I have seen few threads already discussing the issue about ACTA but found surprising that hardly any people care. This thread lists all reasons why
YOU a normal internet user should care and take a step against it.

Since Spring 2008, the European Union, the United States, Japan, Canada, South Korea, Australia as well as a few other countries have been secretly negotiating a trade agreement aimed at enforcing copyright and tackling counterfeited goods (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement in Text and Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement in PDF). Specifically, leaked documents show that one of the major goal of the treaty is to force signatory countries into implementing anti file-sharing policies under the form of three-strikes schemes and net filtering practices.

At a time when important debates are taking place on the need to adapt copyright to the digital age, this treaty would bypass democratic processes in order to enforce a fundamentally irrelevant regulatory regime. It would profoundly alter the very nature of the Internet as we know it by putting an end to Net neutrality.

See the most worrying provision of this here

The countries mentioned in the document are: USA (US), Japan (J), Canada (Can), New Zealand (NZ), Australia (Aus), Mexico (Mex/MX), Morocco (Mor), the European Union (EU), Singapore (Sing), South Korea (Kor), Switzerland (CH). And "MS" is "EU member states".

Even if your country is not listed above you should care because this will spread worldwide after it passes these countries and even if it does not it will indirectly affect you.

Three core reasons for rejecting ACTA:

These three points have been repeatedly documented in each and every piece of information that has been disclosed, since the beginning of the ACTA process:

* ACTA is policy laundering in which an international negotiation is used to circumvent democratic debates at national or European level and
adopt policy that the Parliaments will have no choice but to reject completely or adopt as a whole. Congress might not even be consulted in the case
of the United States.

(see in detail here)

* The promoters and drafters of ACTA have created a mixed bag of titles, types of infringement and enforcement measures, in which
life-endangering fake products and organized crime activities are considered together with non-for-profit activities that play a role in access to
knowledge, innovation, culture and freedom of expression. ACTA would create a de facto presumption of infringement.

(see in detail here)

*In the negotiations, the EU is pushing the worse parts of the former directive proposal on criminal sanctions for IPR enforcement (IPRED 2,
withdrawn because of uncertain legal basis), that is criminal sanctions for abetting or inciting to infringement.
(see in detail here)

Along with that one of the biggest problem right now is that your ISP's (Internet Service Providers) can report you for anything that "could" be copyright infringement and they will monitor you constantly.

- ISPS will now watch what you download,
and tattle on you if you download
a music track/ any data / rapidshares / torrents etc.

- ISPS will tattle on you, when you do anything which goes
against "Governments policy".

- ISPS will be able to document and store EVERYTHING you do online.
-- nothing will ever be private again

Just think how Government will use this to suppress your voice. This will allow more government control where it shouldn't be and is an infringement on human rights of freedom to expression and other freedoms.

Edited to fix link.
[edit on 30-3-2010 by December_Rain]