grab and an excuse to weaken privacy on the Internet. The reason the activists are turning their attention to ACTA is that it provides the basis to criminalize almost any online activity. ACTA will give governments and large corporations the pretext to shut down any site, and imprison its owners, should there be political or corporate objections to that site’s content.Imagine a site runs a political story which is objectionable to someone in power. The site perhaps can’t be shut down because of that story, but ACTA will allow the authorities to find some other obscure breach that can be used. That’s also true of SOPA and PIPA.
Watch this video which explains the danger of ACTA.
Tags : acta, ACTA national security, ACta worse than SOPA, PIPA, sopa
Posted: January 22, 2012
![Pauly D Shows Off His New Hair, Twitter Weighs In [Photo]](http://cdn.inquisitr.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Pauly-D-New-Hair-100x100.jpg)
![Aniston Plays French Maid With ‘Ellen’ [Video]](http://cdn.inquisitr.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/jennifer-aniston-french-maid-outfit-100x100.png)
![Zach Sobiech, ‘Clouds’ Songwriter Who Touched Millions, Has Died At 18 [Video]](http://cdn.inquisitr.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/zach-sobiech-dying-teen-clouds-singer-songwriter-viral-video-dies-at-age-18-100x100.jpg)
![Bieber May Sue Guests For $5 Million For Tweeting, Talking About Him Or His Parties [Report]](http://cdn.inquisitr.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/bieber-may-sue-guests-for-5-million-if-they-talk-tweet-about-him-100x100.jpg)
![Wolf Blitzer Asks Atheist If She ‘Thanked God’ After Surviving Tornado In Oklahoma [Video]](http://cdn.inquisitr.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Oklahoma-Tornado-Victims-Reunited-With-Pets-And-Photos-100x100.jpg)
![Cameron D’Ambrosio Teen Terror Rapper Held On Million Dollar Bond [Video]](http://cdn.inquisitr.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/cameron-dambrosio-teen-terror-rapper-arrest1-100x100.jpg)
Jan 23, 2012
Ohly cow someone protest fast!
Jan 23, 2012
We're screwed
Jan 23, 2012
no.. this cant be happening.. we're fucked…
Jan 23, 2012
But how do I fix it?
Jan 23, 2012
Frick this
Jan 23, 2012
spread through all the social networks/every website fast!
Jan 23, 2012
they should be ashamed of theirselves! share it with everyone, because knowledge is power.
Jan 23, 2012
Spread the word.
Jan 23, 2012
Check out this commercial we made to combat SOPA and PIPA!
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92I0hrYvdjI
Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/35405496
Jan 23, 2012
Knowledge is power. That is why it is dangerous.
Jan 23, 2012
@Drew Bonner And they want all the power
Jan 23, 2012
And with the more knowledge they get, the more power that comes with it..and power is their capital incentive.
Jan 23, 2012
That video was by Anonymous!
How can they talk about fighting the system? They hacked the PlayStation Network for the lulz!
Jan 23, 2012
damn damn damn ;l.
Jan 24, 2012
Anonymous isn't really an actual group. It's anyone who wants to call themselves Anonymous. If you make a video about anything, say it's by Anonymous, and viola, it's by Anonymous.
Jan 24, 2012
oh hell no……
Jan 24, 2012
At least they didn't put you to prison. And the internet is THE world's most important creation, it has changed who we are as people. It connects people along distances that were only dreamt of, and now it is being threatened.
Anonymous, or the one you are referring to also lives here, and thrives among us. OK so the playstation network was hacked 'for the lulz', but it's not as important is the internet itself… Because without that, there is no playstation network.
Jan 24, 2012
Spread the word, then what?
Jan 24, 2012
The internet has become too big of a tool for subversives. The 1% wants to tame it. We don't have to let them.
Jan 26, 2012
Email your leaders every single day with the same form letter. It literally takes 2 minutes.
Jan 27, 2012
Tiffany Madison I'm in Australia. My leaders have no say over what happens.
Jan 29, 2012
we are all fucked.
Mar 25, 2012
Jason de Beus : Your leaders DO have a say on this – and they've already said their piece. Australia is one of the countries that has already signed it. Your leaders can change their minds, with your help, and remove their signature. They are also pushing other countries to sign on.
If we can all pressure our governments to back out of ACTA and stop hounding other countries to join, the trade agreement will fail. There is a deadline for countries to get on this train and there is probably some timeframe around getting off the train once you're on. Europe hasn't signed up yet and if Australia and Canada dropped out, it would be a lot harder to persuade the Europeans and other smaller countries they had to participate.
So get the word out in Australia that, without asking you or even telling you, your government has committed itself to enforcing this against you.