Digital Home Thoughts: Copyright Police May Seize Laptops, MP3 Players

"iPods, iPhones, laptops and other digital devices could be seized by customs officials worldwide under a new top-secret copyright policing deal being worked out between the G8 nations, reports claim. Nations including Canada, the US and various European states (including the UK, which sits on the G8) are secretly agreeing a new pan-global state police deal in which information held on iPods and other devices could be subject to investigation by customs officials tasked with a new role, as copyright police. Dubbed the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), signatory nations will form an international coalition against copyright infringement. The deal’s up for discussion at the next G8 meeting in Tokyo in July, It creates rules and regulations to govern private copying and copyright laws, and posits the founding of an international regulator, “that would turn border guards and other public security personnel into copyright police,” reports Ottawa Citizen, the National Post and other Canadian media outlets."

C'mon, you know you can see it now - this menacing guy who looks like he just walked off the set of Terminator could be greeting you at your friendly neighborhood airports. I understand the point the G8 is trying to make but honestly, how are they going to enforce this. The whole idea behind laptops and portable media players is to make them 'portable'. I guess you didn't know that they were portable but they are leashed within the country where you live. I honestly don't even know what to say here except that I am outraged by how ridiculous international travel has become and this will simply add on to the discomfort.