ACTA takes the lead after SOPA/PIPA

As of late, Congress has been attempting to pass the bills we have all come to know as Stop Online Piracy Act/Protect Intellectual Property Act (SOPA/PIPA). Over the course of a few months, the SOPA/PIPA bills have captivated the attention of almost every American. They spread like wildfire and led to a series of protests all across the Web. 

SOPA and PIPA are two separate bills that threatened to end the Internet as we know it. SOPA was led by the House and PIPA was led by the Senate. 

"No one wants their art and income stolen," adds John Desjarlais, a journalism and creative writing teacher at Kishwaukee College.  "However, the bills overstep a boundary by permitting the government to shut down any domain that has even one link to a foreign site that permits the download of pirated materials. This is a form of censorship of the Web and government intrusion into Web content that is unacceptable."

According to The Washington Post, Google and Wikipedia sponsored a petition on January 18 against SOPA/PIPA and collected more than 7 million signatures from the U.S.. With the enormous uproar of protests and millions of signatures against these bills, Congress decided to withdraw their attempt at SOPA/PIPA.

CNN states that millions of dollars were spent lobbying against SOPA/PIPA and more than 300 companies and organizations rose up to fight the two bills. Although lobbying wasn't what did SOPA/PIPA in, it was helpful and intends to continue.

Then a new bill was brought into the public view. 

Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) is the "new and improved" version of SOPA/PIPA. ACTA takes place in America, Europe, Asia and Australia as well. This act was agreed upon by many countries (including America) that have already signed the bill. According to ZDNet, ACTA will not become a part of the EU (European Union) if European Parliament votes against it in June. If this does happen, the 22 signatures of the EU would be worthless, and ACTA would not be permitted in the EU. 

While we were focused on SOPA/PIPA, ACTA was already going into effect completely out of the public focus. According to IBTimes,  ACTA wasn't even supposed to be released to the public, but Wikileaks released documents and draft versions of the treaty that exposed the bill. 

The Electronical Frontier Foundation states that the Fact Sheet published by the United States Trade Representative (USTR) together with the USTR's 2008 Special 301 report made it clear that the goal is to create a new standard of intellectual property enforcement above the current internationally-agreed standards in the Trade Related Issues of Intellectual Property (TRIPS) Agreement and International Cooperation, including sharing of information between signatory countries’ law enforcement agencies. 

ACTA is trying to combine counterfeiting with piracy when they are, in fact, two very different issues. According to CNN, it will put Internet service providers in an untenable position, making them liable for their customers alleged actions and forcing them to comply with requests from copyright holders for user data, without due process. 

Citizens are wondering if Obama signing the pact without the consent of Congress was even legal. Even after 75 law professors sent a letter to Obama urging him not to sign, he signed nonetheless.

"While it seems like these bills would hardly affect Kishwaukee students," explains Dr. Anthony Thomas, philosophy instructor, "the probability that many students have downloaded material illegally or used copyrighted material without permission in various presentations, on 

Web sites, as desktop backgrounds on their phones and computers, etc., could put these students in violation of federal law should these bills be enacted."