Very few people are aware of the fact that very secretive negotiations are being conducted by our governements that could have serious consequences. The so-called Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) negotiations have been progressing for a year or more. They were presented as just a discussion on how to do a regular check-up on intellectual copyright law between Western countries and Japan, how to prevent cheap copies of branded luxury items to flood our markets etc.
More and more organizations have gotten wind of the fact that Big Content was trying to get their infamous anti-piracy laws injected into this agreement, bypassing national lawmakers and representative bodies. After all, it is very difficult NOT to ratify a complete body of international agreements which have been negotiated between many countries. If you reject the agreement, you must reject it in total and face the economic damages.
So many groups have tried to get more information on the state of the negotiations, so national and EU-parliaments can influence the negotiations before being confronted with a binary decision. No such luck. A worrying fact.
Ars Technica has an excellent overview of the state of affairs.
