It seems that the rejection of ACTA, Anti-Counterfeit Trade Agreement by the European Parliament has not discouraged the EU anyways, and this is why the European Union is putting up efforts to push yet another anti piracy agreement, called CETA. The Canada-EU Trade Agreement (CETA) is better known as the Trojan Horse of ACTA, and the EU is accused of pushing it by the back door. If this controversial deal cracks, it may force the internet service providers to hand over the personal details of anyone suspected of infringing copyright online. The worst thing is that the CETA includes all hotly contested sections of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), and the negotiations are in the final stage between EU and Canada.

“The European Parliament has spoken very loudly. To put back the same provisions in a much larger trade agreement will make it more difficult to reject. If CETA is successful, then one would think that the European Commission would come back and say ‘well, you just passed that, so you cannot object to ACTA’,” said Michael Geist a law professor at the University of Ottawa, who uncovered the documents.

“It is possible that ACTA was used as a template completely innocently when it was widely accepted in political circles. But, the fact its provisions remain even after it has been rejected in Europe suggest it may be a deliberate attempt to push it through. People would say this is very confrontational and a challenge to the European Parliament,” he added.

Just last week, ACTA was rejected by the European Parliament in an all-parliamentary vote, with 478 against, 146 abstentions, and only 39 in favor. As the ACTA acted as a threat to people’s privacy and freedom on the internet, it was rejected by majority. It’s good that it got rejected because even the biggest of Internet Service Providers (ISPs), including Rogers Communications, were worried due to this act. Showing his concern over the ACTA, Mr. Englehart, Senior VP Regulatory for Rogers Communications said,

“We are concerned, as many ISPs are, about the ACTA negotiations. It’s supposed to be about counterfeiting, but it seems to have gone way past counterfeiting to talking about issues of ISPs and the downloading activities of our customers. We don’t think ISPs should be put in the position of being traffic cops to decide what is legal and what is not. We really hate any idea that we would have to terminate our customers’ service on a three-strikes policy. We do not want to do that at all. I have a great deal of sympathy for the copyright holders who feel that their content is being stolen. It’s a big problem. But I don’t want to see this done by putting ISPs in the position of having to disconnect their customers or aid in the conviction of their customers.”

Besides industry professionals, there was a strong reaction from the hactivist groups, including Anonymous, who struck several U.S. government websites to protest the ACTA. This included taking an entire set of government websites offline including parts of the Federal Trade Commission website (business.ftc.gov and consumer.ftc.gov), consumer.gov—a website for information on the National Consumer Protection Week 2012—ncpw.gov, and others.

“Fortunately, while CETA may have provisions similar to ACTA, but they’re still just as poorly mounted as ACTA,” says Kyt Dotson, SiliconANGLE’s HackANGLE editor. “As a result, the same forces that led to the demise of ACTA will probably cause these elements to wither yet again. At some point the world really needs to lay down weed killer to stop these from cropping up.”

The bottom line is that whosoever it is, these anti-piracy acts and laws are a matter of concern for all. It’s because it is not just about the copyrights, but a lot about online privacy and security.