Proposed details of ACTA (the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement), a treaty being negotiated between a number of international partners including the US, Canada, and the European Union to help fight intellectual property theft, were leaked last Thursday via Wiki Leaks.

Highlights from the Orwellian document include:

• the creation of an international, copyright enforcement body with the power to force Internet service providers to hand over customer information without a court order
• empowering boarder patrol officers to, without a warrant, search data on any laptop, iPod, or cell phone

Even if IP theft was a major crisis, which it is not, these measures would constitute a gratuitous infringement on our freedom of privacy.

But more importantly, this is a destructive approach to dealing with today’s very real challenges to the traditional intellectual property model. Rather than encouraging innovation, these proposals would merely prop-up media companies too narrow-minded to adapt to new realities, while harming their customers.

It is true that these are just proposals. But what is also alarming is that ACTA is being negotiated in secret. Further, because its a treaty, the Canadian Prime Minister’s Office can adopt it without approval from Parliament. And Canadian Industry Minister Jim Prentice has refused to make any comments on the leaked document. This lack of openness and transparency illustrates a deep-seeded, and largely irrational, opposition to the principles of collaboration within our political institutions. I hope that Canadians, and those in other effected countries, demand better.