A terrible threat to free speech - it could be worse than SOPA
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COMMENTARY

Worse than SOPA?

POSTED BY JUDSON PHILLIPS | FEBRUARY 6, 2012

A broad coalition of groups, both liberal and conservative, recently came together to stop the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect Intellectual Property Act (SOPA and PIPA).

The House was considering SOPA, while PIPA was being considered by the Senate. Both were terrible bills.

Now, something has come up that may be even worse. It is called ACTA, or Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. It is a trade agreement that the Obama administration signed in October.

ACTA follows many of the worst parts of SOPA. The treaty, which the Obama Regime is calling an “executive agreement” to avoid Senate ratification, isn't supposed to change U.S. law, but it could pose a danger to legal protections for citizens. Under ACTA, a new international body, the ACTA Committee, has been formed to oversee implementation of the agreement. The committee isn't elected and doesn't have to be transparent. This is SOPA on steroids.

Those pushing ACTA have something even more sinister in mind. Not only do they want to strip legal oversight and protection from citizens, they want to regulate the Internet so that everyone must have a unique Internet ID to be able to access the Internet.

These groups want to create a three-strike system. If you receive three complaints of copyright infringement, you are barred from Internet access. According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, “the same industry rightsholder groups that support the creation of ACTA have also called for mandatory network-level filtering by Internet Service Providers and for Internet Service Providers to terminate citizens’ Internet connection on repeat allegation of copyright infringement (the ‘Three Strikes’/Graduated Response).”

The Internet may be the greatest advance in freedom of speech since the printing press. Tyrants and liberals do not like free speech and want to use any tool they can to squelch free speech.

As a writer, I want to see my intellectual property rights protected. As an American, I want to see the First Amendment protected.

Contact your senators and tell them to demand the Obama Regime bring ACTA to the Senate for a vote as a treaty -- and ask your senators to vote against ACTA.

ACTA must be stopped, while we still have the freedom of speech left to oppose it!

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