http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Co...rade_Agreement

The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) is a proposed plurilateral agreement for establishing international standards on intellectual property rights enforcement.[1] ACTA would establish a new international legal framework that countries can join on a voluntary basis[2] and would create its own governing body outside existing international institutions such as the World Trade Organization (WTO), the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) or the United Nations.[3][1] Negotiating countries have described it as a response "to the increase in global trade of counterfeit goods and pirated copyright protected works."[2] The scope of ACTA is broad, including counterfeit goods, generic medicines and what is termed "piracy over the Internet", ie copyright infringement using the internet.[4]

After a series of draft text leaks in 2008, 2009 and 2010 the negotiating parties published the official version of the current draft on 20 April 2010.[5] The idea to create a plurilateral agreement on counterfeiting was developed by Japan and the United States in 2006. Canada, the European Union and Switzerland joined the preliminary talks throughout 2006 and 2007. Official negotiations began in June 2008, with Australia, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea and Singapore joining the talks. It is planned for negotiations to finish in 2010.[6]
More futile efforts to apprehend internet pirates, and indeed, any sort of pirate at all. What politicians fail to realize is that piracy boosts sales. This makes sense, really, especially in the departments of music and video games. Consumers are expected to sink twenty to fifty bucks into a new video game or CD going only on the box art or the song list. Piracy lets a person try out the product first. And as a pirate, I have seen people -- hundreds of people -- repeatedly state on torrent sites to just buy the damn thing. Support the developers. All that shit. Cracks are imperfect, especially for video games and software, and restrict some aspects of it. In many cases, once a person knows they like the game in general, they will pay to unlock the real thing. People who download an album over the internet, if they like it, will go out and pay a measly twenty bucks to support their artist(s) of choice.

One thing corporations and politicians also fail to realize that, despite every single bit of technology ever developed and put into place, not a single one has ever been able to stop pirates from pirating. DVD protection is a joke. Music protection is laughably easy to get around. Even video games are beyond easy to nab. These companies put so much time, effort, and money into trying to protect their products from pirates, when the glaring truth of the matter is that they're only shooting themselves in the foot. The odd lawsuit doesn't scare pirates, and most of them turn out to be jokes anyway. There is always, and there always shall be, a loophole. Someone, somewhere, will always be able to break through any sort of DRM.

And if they can't break it, they will attack it. DDoS attacks can be rather effective, especially if they are carried out for extended periods of time. This was evident on the Assassin's Creed attack. The game was designed to download pieces from the internet as it went, ensuring nobody had a full copy of the game at any given time. The aspect of having to be connected to the internet at all times to play was unpopular on its own, but the DDoS attack shut down the service entirely on one of the servers. The more elaborate these DRM mechanisms become, the more companies alienate their consumers.

And what of nations that do not sign onto this agreement? Sweden seems like a nation that would avoid it like the plague. Sweden, whose Pirate Party gained a seat in the national election and became the new host of the pirate bay. Is everything uploaded to a Swedish server in the clear? I'm sure debates will iron this out, but I have a strong feeling that a point like this will provide safe havens for pirates.

And what shall come when this is passed? Will pirates suddenly realize that (horrors!) what they're doing is illegal, and immediately cease operations? Unlikely. Perhaps some large, collaborative effort will be made to build a better DRM machine. And yet, the only way to make something that works 100% of the time would be to monitor what people do. All the time. How long before companies start installing hidden rootkits on computers to monitor their activities? How long before TV's are under constant surveillance to make sure people aren't using a camera to record their movies? This arbitrary silliness has gone on long enough. Piracy is an unstoppable force. Too much has been put into trying to prevent it, when in reality, corporations should be embracing it, or better yet, minimizing its need altogether. You want people to buy your games? How about letting them test-play them first. The Borders concept with letting people listen to any album's entire playlist as often as a person likes in the store is brilliant. Software trials have proven effective. There are options beyond "stop all them damn dirty pirates once and for all!"

After much searching, I have been unable to locate a single instance of Adobe suing a single person for personal piracy. When they file lawsuits, it is because a person is selling ripoff copies over ebay, or a corporation is using their software for commercial purposes. They seem perfectly fine with letting home pirates use their software, as long as they do not profit from it. This makes sense! And I can honestly say that after trying photoshop and seeing all the effort put into it, when I have the means, I will buy it legitimately. I am not alone.

We are legion. We are many. And we will break your DRM silliness. Discuss.