Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA)

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• ACTA is a treaty launched by Japan and the United Sates in 2006 to protect copyright infringement, counterfeit products, and pirated goods. With this treaty, the two countries were hoping to boost the financial standing of their economy. Nowadays, so many right holders and legitimate businesses face financial losses due to inadequate protection of their rights.
• The treaty explains how it would enforce this treaty, for instance, with civil enforcement, violators would be prosecuted in court. Also the courts would be given rules on how to use these powers. The treaty would also focus on what items cross their borders to prevent counterfeiters from selling fake goods. For the treaty to have its full effect, countries will need to work together and create a kind of international cooperation.
• In my opinion, the treaty has been created for all the right reasons, so why are people protesting against this treaty?
• The answer is simple. People feel that this treaty is infringe upon their rights of privacy, civil liberties, innovation, freedom on the web, and legitimate commerce.
• Protesters of ACTA want the Internet to be used freely by citizens where the people are responsible for posting illegal content, instead of the Internet provider or file hosting websites.
• Protesters feel that ACTA blocks their free speech.

How would we, the people, be violating ACTA?
 

"Each Party shall ensure that enforcement procedures are available under its law so as to permit effective action against any act of infringement of intellectual property rights covered by this Agreement, including expeditious remedies to prevent infringements and remedies which constitute a deterrent to further infringements."

The above text is an excerpt from ACTA. "Intellectual property" can be referred to everything from patents, trademarks, images, and perhaps even ideas. That would mean that if we ever wanted to use an image of a company in a presentation or a video, we could possibly risk getting prosecuted for the "infringement of intellectual property rights". 

ACTA could cause valuable sites like Google, Youtube, Wikipedia, etc to shut down. Spoofing, fan art, fan comics, fan fiction could also be violating ACTA, also none of the money gained from lawsuits would go to the right holders.

"Without prejudice to the provisions of Article 29 (Management of Risk at Border), each Party shall endeavour to exchange with other Parties:

• (a) information the Party collects under the provisions of Chapter III (Enforcement Practices), including statistical data and information on best practices;
• (b) information on its legislative and regulatory measures related to the protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights; and
• (c) other information as appropriate and mutually agreed."

The above text is an excerpt from ACTA. Sharing educational knowledge that someone has paid for would violate ACTA. If that is the case, then ACTA would pretty much be hindering the growth of innovation. How are people suppose to develop new invention when they are not allowed to share ideas? It would be impossible for new things to be created without the risk of being sent to jail cause of ACTA.

"A Party may provide, in accordance with its laws and regulations, its competent authorities with the authority to order an online service provider to disclose expeditiously to a right holder information sufficient to identify a subscriber whose account was allegedly used for infringement, where that right holder has filed a legally sufficient claim of trademark or copyright or related rights infringement, and where such information is being sought for the purpose of protecting or enforcing those rights."

The above text is an excerpt from ACTA. Websites and companies would be required to log IP addresses and Internet usage, which would be taking legal rights away from people. Social websites like Facebook, Skype, etc would be required to listen to online chats, which would violate freedom of speech given to the people as a legal right. 

ACTA prevents people from trusting websites or even sharing information online because of its widespread monitoring of communication if ACTA was to be enforced.