Free for a Fee

It’s becoming clear that the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement is not, as backers have  suggested, just a minor tuneup to worldwide intellectual property law, one done for the purpose of cracking down on fake DVD imports or Coach handbag ripoffs.

Such a law—one that amounted essentially to some streamlining and coordination in the fight against actual pirates—might well be hashed out between nations operating in secret. But a treaty that seeks to apply criminal penalties to peer-to-peer file-sharing? Let’s open a window and let the sunlight in.

Click here to read the rest of this article