Stands for the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. The ACTA is a treaty that involves
Australia,
Canada, the European Union, Japan, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, Switzerland, and the United States. It was a treaty not widely known about because it's documents have only been uncovered just recently.
The treaty was devised to help the fight against piracy. As I am typing this, it is to be passed within 6 months. Some argue that it invades our privacy rather than protecting it. Under ACTA -
-ISPs, or
Internet Service Providers, (such as Comcast and Verizon) will be mandated to monitor what websites you browse on the
internet. There will be no 'InPrivate' button and everything you do, from playing games to typing in personal information online, will be watched.
-Your electronic devices can be searched and scanned randomly without a warrant to make sure you haven't obtained copyrighted material illegally. Keep in mind that most media you own on your
computer is probably copyrighted.
-If you are accused of copyright infringement 3 times, even without any evidence, your
internet access could be cut off, possibly for a year to a lifetime. This is still being disputed by the European Union.
These are some reasons why the ACTA is called inhumane and unjust. What's more twisted, they say, is that the press hasn't mentioned the ACTA once.
Search it on
Wikipedia. Spread the word.
College
Student: Woah! I just heard about ACTA and I'm totally against it.
Maybe I should put up an Anti-ACTA
club on campus.
Another College Student: It's probably a conspiracy. Derp.
