The latest leaked ACTA document shows that the EU, USA, and Japan are pushing to extend the this draconian treaty to cover patents! This eye-popping proposal would give patent holders the power to send a cease-and-desist letters to software developers, with threats such as paying the “lost profits” of the patent holder and having the developer’s computer broken and sending the developer the bill for the destruction!
The key point of this document is that the USA, EU, and Japan are pushing to extend it to all “intellectual property rights” – not just copyright and trademarks.
I’ll add excerts here as I read it. For now, here are some wiki pages where you’ll find related info and why this is absurd:
- ACTA-6437-10.pdf as text – complete text
- en.swpat.org/wiki/ACTA
- en.swpat.org/wiki/Infringement_is_unavoidable
- the full ACTA-6437-10.pdf (fax scans as PDF)