Several blogs and newspaper articles have mentioned a leaked document that describes the ACTA negoitiations. It is a proposed treaty among a few countries to help stem the flow of counterfeit goods at borders. The proposed treaty and the way it is being discussed raise all sorts of problems.

For example, it supports the US entertainment industry agenda that is being pushed by the US government – the same agenda that has huge opposition on the copyright reform front. And if that’s not bad enough in substance, its being negotiated out of the public eye.

It also has the potential to make crminals of all of us at border points, as it would give customs officers the ability to look for “illegal” copies on any device we have. Having customs officers deciding what are legal vs illegal copies of things is a scary proposition as that determination is not always easy even for the courts. And content that may be perfectly legal to have in one country, may not be in another.

In the grand scheme of things, stopping a truckload of counterfeit CD’s would be a good thing – but stopping individuals from crossing a border with their ipods is just silly.

This strikes me as one of those creeping out of control concepts where legitimate border controls are being used for improper purposes.

For more information on this topic take a look at:

Ottawa Citizen article

Globe article

Slaw post

Michael Geist’s post