It was over a year ago that I wrote about the “Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement” (ACTA), a new global standard for the enforcement of intellectual monopolies currently being discussed by representatives of the United States, the European Commission, Japan, Switzerland, Canada, Australia, Korea, Mexico and New Zealand.

Just who is the bad apple at the ACTA negotiations, excluding the public and forcing discussions between the parties to be held in secret?

Alexander Alvaro (ALDE) has asked 9 questions about ACTA, including 3 strikes and transparency, or the access by the INTA committee to the drafts documents. He is also asking about changes to substantive patent law (read software patents here).

Not only that, but aspects of this judgement are relevant to what is being suggested for ISPs in the Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) that New Zealand and other countries are currrently negotiating in secret.

The reason that ACTA was negotiated in secret among rich countries was that this was seen as the most expeditious way of getting a super-extreme copyright agreement passed with a minimum of fuss, and that all the poor countries who were excluded from the negotiation would later be coerced into agreeing to it.

How will ACTA be used? Probably in the same way that the DMCA has been used: as a worldwide stick to beat through a US-centric version of copyright and IP law.

Get To Know ACTA the Confederated Opposition To Internet Freedom. Imagine a M$ with the ability to get Free Software developers kicked off the internet using secret allegatioms of possible IP infringements. Get To Know ACTA before you find it on an ISP near you.

With the release of leaked versions of the proposed Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, opposition to the drafting process continues to grow.

"ACTA, a treaty designed to attack the rights of computer users in some 40-odd countries -- and others later -- is encountering increasing opposition. ACTA threatens, in a disguised way, to punish Internet users with disconnection if they are accused of sharing, and requires countries to prohibit software that can break Digital Restrictions Management (DRM), also known as digital handcuffs.."