Having at least temporarily convinced the US Congress to shelve the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), attention among anti-censorship activists is now turning squarely toward the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), an international compact with many similar provisions.
And where Hollywood trade groups aroused enough public ire to keep SOPA from happening, ACTA threatens to be a far more dangerous proposition, with President Obama using an executive order to give it de facto approval in the United States and bypassing Congress entirely. It may still be a battle internationally, but for Americans just hearing about it, it is a fait accompli.
