ThruIT

Welcome to the weekend everybody! Time for another installment of the Policy Roundup. It was an awkward week out there on the interwebs – most notably for our more scurvy readers, The Pirate Bay officially shut down its tracker. The move comes at the end of a very drawn out, sketchy takeover of the domain by an independent buyer. And while PEX and DHT will obviate the need for trackers in the long run, it’s sad to see TBP fizzle out so impotently.

Information has been appearing all over the ‘net about the secret Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement being negotiated between roughly 40 nations in Seoul, South Korea. Rumblings about ACTA have been going on for a while now, but it seems what is actually in the treaty is beginning to come to light. What is allegedly being discussed is terrifying – a global DMCA-like regime that makes ISP’s the watchdog for copyrighted content (lions), three strikes disconnect policy (tigers), the end or major changes to safe harbor provisions (bears), and other major changes that could dramatically change the internet forever (Oh my!).