I’ve been following ACTA for awhile. For those that don’t know, it’s essentially a secret treaty that’s been in talks for awhile between various countries that would, among many things, impose new sanctions on Intellectual Property law. It seems new details have emerged recently from the talks which basically say that the current draft would incorporate revisions to the enforcement policy. Specifically, imprisonment for Copyright infringement, and a greater emphasis on infringement regardless of whether or not you are infringing copyright law for profit or not.
Granted, in the US Fair Use already works similarly — meaning that the fact that you aren’t making a profit off this website does not automatically guarantee a finding of Fair Use. Then again, it is still a factor to be considered, whereas in ACTA, it is not a factor at all.
I think of the social consequences should something like this pass. Yeah of course there’s the P2P sites that don’t make money and just want to pirate goods as much as possible. But what about academic sites that just want to spread knowledge in a controlled setting? What about developing countries that just want to try and share what they can under the radar with no profit involved simply to try and get their citizens up to speed with current IP products and issues? The rights owners will argue that they will attempt to sell these goods in these countries for a price they can afford, but we all know that hasn’t happened. This could be yet another subtle attempt for the industrialized countries to control information spreading in those that haven’t reached their state yet.
