Lets Have Some ACTA Fun!

(Photo credit: xkcd.com)

  ACTA, that fun and wonderful little anti-counterfeiting trade agreement (Hence the name ACTA), that has eluded the constituents of its member nations for years, may finally get an official and complete release! Ars Technica is reporting that ACTA negotiations are "finished", and that the text of the agreement is 'consolidated and largely finalized' YES! 1 point for the worlds copyright/trademark/patent law whistle blowers! Disregarding the fact that the text of the ACTA agreement has been leaked, oh I dont know, FIVE TIMES, the news of a complete and official release is more of a "you finally got your act together!" moment, than it is a moment of relief for the whistle blowers. That isn't to say that ACTA isn't important. Far from it! Probably the biggest reason behind the formation of this agreement is to tackle copyright, patent, trademark, and Intellectual Property infringement in the 21st Century on a global scale (Well, by global I mean 'only pertaining to the participating parties'). This undoubtedly affects the Internet and nearly everything having to do with it. If that isn't important now int he 21st Century, I don't know what is.
  I'm not going to start dissecting and analyzing ACTA here on my blog. Ars Technica has done a pretty good job doing that with the official draft release from April of 2010. Along with analyzing the major provisions, they do a pretty damn good job giving background and what effects passing ACTA will have on global Copyright and IP enforcement.
  Is ACTA good or bad? For now I'm sticking to bad. US Copyright, patent, and IP law are a bit crazy and antiquated. I think that before the US began ACTA talks, they should have gone back and revised it's own copyright, patent and IP laws. Simply taking a look at the ridiculous length of copyright protection, along with the sheer abuses committed by companies such as Monsanto, it really becomes clear that something is wrong. Before you go spreading that around the world, you gotta make it work, albeit better, at home. But those are my two cents on the issue of Copyrights and the such.

Happy reading, readers!