Anti-Counterfeit Treaty 'Classified', Alarming

Details of the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) being negotiated across the globe are now labeled as a "properly classified" national security secret by the White House, in spite of a Freedom of Information Act request. (Source: wired.com)

Leaked Docs Suggest Massive Breach of Privacy

Leaked documents posted on WikiLeaks suggest that the proposed trade accord would criminalize peer-to-peer file sharing, subject iPods to border searches, and allow Internet service providers (ISPs) to monitor customer communications.

ACTA is a treaty (PDF) regarding protections on intellectual property being secretly negotiated by the European Union, the U.S., Japan, South Korea, Canada, Mexico, Australia, Switzerland and New Zealand. (Source: wired.com)

Trade representatives from those nations are being urged by dozens of special-interest groups to disclose the language of the evolving agreement in order to end the speculation on its content and to assist in its creation.

Too Many Questions Raised Over Secrecy

A multi-group letter (PDF) sent to trade representatives from the participating nations notes that due to the secrecy surrounding the text of the treaty, the public cannot determine the extent to which their concerns are validated.

Secrecy surrounding ACTA raise many concerns, including whether it will go too far. Last fall, a couple of U.S. senators expressed the same concerns.

Illicit secrecy surrounding ACTA raises a lot of questions, making one wonder if this is really a case of 'national security' or another matter, altogether.

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