The name is misleading. The original idea of ACTA is to internationally protect intellectual property.
It's supposed to help prevent product & trademark counterfeiting like fake copies of expensive goods - misusing trademarks, like using using a well known car brand on tampons [for example making "General Motors" tampons].
it will
safeguard research investments and development of products, e.g. medical patents
or pharmaceutical products.
it's also supposed to
support artists and journalists and allow them to produce higher quality work ,
and internationally harmonize Copyright laws.
Sounds great! Doesn’t
it?
But
there’s a twist to it.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines a counterfeit as: "a
fraudulent imitation of something else".
But when a file is
copied on the internet it is exactly the same as the original, not an imitation.
And it is not stolen since the original is not removed. The information is
simply being shared free of charge. So counterfeiting has nothing to do with
it.
Let us
explain.
"Intellectual property" is never really defined within ACTA. It
could mean trademarks, or it could mean any idea or information which later
could be copyrighted, restricted and criminalized. This will have a tremendous
effect on the internet as we know it.
The actual ACTA text
covers a huge range of topics, and is very complex and hard to grasp. So we will
explain what will happen on the internet in a hypothetical real world
analogy.
Imagine paying for a cookery course. During this course you
learn how to cook some really tasty fried chicken. Then you return home and
teach the recipe to your wife. But here's the catch: according to ACTA, you are
now both criminals, since you shared that information for free when only YOU had
paid to learn it.
The ACTA regulations are clear - when you're suspected of
sharing copyrighted information, depending on the country you live in, then your
access to any kind of courses will be blocked, you will be fined or send
directly to prison.
But surely no-one would find out that you shared
the knowledge of secret fried chicken in private at home? And you're right,
under current law no-one would. But ACTA deals with this through excessive
surveillance. All your communication will be monitored, and not only yours. Your
family, your friends, all will be observed, just in case. But you don't need
privacy, civil rights or liberties, because you have nothing to hide, do
you?
Now
that you know the principle, let's see how it will be applied on the internet
when ACTA comes into effect.
You can imagine your
internet connection like a conveyor belt running in two directions. Along the
conveyor belt, packets of data are coming in and going out of your computer.
Under ACTA, ISPs - the companies you pay for access to the internet - will be
forced to open up and inspect every single data package you send or receive to
look for copyrighted information. Send or receive copyrighted info several times
and you could be disconnected from the internet or face criminal charges. That
means if you send an mp3 to your friend through an instant messenger, upload a
video of a party which played copyrighted music, or quote a copyrighted
newspaper article in an email... You're gone. That's it. As if that wasn't
enough, the information about the news article you sent via email will be sent
to the publisher, and based on their claims you could be fined or sent to
prison.
ISPs will also be required to constantly check that no
copyrighted material or links to copyrighted material are found anywhere on
their servers. This will be fatal for sites that hold any kind of user-generated
content, like music, pictures or video. How could Youtube or Twitter work under
a law like that? So the internet as we know it is on the brink of
destruction.
At least you'd think that the money from all these lawsuits
would benefit creative people. But musicians, writers, movie makers,
journalists, developers and researchers also lose, because they are now held by
the same rules. Protected ideas now can’t be reused, refined or developed any
further. Even parts of sentences could be protected and made restricted by
copyright. The whole agreement only benefits a small part of the industry, the
so-called "content mafia" - media publishing companies like the RIAA and the
MPAA, who have long tried to solve the "internet problem" that threatens their
obsolete business model. ACTA is the result of their lobbying within the
governments that participate in the negotiations.
Latest leaks indicate
that techniques that bypass the planned content filter and the blocking
infrastructure will also be illegal.
[[And the worst thing?
It's all done in secret. If you are European, it’s even done by people who
haven't even been elected by the public. You've already seen where this is
heading on YouTube. Videos are unavailable in certain geographical
areas.
This obsessive copy-protection is also a great tool
for information suppression. Once all the internet filters and blocking
techniques are in place, virtually all information tagged as copyright could be
suppressed. Maybe your critical blog or twitter account, or the video you made
about rigged elections and environmental catastrophes, or even the pictures of
your kittens. Ok, maybe not your kittens. ]]
Not unless you painted a
Coca-Cola logo onto their fur.
This all sounds
unbelievable for everyone who's had even a small glimpse of how the net works,
but remember, those who work on the Agreement might not have any clue what the
internet is about. And once the treaty is signed, their rules will have to be
implemented.
The consequences we have to deal with are:
• internet
censorship
• restricted freedom of
speech
• loss of Net Neutrality due to the
restriction of the use of certain protocols
• total surveillance of your all online
activities
• loss of freedoms and
restriction of civil rights
• punishment
(like losing your internet access)
And we will
gain:
nothing
Our leaders, who negotiate this agreement, think of us internet
users as criminals.
Maybe we should think of them
the same way.
The time to act for the internet is now. Google ACTA. Load your
tweets and Photoshops, let it be known that no-one messes with the Internet, and
take it to the streets.
Stop the Kraken.
