ACTA Treaty: Can Seize, Destroy Your PC, Electronics

by Bill Lindner

The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) is a far-reaching proposal that the U.S. government has insisted was too sensitive to be exposed to the public. Now that the 44-page document (PDF) has been leaked, it's easy to see why the U.S. wanted to keep it a secret. (Source: die-linke.de)

ACTA, in its present form, is heralded by the Film and Music industries and their fight against piracy. However, if upheld, citizens will pay a heavy price for their privacy.

Gov't Can Search, Seize and Destroy Electronics

Former President George W. Bush and current President Barack Obama both favor ACTA, which is a result of countless millions of dollars in international lobbying money from the media industry.

ACTA was designed to enact the constant monitoring of everyone's online activities -- both legitimate and non-legitimate -- and gives border agents in the U.S. and other member states the power to search and seize your equipment without a warrant. Effectively, it gives these officials the power to destroy U.S. citizens' laptops, iPods or CDs if the agents suspect they might contain copyright-infringing content. (Source: dailytech.com)

The worst part about giving border patrol agents the power to search and seize your electronics is that the U.S. citizens will be paying for it without their knowledge.

U.S. Keeps ACTA Secret from Public

Surprisingly, there are only a few nations named in the treaty that support the U.S. government's intentions of keeping the terms of ACTA secret. Dutch officials 'accidently' leaked a memo from a secret ACTA negotiation meeting in Mexico detailing who supported keeping ACTA secret from citizens of member nations.

Belgium, Portugal, Germany, Denmark, South Korea and Singapore all supported keeping ACTA secret, with Denmark being the most vocal supporter of secrecy.

ACTA Secrecy Raises Questions

The Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Ireland, Hungary, Poland, Estonia, Austria, the UK, and Japan all supported releasing ACTA details to the public. Japan and the UK were particularly vocal about transparency. Canada, Australia, and New Zealand weren't listed in the memo, but have also advocated transparency.

The U.S. fought to keep the terms of ACTA secret, and with the help of a few nations supporting secrecy, successfully prevented ACTA details from being aired. Despite their best attempts at secrecy, much information about ACTA had already been made public due the the whistleblower websites like Wikileaks.org.

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freedom_man

Posted: Apr 18 2010, 10:40 AM

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The international corporations are our new feudal overlords and we have after a brief illusion of freedom sunk back into serfdom. The mega-corporations will be in charge of every facet of our lives and everything is geared towards their benefit.

Economics have always been the basis of all laws and practices.

Anonymous

Posted: Apr 18 2010, 3:08 PM

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9926

The federal government is trampling on the U.S. Constitution's limited power and their big foot is crushing state laws and the rights and freedoms of the Amrican people as they reach for total control of the American people and attempt to diminish state's rights and citizen's rights and the U.S. Constitutional freedoms in my opinion.

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