If You Thought SOPA and ACTA Were Bad…

CIS Non-Residential Fellow David Levine writes about SOPA and ACTA in this Info Justice post.

In the wake of the Stop Online Piracy Act/PROTECT IP Act (collectively, SOPA) Web protest, some commentators have pointed out that Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) is even worse in both substance and procedure. The secretive process through which ACTA was negotiated is now well known, at least amongst those paying attention. Indeed, the very secrecy of the process has made paying attention both difficult to do and critically important, as ACTA seeks to create a new international framework for combating piracy. SOPA, in a profound way, has shown the value of transparency, albeit imperfect, when lawmakers are faced with pervasive and poorly understood technology like the Internet, and a new problem of scale like the distribution of intellectual property (IP) on the borderless Internet. The public’s access to actual texts of SOPA, combined with a relatively simple process for offering actual input about the bills, will hopefully create better law by allowing knowledgeable parties to explain technologies that are not well understood. No such opportunity existed with ACTA.