European Commission Slip Reveals Censorship In ACTA - Falkvinge on Infopolicy

“The European Commission, which is sort of the Administration in the EU, published a rebuttal to “rumors on the net about ACTA” and tries to set the record straight. Note the two first points: “ACTA ensures people everywhere can continue to share non-pirated material and information on the web. ACTA does not restrict freedom of the internet. ACTA will not censor or shut down websites.” There is one word on their web page that stands out and reveals so much more about the nature of ACTA: ‘Non-pirated’ ...We have always been able to send whatever we like, and possibly answer for it afterwards...what it says here is that the net will only be usable for government-approved communications; the government takes itself the right to determine what the net is usable for and what it isn’t usable for... And this is serious for the deepest of democratic reasons: Any communications technology must be compatible with dissent... Another objection here would be that the language requiring ISPs to police the net was taken out of ACTA. That is… not quite so. The specific phrase requiring that was taken out in one revision, yes. But in the same revision, the same thing was re-inserted in another place. Specifically, this text was inserted: ‘Desiring to promote cooperation between service providers and rights holders to address relevant infringements in the digital environment...’”