Knock knock ACTA, it’s the Internet

Dear ACTA Secret Committee

Your actions regarding the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) have garnered the attention of us, the internauts.

Since your seventh meeting is set to take place in Mexico, January 2010, the general Mexican media and news agencies have come under our scrutiny. During our observations we have come across tendentious headlines alleging that there is a correlation between file-sharing, the traffic of narcotics and counterfeit goods. The fatal losses generated by organized crime at the detriment of Mexican society, are presented as an allegory for the hypothetically devastating effects of file-sharing on the impalpable copyright industry.

It has come to our understanding that the Fifth Global Congress on Combating Counterfeiting and Piracy, focusing on the impact of the illegal trade of tangible goods, will be held in the sunny beaches of Cancun, Mexico on 1-3 December; an issue which is within the collimate of ACTA. We have fair reason to believe that some of the following organizations present at this reunion, defending private interests, are concerned by the way we the internauts share what we value on the Internet: IMPI (Mexican Institute for Intellectual Property), the World Customs Organization (WCO), the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the International Trademark Association (INTA) and the International Security Management Association (ISMA) – together with INTERPOL (link)

The timing, location and sponsor of this congress are to us internauts a source of concern. This congress could set forth a precedent, framing the circulation of intellectual property within the confinements of criminal activity. With no offense intended to the local populace, a location not reputed for corruption and its lack of transparency, would in our eyes be more appropriate to host a meeting whose conclusion will affect billions of citizens worldwide. The sponsor of the event, media conglomerate Televisa – a private corporation, benefactor and proponent of Mexico’s leery digital spectrum deregulation – can not within reason be considered as an uninterested or trustworthy party. (link)

We, the internauts and internetational clusters, demand that both the dates this congress will be held, and the contents of the treaty be publicly available prior to its enactment. As has been demonstrated by the negative repercussions the transnational NAFTA treaty has had on the economic and social development of countries like Mexico, we the internauts refute the idea of having a treaty that could potentially prevent the flow of information and knowledge. Specially considering that the director of your host – IMPI – was one of the lead negotiatiors of the NAFTA treaty.(link)

To add a humouristic undertone in these dark and eerie times, where the fundamental concept of Net Neutrality is been ignored, the Internets would like to remind the ACTA committee, that the Internet by design has been proven to be tremendously inconvenient for shipping drugs through TCP ports. Counterfeited designer handbags simply do not fit through the intertubes, and the packets carried over the Internet can, by today’s design, not contain DVD or CD plastic cases. In short, organized crime can not send any type of solid goods through the internets. Information, knowledge and datalove are still the only goods that can flow freely through the cables. This is the sole and only purpose of the Internets.

We hope that you will find this information to be useful and that you will keep this insight in consideration during your upcoming meeting.