What to read on ACTA

pdfs galore!

• The final text of the agreement, as signed by the EU and 22 member states today.
• An essay on the troubles with ACTA by Michael Geist (for SAIS Review in 2010) and the articles published in the current issue of The American University International Law Review. 
• Pages 53-58 from the Official Journal of the European Union C45 E /53, either as reassurance before the late spring/early summer vote ("asks the Commission to ensure that ACTA will not grant public authorities access to private computers and other electronic devices") or as entertainment for the wording of the final paragraph. 

Issues: 

• Lack of transparency during the negotiations
• Creation of a framework outside existing institutions to exclude developing countries
• Possibility that ACTA would eventually become the international standard and countries not involved in the negotiations would be forced to join
• Therefore, developing countries facing severe security issues would be asked to use their limited resources to hunt down counterfeited handbags
• The agreement might limit access to medicine in developing countries.
• ACTA is not a sole executive agreement, raising issues of its binding quality (in the United States) since Congress is excluded from the decision-making process (see here)

So yeah, this is about more than whether you can still travel with your notebook or your iPod without fearing that it will be immediately destroyed by border authorities (I wonder how that part of the agreement would even be implemented?).