I think this definitely deserves its own thread. It is way worse than the "defeated" SOPA/PIPA legislations and it is at a level beyond individual governments. In fact, it is at a level of bureaucracy of people who haven't even been elected by the voters.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Co...rade_Agreement

Here are two good videos describing it:





Look at the reaction in Poland from 3 days ago.



ACTA will basically force internet service providers to censor and report their clients to the authorities and/or big corporations from the entertainment industry or media giants. And I can't even imagine what a devastating effect this could have on online poker. A couple of months ago, there was a bill introduced in Bulgaria that was similarly going to force ISPs to be monitoring their clients' use of "unregulated" online gambling websites. There was a big reaction here, mainly focusing on the fact that requiring this from ISPs is an outrageous precedence for the civilized free countries, so the bill is now dead. Well, if ACTA is approved at the EU level, this will no longer be so "outrageous", given that it is going to become law. Think of all the ways governments will be able to bully online poker rooms into forcing them to pay bigger and bigger taxes (and who knows what other fees). Think of how that might affect the rake (to say the least).

We must fight this.

I don't really understand how/why so many countries have signed this? SOPA and PIPA are 'understandable' since America is so ****ed up and the corporations have a lot of political power, but this is completely ridiculous.

Looking forward to hearing more about it.

(also I think online poker would be one of the smallest areas of concern haha)

inb4 "but what about britney?"

Yeah, I agree that if this thing gets passed, the damage to online poker is going to be one of our smallest problems. But it's still worth mentioning, I think, in a poker community, given that a lot of us rely on poker as a main or secondary source of income. We saw how a piece of legislation like UIGEA can have negative results on the game and the community in general (both immediately, and in the long run, as happened with BF). If UIGEA was bad, think about the effects ACTA can have.

As for your first question, I've been wondering what takes precedence: corporate interests or the strive for more power on behalf of governments. Most likely, it's a horrible combination of both.

For sure, I have no idea about this either. Copyright is pushed by RIAA/MPAA/studios etc but it could obv be encouraged and favoured by the government since it gives them more power etc. I assume I'll never really know the true balance. My point in general is that I assumed this was mainly an American thing lol, at least to the extent of endorsing **** like ACTA.

Alas, no. I think it's a matter of corporations concentrating their influence unequally. The reason they have so much influence in the States is because it is the richest and most powerful country in the world, not because it is less principled than Europe or other parts of the world in general. The EU bureaucrats are no better than the easy-to-buy American politicians. I mean, the multinational corporations have the money to exert enormous influence on every single government, in my opinion. That's why I think it's entirely up to us to fight this.

Why aren't there widespread blackouts to protest this?

lol at Obama implementing this via executive agreement instead of going through congress.

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/201...-opinion.shtml

First thing I would want to get done when setting up a world dictatorship. Censor the internet so people can not communicate with each other anymore.

The supposed job of these motherf***ers is to protect the people, they do the exact opposite. The next Hitler rising up to the top will have an easy job.

i posted about this treaty in the sopa thread, and i'm glad it has its own thread, because it is very dangerous and people need to know about it, even if it has already been signed by many countries, including the united states. there is still time for protest against it, though, because european parliament still has the final say in june as to whether or not it will be enacted.

what's particularly disturbing about this treaty is that it was written in complete secrecy (probably by the entertainment/pharmaceutical industry) with no democratic debates being allowed by any of the countries which signed; but then drafts of the treaty were given in 2008/09 to some of the very corporations who were ultimately behind sopa/pipa, while drafts for public viewing were outright denied.

imo concerns should not only lie with acta, but also with the trans-pacific partnership agreement (tpp), which, in some ways, purports to be worse than acta, and is still being negotiated (in complete secrecy ldo). i think if acta and/or the tpp treaty pass, the united states will be getting sopa/pipa as a bonus.

lol, this guy is the woat

Yes, good point about the TPP.

