Internet Freedom is a right down with ACTA - Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) would establish a new international legal framework that countries can join on a voluntary basis.ACTA is a proposed plurilateral agreement for the purpose of establishing international standards on intellectual property rights enforcement. Because it is in effect a treaty, ACTA would overcome many court precedents defining consumer rights as to “fair use” and would either change or remove limitations on the application of intellectual property laws.
ACTA will make ISPs responsible for enforcement of the new legal framework put forth. They will have to police copyright on user-contributed material. This could potentially put an end to sites that depend on such content (Youtube, Flickr, Blogger) due to the impossibility of monitoring the amount of data involved for infringing materials. The only practical option for the ISP would be to block access entirely. ISPs will be asked to take a 'three strikes' approach, and will have to disconnect users that have been accused of copyright infringements three times, as will be required by law.
ACTA would bring in policies affecting everyone in America. The provisions in it support and encourage your ISP to in essence spy on you.
Obama is a big supporter of this. Even when the EU had rejected a draft of the proposal, Obama was still in favor of it, going so far as to consider a "3 strikes you're out" policy for copyright infringement. The problem with this is that you could be doing something like putting the files on the CD you bought onto your iPod and bam you're a criminal for copyright infringement. You don't have a chance to tell people what you did was lawful; they just say you're a criminal and you are.
Another problem is the increase in costs of ISP's, which will raise the costs for the consumer. Don't you already pay enough for your internet connection? How can your ISP justify raising its costs, monitoring your internet usage and not telling you anything about just so they might catch a few more copyright infringers?
