RIP Internet 2012?

Official negotiations for the Internet destroying ACTA treaty started taking place in June of 2008. So far it has the signatures of The United States, the European Union and 22 Member States, Australia, Canada, Japan, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, and South Korea. Opponents of the treaty have argued that it will restrict fundamental civil and digital rights, including freedom of expression and communication privacy. The treaty will have three primary components; international cooperation, enforcement practices and legal framework for enforcement of intellectual property rights. The bill will require Internet Service Providers to no longer host free software that can access copyrighted media, in addition DRM protected media would not be legally playable on free or open source software. It removes the legal safeguards that protect ISP's liability for the actions of their subscribers, giving them no other option but to comply with the bill.

The free software foundation argues that the treaty would create a culture of surveillance and suspicion. There would no longer be freedom to create free software, which sparks creative, innovative and exciting possibilities. The limited access to the treaty to the public has raised concerns, and several organizations have tried to use the Freedom of Information Act to obtain information regarding the bill. They are responded with the title of the treaty, with all content blacked out after that. The first public draft was finally released in 2010: http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2010/april/tradoc_146029.pdf

Details about the bill available at other sources.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Counterfeiting_Trade_Agreement

http://www.stopacta.info/

https://plus.google.com/114326645466079778389/posts/9krcA8fmaLt

I urge every person to spend 10 minutes of their time and read up on this treaty, and help stop this horrible abomination from passing. It will destroy everything we enjoy on the internet, Youtube, Imgur, Reddit, 9gag, Justin, Twitch, and many many more.