Last Updated on 2022-07-08 by Joop Beris
I’ve been writing quite a bit about the dangers of ACTA recently. Just look at my tag cloud to see how big ACTA has become! I do that because I fear for our future should ACTA become a reality. Fortunately, it’s not just me who is spreading the word. I came across an excellent explanation about why ACTA can’t be trusted right here, from the founder of the Swedish Pirate Party. This makes for excellent and scary reading. A Dutch translation may be found here.
Apparently, the European Commission has reacted to the many questions about ACTA, the public uproar and the protests that are brewing. They insist that nothing changes for people and that the final text of the ACTA agreement has been public since November 2010. Yes, this is true. However, ACTA has been drafted in such a way that it introduces many new definitions. These definitions are secret (because they are in the negotiation protocols, which are not open to the public)! Without knowing the definitions, how can people claim that ACTA will change nothing? You don’t know what you are talking about if you don’t know the definitions.
ACTA has been heavily influenced by the content industry. All the content industry care about is their business model and their revenue stream. They have repeatedly shown they do not care about your rights so why should ACTA be any different? I don’t know why the EC claims that ACTA won’t make a difference to the general public, but looking at the source of ACTA, I simply can not trust that statement.
Scared by ACTA? It is my informed opinion that you should be! If you find the Internet fun, useful or necessary in its current form, do yourself and other a favour and sign the petition against ACTA. 1,257,557 people have already done so!