The sharing of files will soon become a criminal offense, if at the g8 summit currently being held, leaders agree on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA).
The agreement will give border authorities the right to search through your laptops and MP3 players for possible infringement and to seize the devices, fine, and imprison you. This puts at threat, almost all Internet users, and certainly anyone between the ages of 16-24 with an Mp3 player.
If it becomes law getting caught with illegal files could label you as a criminal and forcefully disconnected from the Internet. “ACTA is a Pirate Bay killer,” says the team behind the whistle blowing website Wikileaks. Which is where the content of the agreement, first came to light in may.
The speed of pogression is remarkable for an international law. But the lack of depolomacy and public debate has watchdogs and campainers alarmed.
You should also worry about a bunch of amendments to telecoms laws currently going through the European Parliament’s committee system. Several of which have been criticized by those campaigning for a more open net. Which is one thing about the Internet that I like (apart from gaming of course).
One Response to “Sharing files to become a criminal offence”
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August 5th, 2008 at 15:48
I’m glad I’m using Ubuntu these days! ;-) Apart from my legal copy of XP for gaming… … I’m guarding that sodding proprietary CD with my life as I’m not paying for it again!
I still believe information and data (where not confidential about an individual or some such) should be freely available for all - and that includes software and “media content”…
At least we’re getting there with the software…
KK