ACTA is perhaps one of the most sinister developments in the history of the Internet, and beyond, not only because of the Draconian legislations it proposes, but also because of the manner in which they were proposed.

You see ACTA has never been democratically scrutinised or debated. It was created and negotiated entirely in secret by private corporations, not transparently by democratically elected representatives, and then ratified without any democratic mandate (by "executive order"). Indeed, the US government actually went so far as to describe these boiler-room "negotiations" as "a matter of national security".

"A matter of national security"?

Seriously?

Since when are petty civil legislation issues like copyrights "a matter of national security"? Since when should fundamental changes to the democratic process and criminal legislation be "negotiated" in dark basements by private corporations, then the details protected as "a matter of national security"?

It's incredible, but true. It's also profoundly disturbing.

Regardless of whatever else might be wrong with ACTA, when private corporations start making criminal laws (in secret, no less), clearly we have a serious problem. It's textbook fascism.

When you actually look at the details it's even worse.

These "laws" are being enacted under the pretext of "copyright enforcement", but in reality they're nothing more than an attack on the Internet itself, and moreover an attack on democracy and justice.

It's a form of vigilantism, where every service provider that carries any sort of content would be legally responsible to "police" its users, or face legal consequences itself. In this system, everyone would be presumed guilty until proved otherwise, by which time the damage would already be done.

Worse still, this vigilantism opens the floodgates to all sorts of abuses, including censorship for political or economic advantage. These Draconian legislations would utterly destroy the concept of fair use, thus undermining satire, political and social commentary, user-generated content, and all forms of creative works achieved through the accretion of cultural influences.

ACTA will transform culture itself into a Hollywood monopoly - the Disneyfication of society.

So who exactly is responsible for this corruption of democracy, justice and culture?

MPAA Directly & Publicly Threatens Politicians Who Aren't Corrupt Enough To Stay Bought
from the sickening dept

Reinforcing the fact that Chris Dodd really does not get what's happening, and showing just how disgustingly corrupt the MPAA relationship is with politicians, Chris Dodd went on Fox News to explicitly threaten politicians who accept MPAA campaign donations that they'd better pass Hollywood's favorite legislation... or else:

"Those who count on quote 'Hollywood' for support need to understand that this industry is watching very carefully who's going to stand up for them when their job is at stake. Don't ask me to write a check for you when you think your job is at risk and then don't pay any attention to me when my job is at stake,"

This certainly follows what many people assumed was happening, and fits with the anonymous comments from studio execs that they will stop contributing to Obama, but to be so blatant about this kind of corruption and money-for-laws politics in the face of an extremely angry public is a really, really, really tone deaf response from Dodd.

It shows, yet again, that he just doesn't get it. People were protesting not just because of the content of these bills, but because of the corrupt process of big industries like Dodd's "buying" politicians and "buying" laws.

If you care about the Internet, freedom of expression, culture, creativity and intellectual freedom, you need to act now to stop this travesty of justice called ACTA, before it's too late.

And even if those things mean nothing to you, consider the implications of allowing private, unelected corporations to dictate the law, to serve their own selfish, grasping, narcissistic agenda. Is that really the sort of society you want to live in?

Me neither.

https://www.laquadrature.net/en/ACTA
http://www.laquadrature.net/wiki/Attack_ACTA
http://www.avaaz.org/en/eu_save_the_internet
http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/20685