Source: https://www.accessnow.org/policy-act...as-big-brother

Last week, online activists took to the streets in New York and San Francisco to protest SOPA and PIPA, convincing the US Congress to shelve the bills in the face of overwhelming opposition. This week, protesters are filling the streets of Warsaw and other cities across Poland to speak out against another, even more dangerous threat to the open Internet and human rights—the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). Negotiated in secret by a handful of countries, ACTA seeks to establish new international standards on the enforcement of intellectual property.

ACTA goes far beyond the US bills in its scope and reach. If you were worried about the ramifications SOPA and PIPA would have on free speech in the United States and the subsequent chilling effect around the world, pay attention—ACTA promises to inflict far more damage on a global scale. ACTA has managed to sneak by virtually unnoticed by the international community, where the treaty has already been signed by many of the 39 partner countries, including the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan and South Korea. Tomorrow, the 27 member states of the European Union, led by Poland, will sign.

ACTA seeks to curtail online copyright infringement by putting the interests of rightsholders ahead of free speech, privacy and other human rights. While we support the rights of creators, these draconian approaches to the enforcement of copyright in the online environment will not only reap collateral damage on the open internet and human rights, but are ineffective in confronting the issue at hand. As the international human rights community argued in a letter opposing PIPA, “[E]nforcement should not come at the expense of free speech or due process.”

ACTA, however, extends far beyond copyright, and includes everything under the umbrella of “intellectual property,” including patents, trademarks and the like. This means the scope is much wider, and will have serious repercussions, particularly for European signatories, from a variety of perspectives. These include, but are not limited to, fundamental rights, access to medicines and innovation.