The negotiations for the ACTA, the secret Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, are underway in Mexico this week, and there's been a lot of coverage around the world of the lack of transparency in these talks. For those who are not familiar with the agreement, I want to recommend Michael Geist's excellent five part ACTA Guide:

• The ACTA Guide, Part One: The Talks To-Date
• ACTA Guide, Part Two: The Documents (Official and Leaked)
• ACTA Guide, Part Three: Transparency and ACTA Secrecy

Parts four and five will be up later this week. So far, these posts do a great job of succinctly explaining the ACTA process, what we know of the content, and the concerns about the lack of transparency.

All this week Australian websites having been going black as part of the Great Australian Internet Blackout.  So far this online demonstration has successfully reached a wide range of audiences, educating them about the problems with the Government's mandatory Internet filter policy:

• There are 480 verified participating websites (and that only counts the websites that have directly submitted their sites for inclusion on our list),  including the websites of the Australian Greens, the Australian Democrats, iiNet, New Matilda and Online Opinion.
• More than 2300 Twitter users have blacked out their profile pictures using a countable method (Twibbon), while many more have blacked out their profile using their own artwork (which is much harder to count).  You can black out your Twitter profile picture here.  You can also set your Twitter background to 1000 supporters of the Blackout here.
• More than 5200 Facebook users have joined the Great Australian Internet Blackout group (quite a number of whom have blacked out their profile pictures), up from around 2000 at the start of the week.  You can join that group here.
• There have been over 260,000 unique visitors to the Great Australian Internet Blackout website.
• The blackout information popup (which appears on sites that have joined the campaign using our script) has been seen more than 375,000 times.

It's not too late for you and your business or organisation to participate in this demonstration.  Just visit the Great Australian Internet Blackout website for more information.

We will post the final numbers early next week.

Electronic Frontiers Australia today announced that over 500 web Australian sites will be "blacked out" on Australia day in protest against the Rudd government's mandatory Internet filtering plan. Included among them are the Australian Greens, an Internet service provider, media outlets, and hundreds of other Australian businesses and organisations.

"This policy has caused considerable anxiety amongst Australian Internet users," said EFA Vice-Chair Colin Jacobs. "The idea that the Government will be inserting itself in every Internet connection in the country is a tough one to swallow, especially without a workable policy goal behind it."

The "Great Australian Internet Blackout" was the brainchild of activist Jeff Waugh, and is endorsed and supported by EFA. For a week starting on Australia Day, participating web sites will appear to turn black and will display a one-time message to visitors explaining the Government's plan and offering them more information before allowing visitors to continue as normal.

The plan, which will see all Australian Internet connections subject to a Government-controlled blacklist of banned sites, will apply to all Australian Internet connections within 12 months of the legislation being passed. Although originally touted as a "cyber-safety" policy, the resulting filter will not filter out all material unsuitable for children, instead targeting a select list of "refused classification" material, which would includes content dealing with crime, drugs and certain types of adult material.

Greens Communications spokesman Senator Scott Ludlam, in deciding to support the campaign, said "The Government's plan will not protect children, will do nothing to crack down on criminal activity online, and sets a dangerous precedent of centralised net censorship."

Concerns with the list include its broad scope, it's secret nature, and the inability of Australian businesses to know if and when they have been placed on the list. "One of our main concerns is how the list might expand in the future," said Jacobs. "It's hard to imagine this and all future governments responding to special interests, electoral pressure and the news cycle only with restraint forevermore."

The Internet Blackout on Australia Day marks an escalation of opposition to the plan, which will continue throughout the year. "Our goal is to ensure the Australian public know what they're in for," said Peter Black, EFA's campaign manager. "It's important that such a major and expensive policy gets the public scrutiny it deserves."

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Ever since I became campaign manager for the EFA's campaign against the Government's mandatory Internet filter two and a half weeks ago, I have been overwhelmed by the level of enthusiasm and support for the EFA's campaign.  Accordingly, the most frequent question I have been asked is "what can I do to help?"  Given this level of support and the desire of so many Australians to help defeat the Government's policy, I thought I'd suggest ten things you can do to help the EFA's campaign against the Government's mandatory Internet filter.

1. Sign the Senate Internet Censorship Petition.

Last week the EFA launched a petition gainst the Government’s mandatory Internet filtering policy that will be presented to the Senate of the Parliament of Australia.  You can sign the petition electronically by going to this page and leaving your name, postcode and email address.

2. Collect signatures for the Senate Internet Censorship Petition.

In addition to signing the online petition, we are also looking for volunteers to collect printed signatures.  If you would like to gather signatures for the petition, please download and read the Senate Internet Censorship Petition - Instructions before printing the Senate Internet Censorship Petition.  Simply print out the petition and take it to work, parties, and anywhere else you might be able to talk to people about Internet censorship and persuade them to sign this petition.

3. Participate in the Great Australian Internet Blackout.

This week is the Great Australian internet Blackout, a week long online protest against imposed online censorship.  Over 500 groups and thousands of individuals are blacking out their websites and profile pictures to inform a wider audience about the Government's plan.  Learn how to black out your website here, and learn how to black out you profile picture on Twitter or Facebook here.

4. Renew your membership or donate to the EFA.

The EFA relies on membership fees and donations to fund its activities.  Renew your membership or make a donation so that we can continue to fund our campaign against the Government's mandatory Internet filter. (more...)

The next round of negotiations on the secret Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) are due to begin this week in Guadalajara, Mexico. On the agenda this week are civil copyright measures, border measures, internet enforcement measures, and, very briefly, the issue of the lack of transparency in the negotiations.

While much of the text is hidden from public view, the EU’s analysis of the negotiations was leaked late last year. The leak confirms that the ACTA is designed to impose the tough sanctions developed by the US for copyright infringement on other signatories. The main goal of the ACTA seems to be to bypass the WIPO system and entrench US-style copyright regulations around the world. In this sense, a multi-lateral agreement may be more effective than the series of bi-lateral agreements that we have seen in recent years because it has the opportunity to bind several countries at once to implement US-equivalent law.

By doing away with the open international process that WIPO conducts, the ACTA poses a real threat to the reasoned modification of intellectual property laws worldwide. By doing so in secret, it ensures that democratic processes are marginalised; the public will only get to see the text once it has been finalised, at a point when it is likely to be too late, politically, for states to withdraw support.

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