The US government still hasn't gotten the message. President Obama and his administration are blocking release of the full text of ACTA. They don't want the public to know what the negotiators are up to, because they know we wouldn't stand for it.

"...Cancel ACTA entirely. Although parts of it are not objectionable, they are secondary to ACTA's threat to our freedom. Unless we are sure that the repressive aspects of ACTA are blocked, the main significance of ACTA is as a threat to society. Killing ACTA would be a fine way to get rid of this threat..."

"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.."

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

The referral to the Court of Justice is clearly intended by ACTA proponents as a way to buy time in face of the strong opposition to ACTA. The EU Parliament must therefore proceed immediately and formulate its own reasons for rejecting ACTA.

ACTA will lead to a situation where the decision of whether a given content and its use are legal or not is no longer in the hands of a judge, but falls under an automated censorship regime programmed by private parties. As a result, fair use and the right to a fair trial will be crushed.

"The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) is a multilateral trade agreement being negotiated, mostly between OECD countries, in total secrecy. 7th round of negociations from Jan 26th to Jan 29th 2009, in Mexico, is a perfect occasion for exposing ACTA and raise awareness bout how dangerous it is for our fundamental freedoms..."

A Brazilian official said that the agreement was not legitimate, negotiated by a closed group without considering all of the issues at play.

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.