One section of the proposeddigital copyright treaty says that immunity from lawsuits would be granted to Internet providers "disabling access" to pirated material and adopting a policy dealing with unauthorized "transmission of materials protected by copyright." If the ISPs choose not to do so, they could face legal liability.

libertarians and technologists for copies of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, or ACTA. Last
year, the White House went so far as to invoke an executive order saying disclosure would do "damage
to the national security."

ACTA's text, keeping it secret became too politically problematic for the countries represented in the
closed -door negotiations. Besides the United States, the European Commission , Australia, Canada, Japan, and New Zealand are
among the nations participating . They've been egged onby copyright lobby groups.

Much of the language in ACTA has been anonymously proposed by one nation or another but is not final, and it's not clear whether the "disabling access" section will remain. Another nearby paragraph does say, in a nod to privacy concerns, that governments should not "impose a general monitoring requirement" on broadband providers. The language does appear to go further than U.S. laws

In general, ACTA's proposals seek to export controversial chunks of U.S. copyright law to the rest of the world. The Digital
Millennium Copyright Act's "anti-circumvention" section , which makes it illegal to bypass copy protection even to back up a Blu -
Ray disc , is in there. So is theNo Electronic Theft Act's concept of making it a crime to copy a sufficient quantity of software ,
music, or videos -- even if no money changes hands.

While the public draft version of ACTA wouldn't prohibit border guards from searching travelers' gadgetry for infringing files, nor would it appear to require that action. That has been one of the concerns of groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Public Knowledge, which havecriticized the draft treaty.

media companies at the expense of consumers and innovators ." The Computer and Communications Industry, which has often cast a skeptical eye toward laws expanding copyright,says the release confirms "fears that the agreement will unreasonably increase the legal exposure of U.S. technology and Internet businesses operating abroad."