This report raises many serious concerns folks, if implemented it could potentially see sites like this one closed or at least threatened, and all without any legal justification or guilt, merely it seems on the whim of the Cartel or other power seeking groups.
http://torrentfreak.com/proposed-treaty-turns-internet-into-a-virtual-police-state-080524/Yesterday Wikileaks revealed a document proposing a treaty that will significantly limit the privacy and rights of Internet users, to the benefit of multimillion dollar companies.
“ACTA” is basically an attempt to criminalize the Internet, thus allowing a virtual police state to occur by the selective prosecuting of crimes. In short, it’s an international treaty, or hopes to be, that will greatly increase already draconian copyright measures, in a poor attempt to appease the copyright and patent industries.
The proposal is based on the assumption that ‘intellectual property rights’ (a term used nine times on the first page of the proposal, and 24 times over the entire 3 ½ page document) trump personal privacy, data protection, probable cause, and lots of other important principles in western democracies.
The measure which has received wider publicity is the so-called ‘Pirate Bay killer’. At the end of page two, there is a list of things that should be included in a signee’s legal framework, and in the section about criminal sanctions it states “significant willful infringements without motivation for financial gain to such an extent as to prejudicially affect the copyright holder (e.g., Internet piracy)”. Think non-profit, personal use file-sharing.
Contained within this leaked report are further "wish list" items that the cartels have been pressing for, problem is it seems no one is looking out to defend any democratic rights here, due process of law would disappear as would free speech and big business would in effect take over the net from the current free thinking groups that inhabit it.
This plan and its backers are a major affront to democracy and free speech as well as their actions disproportionate, keep your eyes open and be ready to protest folks, waiting till its too late to act will see your rights stolen and current Internet freedoms curtailed.
