(MintPress)—Several popular websites in Poland went dark on Tuesday, in protest of a proposed international trade agreement, which could vastly change the landscape of the information superhighway.
ACTA, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, is seeking to create international standards on intellectual property rights enforcement. While it does have some similarities to the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA) and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), a pair of U.S. bills that aim to halt the spread of pirated content on the web, which were protested in the U.S. recently, ACTA is not a law, per se, but an international legal framework for countries to join voluntarily. The agreement would create a governing body outside international institutions such as the World Trade Organization (WTO), the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) or the United Nations.
And similar to protests against SOPA and PIPA in the U.S. last week, hacktivists in Poland, one of the countries seeking to adopt ACTA, employed their tech skills to shut down government sites, including the web page of Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, and other top government officials Tuesday.
In addition to Poland, Ireland, the U.S., Australia, Korea, New Zealand, Mexico, Jordan, Morocco, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates and Canada are all looking into ratifying the controversial global intellectual property enforcement treaty.
While supporters say the bill will give them a leg up in curbing the global trade of counterfeit goods and pirated copyright protected work, opponents say it will it will impose censorship and restrict freedom of speech throughout the Internet.
As one source put it,
“The dangers of governmental control of the Internet under the auspices of copyright protection are difficult to overstate. The Internet is a breeding ground for innovation, where crowd sourcing can turn a beta program full of bugs into the hottest new piece of software. But it has now also become a forum for the free exchange of ideas and information across international and cultural boundaries. It is this freedom from government control that has given the Internet so much power.”
Critics also charge that if ratified, ACTA will effectively create a system responsible for widespread, international online censorship.
Over 100 IP experts from six continents wrote a letter to U.S. President Barack Obama, expressing “grave concern” about the fact that the treaty was crafted largely in secret, without input from experts or the public, and also that it poses a threat to “citizen’s fundamental rights and liberties”.
The letter charges, “Your Administration promised to change the way Washington works. You promised to bring increased truthfulness and transparency to our public policy and law, including the Freedom of Information Act. You promised that wherever possible, important policy decisions would be made in public view, and not as the result of secret special interest deals hidden from the American people. Your Administration’s negotiation of ACTA has been conducted in stark contrast to every one of these promise,” and asked the Obama administration to halt its endorsement of ACTA.
Brad McCarty, Managing Editor of The Next Web, stands in opposition to the treaty because he believes it threatens public interest. McCarty says the potential effects of ACTA will be far worse than those forseen in SOPA and PIPA.
“The combined Internet movement against SOPA and PIPA are admirable, but each of these is simply a skirmish in a greater war. ACTA is especially concerning because it’s being done behind our backs, without a truly effective way to track the actions,” he writes, and advises others to “get writing. There aren’t many blanket protests against ACTA, as it’s flown under the radar so effectively thus far. Because of that, it’s up to each of us to get in touch with our elected representatives to make our views known”.
While SOPA and PIPA were apparently stopped by the mass protests in the U.S., at least one voice, perhaps anticipating the activity around ACTA in the coming weeks, or any similar future legislation ominously warned Wednesday, “it’s time to cut the Internet community’s victory laps short and prepare instead for the continued long slog ahead”.
Source: MintPress