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27 January 2012 from NileBowie Website
Spearheaded by the governments of the United States and Japan and constructed largely in the absence of public awareness, the measures of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) dramatically alter current international legal framework, while introducing the first substantial processes of global internet governance.
With complete
contempt towards the democratic process, the negotiations of the treaty were
exclusively held between industry representatives and government officials,
while excluding elected representatives and members of the press from their
hearings.
The ACTA abolishes all legal oversight involving the removal of content and allows copyright holders to force ISPs to remove material from the internet, something that presently requires a court order.
ISPs would then be faced with legal liabilities if they chose not to remove content. Theoretically, personal blogs can be removed for using company logos without permission or simply linking to copy written material; users could be criminalized, barred from accessing the internet and even imprisoned for sharing copyrighted material.
Ultimately,
these implications would be starkly detrimental toward the internet as a
medium for free speech.
As a touted constitutional lawyer, Barack Obama is fully aware that Article 1, Section 8 of the US Constitution, mandates Congress in dealing with issues of intellectual property, thus voiding the capacity for the President to issue an executive agreement. The White House refused to even disclose details about the legislation to elected officials and civil libertarians over concern that doing so may incur "damage to the national security."
While some may hang off every word of his sorely
insincere speeches and
still be fixated by the promises of hope offered by brand-Obama, his
administration has trampled the constitution and introduced the most
comprehensive authoritarian legislation in America’s history.
The measures introduce legislative processes that contradict the legal framework of participant countries and allows immigration authorities to search laptops, external hard drives and Internet-capable devices at airports and border checkpoints.
The treaty is
not limited solely to internet-related matters, ACTA would prohibit the
production of generic pharmaceuticals and outlaw the use of certain seeds
for crops through patents, furthering the corporate cartelization of
the
food and
drug supply.
Hypothetically, nothing could prevent private Singaporean companies from promptly taking down American websites that oppose the Singapore Air Force conducting war games on US soil, such as those conducted in December 2011.
By operating outside normal judicial framework,
exporting
US copyright law to the rest of the world and mandating private corporations
to conduct surveillance on their users, all prerequisites of democracy,
transparency and self-expression are an afterthought.
Even if the ACTA treaty is not implemented, the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TTP) between,
...offers more extensive intellectual property regulations.
Leaked documents prepared by the U.S. Business Coalition, which have been reportedly drafted by,
...report that in addition to ACTA-style legislation, the TTP will
impose fines on non-compliant entities and work to extend the general period
of copy write terms on individual products.
Within the United States, the recently announced Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade (OPEN) H.R. 3782 regulation seeks to install policies largely identical to SOPA and PIPA. The Obama administration is also working towards an Internet ID program, which may be mandatory for American citizens and required when renewing passports, obtaining federal licenses, or applying for social security.
Spreading these
dangerous measures to other countries participating in these treaties would
necessitate a binding obligation on the US to retain these policies,
averting any chance of reform.
By petitioning members of the European parliament and educating others about the potential dangers imposed by this legislation, there is a chance of the treaty being rejected. Upon closer examination of the human condition with all of its inequalities, food insecurity and dire social issues, our governments have lost their legitimacy for giving such unwarranted priority to fighting copyright infringement on behalf of lobbyists from the pharmaceutical and entertainment industries.
The existence of ACTA is a clear statement that
surveillance, regulations and securing further corporate centralization
dwarfs any constructive shift towards stimulating human innovation and
self-sufficient technologies.
Technology such as file sharing, blogging, and open source software has the potential to undermine the oligarchical governing interests seeking to centrally control on our society and enforce the population into being entirely dependent on their commodities.
The following excerpt from Brzezinski’s book Between Two Ages - America's Role in the Technetronic Era, provides invaluable insight into the world being brought in,
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