The bigger battle - the war on general computation.

I think ACTA is just a small part of something bigger. The Internet was developed not as a money making exercise by a mega corporation, but by lots of academics and small companies who saw the value in easy instant communication and sharing of knowledge. The general purpose computer is at the heart of this and over the life of the Internet has gone from something that cost as much as a house, to being affordable by just about everyone.

The thing about a computer as opposed to a toaster or a games console is that you the owner can decide what it does. This power is under threat. Microsoft wants the next generation of computers and tablets to run Windows 8 to be designed to make it impossible to run anything else (all in the name of security of course)! This makes your computer just a different sort of 'XBox' and you are only allowed to run what the corporate masters approve on it, unless you commit a criminal act and crack it of course.

This is another thing that the public needs to rise up and say NO WAY to.

Keep your right to a general purpose computer where you can run the software, including the most fundamental level, the Operating System. There are many different variants of Linux that you can choose, all have been developed by people like you who care about freedom. Find one that suits you and move off Windows now. Find a local Linux User Group and join it. Join FLOSSUK - the organisation that promotes Free, Libre and Open Source Software at the national level. http://www.flossuk.org/

Here is a video by Cory Doctorow that explains the attack on general purpose computing in more detail.

The fight is not over even if we send ACTA packing.