In case anyone hasn't heard, an international treaty is being forced through in several countries, including the United States. The treaty is called Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, or ACTA. What is basically being proposed, is that governments of (and this might even be an incomplete list) Australia, Canada, the European Union, Japan, The Republic of Korea, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, Switzerland and the United States... will force internet service providers to spy on their customers' internet usage, and report anything they deem suspicious to the government.
Three years ago, leaders of these countries tried to keep this a secret. This was up until some government officials decided that this treaty was basically an overreaction of a response to counterfeiting and protecting intellectual properties, so they leaked it out to the world, using places such as Wikileaks.
A sort of 'three-strikes' rule will be introduced, in which if you are so much as accused of violating copyright or internet piracy three times, your internet connection can be revoked, which would go for everyone else living in your place of residence.
Something else that was in an earlier version of the treaty included having your laptop searched at airport security to make sure you don't have any files that may be deemed pirated.
Right now, there is a movement going on to inform the public about this act, and to try and pressure these governments to rethink this decision. Global protests are planned to take place on Nov. 5, and Oct. 29th for the US a few days before voting. There are also other ways to get involved. To find out more information, check out:
http://anti-acta.com
For discussion and activism planning, visit the Internet Freedom Movement forum at: http://ifmovement.org/forum/index.php