As folks in the United States celebrate the current demise of proposed anti-piracy legislation, a new campaign is beginning to replace it, ACTA.
While on online internet community in the United States has been fighting congress to stop proposed online piracy legislation such as SOPA and PIPA, the international community has been fighting ACTA.
ACTA, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, is a proposed agreement for establishing international standards on intellectual property rights enforcement. The United States, The European Union, and several other nations have been discussing the agreement since 2007.
ACTA would create a new world order
One of the stated purposes of the updating of United States copyright law in 1998 under The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) was to bring it up to date and in alignment with the treaties of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is one of the 17 specialized agencies of the United Nations. WIPO was created in 1967 "to encourage creative activity, to promote the protection of intellectual property throughout the world".
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
ACTA under the radar
One of the biggest criticisms of ACTA is that all the negotiations are being done in secret. Unike the American proposals like SOPA and PIPA, where we can go to a congressional website to read the proposed outline of the legislation, we have not beem able to find any government sponsored website where we can read the proposed terms and conditions of ACTA.
There is one informational website, StopACTA.info which is maintained by La Quadrature du Net, an advocacy group that promotes the rights and freedoms of citizens on the Internet. La Quadrature du Net advocates for the adaptation of French and European legislation to respect the founding principles of the Internet.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) an international non-profit digital rights advocacy, that opposes ACTA, maintains a section of their website on ACTA information.
The only information we could find on any US government website on ACTA was a October 2011 press release by U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (Oregon Democrat). Wyden, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee’s Subcommittee on Trade, sent a letter to President Obama asking why the administration believes the Anti-Counterfeit Trade Agreement (ACTA) does not require Congress’s formal approval.
With all the battles in the US Congress lately over SOPA and PIPA, the international alternative, ACTA, has been flying under the radar. We will continue to provide updates on the fight for the battle to control the internet,
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