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§ I’ve had a few listeners to FLOSS Weekly write and ask for more information on the ACTA negotiations. There is plenty of information on the web, but a getting-started guide might help.

Here’s a list of references to get you up to speed.

• The ACTA article on Wikipedia is usually very good, start there.
• For more depth, try the analysis by Kimberlee Weatherall from 2008 and more especially its 2009 update.
• On the show you heard me say that the Digital Economy Bill and all the other bad law springing up around the world is like the fruiting body of a massive unseen fungal growth. That’s from a blog post of mine in February.

What action can you take?  Here are some suggestions:

• Listeners in the UK should be asking their MP for a full debate on the Digital Economy Bill and/or echo the open letter in your own communication sent (easily) via Write To Them. Why? Because this legislation is the advance guard in the UK for future ACTA ratification.
• Listeners in Europe should be asking their MEP to sign the Written Declaration requiring minimum standards for ACTA to be acceptable in Europe. There’s a list of who has signed.
• OK, so now you are interested. You’ll want to follow Michael Geist’s blog for frequent updates and excellent analysis. He also has great links to reference materials. Glyn Moody also covers ACTA frequently.

ACTA is legislation laundering on an international level of what would be very difficult to get through most Parliaments

Stavros Lambrinidis, Member of European Parliament, S and D group from Greece.

If you have more references, add them in the comments below please.

Filed under: ACTA | Tagged: ACTA, Links, Resources |