Post SOPA, it’s time to protest ACTA (on Feb. 11)
Hey! Remember our nation's 24-hour nightmare last month when we were forced to live a whole day without easy access to Wikipedia, Reddit, BoingBoing and other popular websites that went dark for 24 hours to protest anti-piracy legislation?
In the end, U.S. lawmakers agreed to withdraw the SOPA and PIPA bills, legislation that free speech advocates and tech companies said would crush Internet freedom and inspire frivolous lawsuits. Well, don't exhale just yet. There's still the Anti-Counterfeiting Trademark Agreement (ACTA) in Europe floating around, and on Feb. 11, Access, a "new global movement for digital freedom," wants to mobilize people all over the world to protest what the group and others see as a threat to free speech, human rights, innovation and trade.
What exactly is ACTA? Well, that's a huge part of the problem. Signed by the EU and 22 of its 27 member states on Jan. 27, the exact details of this act are known only to those involved. Read more...
SOPA’s big brother signed by EU nations amid widespread protests
The European Union signed up to the controversial Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) on Thursday despite widespread opposition, particularly in Poland, where people took to the streets in protest.
The agreement was officially signed in Tokyo by 22 European member states. Cyprus, Estonia, Slovakia, Germany and the Netherlands did not sign, but committed to do so in the near future, according to the European Parliament's Green party.
The agreement seeks to enforce intellectual property rights and combat online piracy and illegal software. But opponents of ACTA claim it goes far beyond the U.S.' doomed SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) legislation and encourages ISPs to police the internet without any legal safeguards. SOPA is being revised after receiving broad criticism.
The ACTA agreement, meanwhile, has been mired in controversy from the beginning due to secrecy imposed by the U.S. and worries that it may not uphold E.U. rules on data privacy. The most controversial paragraph in the final text leaves the door open for countries to introduce the so-called three-strikes rule, which would require Internet users to be cut off if they continue to download copyright material after receiving two warnings, as national authorities would be able to order ISPs to disclose personal information about customers. Read more...