ACTA Copyright Provisions Becoming Clearer

The secret Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement treaty provisions are starting to leak out in spite of the "national security" status granted to it by the Bush and Obama administrations.  The government let several groups (including public advocacy groups) see draft text on a non-disclosure basis.  The treaty provisions generally are starting to come out anyway.  Boing Boing has one interpretation.  Think DMCA times way worse on an international scale.  A more rational (but no less scary) view is presented by the ever thoughtful Michael Geist.  If the analysis is correct, ISPs will police copyright infringement, I'm guessing through deep packet inspection.  Perhaps that is the national security issue.  ISPs will have a reason to use it for detecting copyright infringement and the government gets the benefit of detecting matters of more interest to it.  I'm not a conspiracy theorist by any means, but the treaty would be a plausible excuse to permanently monitor Internet communication.  There are also implications for DRM and third party copyright infringement liability.  Follow the links above to get more details.  [MG]