[Infowarrior] - Does ACTA Kill Online Anonymity?

[Richard Forno]

Does ACTA Kill Online Anonymity?
from the it-might... dept
http://techdirt.com/articles/20100330/1847258797.shtml

With the full draft of ACTA leaked, lots of people have been  
highlighting the various lowlights found in the draft. Andrew  
Moshirnia, over at the Citizen Media Law Project, has picked up on  
another one. If you read the draft, it appears to remove due process  
in revealing anonymous users. While other countries have viewed  
anonymity differently, in the US, at least, the courts have been very  
strong defenders of the right to anonymous speech. But the ACTA draft  
includes this fun tidbit:

Each Party shall enable right holders, who have given effective  
notification to an online service provider of materials that they  
claim with valid reasons to be infringing their copyright or related  
rights, to expeditiously obtain from that provider information on the  
identity of the relevant subscriber.

In other words, as long as someone makes a copyright claim -- bogus or  
not -- ISPs should be required to give up who the user is. Once again,  
this appears to be contrary to US law. The RIAA made this argument in  
the US years ago, and Verizon fought back and (eventually) won, as  
judges noted that ISPs did not just have to hand over information  
without a lawsuit being filed and an official subpoena issued. So much  
for ACTA not changing US law, right?

But, an even bigger concern may be how other countries implement this  
as well. We've already noted that China will likely use ACTA as  
justification for greater censorship, but Moshirnia points out that  
authoritarian regimes may start (ab)using it to unveil anonymous  
internet users as well: Let's say I am an oppressive regime. One of  
the very few ways my citizens can reach me is by videotaping and  
publicizing my brutal methods of silencing protesters (warning,  
disturbing link). Now, not only can I use bogus takedown requests to  
pull down those videos (think a global DMCA) but I can also get the  
private information of the poster. So why is anyone supporting ACTA  
again?