A few quick things you can do against ACTA

[unjapanologist]

We know the story by now, I suppose? ACTA is bad, but the European Parliament still needs to approve it, and there is a real chance they can be convinced not to do so if the people they represent make enough noise. Stop ACTA has summaries of and links to everything that's relevant. Here are some of the actions they recommend, in order of how much

Comments

[ljlee]

Ugh. Big corporations are increasingly sliding into self-parody. ACTA on the east side of the Atlantic, SOPA and PIPA on the west... Do they actually want to make people paranoid about a corporate-controlled fascist dystopia becoming reality? Or maybe these are the last throes of clumsy behemoths who can't adjust to the reality of new media.

Either way, this threatens the most terrifying type of private-sector human rights violation--powerful private actors acting with the backing of, but no meaningful check from, the public sector. Bless you for acting against this. I've signed the petition and wish I could do more, because if this crap can go down in Europe it's only a matter of time on our own shores.

[unjapanologist]

Thanks for signing! ACTA is a worldwide agreement, by the way. You're in South Korea, right? The US quietly ratified it back in October, along with, I regret to say, South Korea and a bunch of other countries. It's on your shores :( The whole thing was negotiated and pushed through in secret.

This not just threatens the kind of violations you describe - the groundwork has already been laid. It's indeed pretty damn terrifying, which is why I badly, badly hope that we can still stop it in the places where it's not quite ratified yet, like Europe. People woke up after SOPA/PIPA, but too late for some things.

[ljlee]

Gah! And I call myself a lawyer. D: Oh well, Korea is horrible on this front anyway, with some people committing suicide After being harassed by IP suits claiming exorbitant damages. So ACTA or no ACTA I might as well accept we're already a plutocratic dystopia. I hope Europe at least stays out of it, because if the most human rights-conscious peoples in the world get sucked into this then I see very little hope. Good luck!

[unjapanologist]

Seriously? Do you have any good links about IP enforcement in Korea? I'm really interested in that topic, but don't know much about it in Korea's case.

[dracomaleficium]

Thank you so much for supporting the fight. I really do hope we can stop it and, for now, the situation in Europe is looking up. Things have been really heated in Poland for the last few weeks and the Internet is fighting hard to keep it that way. People are handing out petitions to sign in the streets, not only online, and a huge informative campaign is being launched as we speak to convince everyone not as Internet-savvy to support the case - which makes me actually proud of my young countrymen, and that doesn't happen often...

[unjapanologist]

I'm seriously glad people in Poland have taken this so seriously.