Anti-ACTA protest in the Polish Parliament

Just when you thought you could relax, after the defeat of the SOPA/PIPA bills in the US, another freedom-crushing legislation rears its ugly head. It's an international treaty called ACTA, which Australia signed back in September 2011.

From the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade:

Australia is among 10 countries, and the European Union, attending the signing ceremony, on October 1, for the new Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA).

Dr Emerson said the new ACTA showed Australia’s determination to secure international cooperation to develop trade in the most innovative areas of the global economy.

“ACTA builds on World Trade Organization standards to promote international trade in legitimate intellectual property, by elevating standards of enforcement,” Dr Emerson said.

“This treaty will help stem the burgeoning global trade in counterfeit and pirate materials, worth many billions annually.”

Today Rochelle Macredie joins us to explain the true implications of this treaty for our freedom and our sovereignty as a nation.

Rochelle has prepared a document - "What is ACTA", which we urge you to download and spread. Rochelle highlights some of the practical outcomes of the treaty:

A Hypothetical Analogy
A hypothetical analogy – person does a cookery course and then shows husband/wife how to make a recipe from that course – ACTA makes both of them criminals!  Only one person has paid to learn this information, so they’re not allowed to share it with anyone else for free!  The consequences are clear under ACTA – depending on the country in which you live, you will be barred from doing any further courses, fined or sent to prison.

The Principle of Excessive Surveillance
Surely nobody would find out that you have shared this information in your own home, well they wouldn’t under current law but ACTA deals with this by excessive surveillance – all communication will be monitored – your family and your friends will be observed just in case!

Let’s see how the principle will be applied to the internet:  Think of your computer with its internet connection as being a two-way conveyer belt with packages of information coming in and going out, under ACTA, your ISP will be forced to open up and inspect every single data package that you send for copyrighted information.  It is not clear that the three strikes rule doesn’t apply here – so if you send or receive copyrighted information several times you may be disconnected from the internet permanently or face criminal charges!  This sort of draconian action would apply if you simply videoed a party that played copyrighted music!  There is more – information about the copyrighted material that you disseminated will be sent to the publisher and based on their claims, you could be fined or sent to prison.   ISPs will also be required to check that no copyright or leads to copyright material are found on their servers:  This would be fatal for any site that held any user-generated content, like music or videos!  YouTube and Twitter won’t be able to work under a law like that! 

Rochelle's paper also deconstructs the notion that digitally copied materia is "stolen" by reference to the legal principles animus furandi and asportation:

Theft has a precise meaning in law: Animus furandi and asportation are the necessary ingredients.  That is to say, there must be an intention to permanently deprive the owner of possession of the object, coupled with a taking and carrying away.  The former is known as “animus furandi” while the latter is known as “asportation”.  The intellectual property that is copied is neither removed with the intention of permanently depriving the owner of possession, nor is it carried away, it still remains in their possession, so neither copying nor file sharing constitutes theft!

Related Links

• Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) - Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
• ACTA Text
• What is ACTA? - Rochelle Macredie
• ACTA may be unstoppable: Pirate Party