We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Preliminary Analysis of the Officially Released ACTA Text

from Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Finally, after years of secrecy, the text of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) has been made public. While this is a definitive victory for the countless activists who pressed for transparency, the officially released text makes it crystal clear that our worst fears about this international agreement are real: ACTA is not just about counterfeiting. ACTA targets citizens' ability to use the Internet to communicate, collaborate and create, and it poses significant concerns for citizens' privacy, freedom of expression and fair use rights.
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