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Here we go again

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ACTA was first promoted by the Bush administration in 2006, and appeared more an extension of the Homeland Security Act than it did a treaty on anti-counterfeiting trade.  But, here we are 6 years later under Obama with the US and Japan successfully able to bully the EU and other countries to sign onto this agreement which potentially could greatly curb the free flow of information, as this treaty would essentially use IP servers as watchdogs to monitor internet activity.  Already, many Internet providers have created individual IP addresses, much like old telephone land lines, that allow them to track individual activity.  The aim is mostly to clamp down on uploading, but this will no doubt impact downloading as well.

Not surprisingly there are protests worldwide over ACTA, including Lithuania which signed on last week.  Some EU countries are holding out, notably Germany, which didn't feel it had sufficient time to review issues of sovereignty in regard to this act.  American citizens seem rather subdued over this, enured by previous measures aimed at curbing individual liberties but have had little effect on a broad scale.  One wonders how on earth the signatory countries plan on enforcing this act.

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