There is nothing more disgusting than big pharma. And what the hell is wrong with those morons from the entertainment industries? I would happily live my life without watching another movie produced by them, as long as they stay away from my privacy. I think we should all boycott them and not give a dime for any if their products of ACTA actually passes to show them how far their greed can take them.

why would obama need congressional approval for anything?

who cares that he is entering the US into a trade agreement by executive order on an issue that is not covered by his mandate?

who cares that this entire thing was hammered out in secret amongst big corporations and big government?

stop conspiratarding

Seems like it's legitimately in our best interest. I'm fine with it. Obama did what he had to do for the good of the country.

Its good to see the polish people taking a stand against this rubbish. How are we supposed to fight this though if its been signed in secrecy by executive order?

Should read this.

ACTA isn't the first bill like that in the EU. We have a similar bill in France, called Hadopi. The first draft of that law was incredibly harsh aswell. Its goal was to fight piracy, and the means employed were sort of ridiculous.

To sum it up, one of the laws promoted in the bill enforced that if one is caught downloading illegal content (copyrights related and stuff) they will receive a warning by e-mail that they are being watched and that their next offence will result in their internet connection being shut down, with no appeal possible. It was essentially a one strike policy to having your internet removed. The bill also included laws that forced french internet providers to give out tremendous amounts of sensitive infos to the government, regarding what every user visits on the internet, what they do, what they watch, basically effectively spying on their every day internet life.

Ever read 1984?

Now, to ease your fear a bit, that bill did pass, but over half of its content was either removed or drastically nerfed, and all the laws enforcing the internet spying and the shutting down of the internet connections were cancelled. That was a result of the massive outrage of the french people, aswell as the standing up of one internet provider which refused to provide sensitive informations and refused to participate in the shutting down of internet connections related to the bill. Well, that did not matter per se, but it showed good resistance and it showed some providers were willing to fight for their user's freedom.

It is in fact a bit scary that out of all the french internet providers (about 6-10 of them in France I think), only one refused to provide the information and refused to bend to the law. The other good news is that, ironically enough, officially that bill does not exist anymore.

I'm sure it's still being applied though, I just recently learned that for Hadopi to keep existing legally, it had to have a special council of administrators renewed each year and that there needed to be a certain number of said administrators composing this council, otherwise Hadopi wouldn't have any legal consistancy anymore. And end of December 2011, that did happen. So "officially", Hadopi no longer exists, but it is still applied. It's just an interesting fact to look at tho.

My point is, as of now, governments and administrations can try to enforce bills like this, but it will never pass and if it does, every radical measure included in it would rapidly get cancelled out. It is however a scary sign that government operatives are trying to be rather sneaky and are indeed trying to censor the internet, and have more control over it, in a bad way.

We should definitely watch out for this and keep looking out for such bills, for they will keep trying to pass them, no matter how discreet they have to be about it.

11 February is the official protest ACTA day.

but this is all true?

Definitely watch this:

Guys, search your responding MEPs here - http://www.laquadrature.net/wiki/MEPs_by_country
Write them about ACTA, tell them you don't want it. Be polite, though! Spread the word. Just some minutes ago we got our first non-automated response, the EP representative said that he will vote against ACTA when needed!

As far as I can tell other countries like to follow the west in their misadventures of terrible social policy - when they aren't already being coerced by them to follow along.

Yeah it's crazy how this works. There is no reason why marijuana should be against the law in so many places: it is clearly as benign as a decent intoxicant can be, has demonstrable medicinal qualities, can grow freely and cheaply, hemp is an industrial commodity with incredible potential, makes music and food sound and taste better, and it's illegal almost everywhere. Does not really compute unless one accepts the "follow the leader" premise.

How does this not even have a thousand views, is there a bigger thread on it that I'm missing?

Surprised the Mexican Senate recommended the President to reject the signing of ACTA back in 2011. It is not binding, although the Senate would still have to ratify the Treaty if the President signs it, so looks like Mexico is safe for now.

Go go go Europeans.