ACTA

The negotiations for the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) have resumed at a meeting in Seoul, and is being covered here, here, here, and a boatload of other places. It is hard to get accurate information since the negotiations are not public and the physical documents are all water marked and traceable. That's just for trade negotiations, I remind you.

However, there are always some leaks and, if accurate, the power this agreement would give to corporations is terrifying. Any country that agrees to this treaty would be giving up all control over their internal copyright policy. The negotiations include wonderful provisions to criminalize non-commercial infringement, to disconnect Internet service of infringers, and other nasty, nasty stuff. Yeah, ACTA is getting real scary now.

I don't understand why Canada is still participating this clusterfuck pretending to be trade negotiations. We just completed public consultations on copyright reform and Industry Minister Tony Clement has stated that Canadian copyright laws satisfy all our international commitments. If he can acknowledge that, why is Canada is still involved in ACTA? Something stinks dear reader, and it has the fetid aroma of lying politicians.