ACTA released

Americans tend viciously debate every little detail of our own national policy. Yet, I've encountered very little interest in ACTA, an international trade negotiation that is just as potent as the much-maligned DMCA.

For any interested, there's a draft of ACTA now available to the public. Techdirt is underwhelmed:

Most of the language that critics have grown familiar with (making the bypassing of copy protection illegal even in cases of fair use, making copies of a large quality of content illegal even if no money is exchanged, mandating that ISPs become copyright nannies) remain at the heart of the ACTA. The agreement's central thrust continues to be to foist clearly dysfunctional, unreliable, and draconian U.S. DMCA-style copyright enforcement policies upon other countries.

I have admit, I'd rather see something with some more principles to it, rather than simply all the major content holders pulling up a chair to the table and divvying up the world. A good one to start with is that if a citizen buys and owns a copy of something, they can make further copies for personal use. I don't see how that kind of right could ever even be proposed at a gathering like ACTA.