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You’re probably aware of the recent term and hashtag for #ACTA. Here’s a simple summary so you’re more aware of what they are and what impact they have.

ACTA – Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement

What’s it aim to do?
ACTA aims to establish multinational standards on intellectual property rights enforcement.

Why is it a Problem?

• The title suggests it deals with counterfeit goods, but broadly it deals with tools targeting internet distribution and information technology.
• Acta has been negotiated as a trade agreement to give it certain freedoms from democratic scrutiny i.e. it doesn’t get debated as much.
• The controversial (and unusual for a trade agrement) part of the treaty which not only insists on criminal penalties for piracy but also for those accused of "aiding and abetting" copyright infringement.
  • Large fines for companies that that are accused of copyright piracy. i.e. this could mean any website found to be hosting pirated content that has a large audience.
  • Large fines for those companies deemed to be "aiding and abetting" copyright infringement, which could extend to ISPs, but not necessarily to the average individual at home using Bittorrent to download a song.
• The argument for it is that by clamping down on counterfeit goods, generic medicines and internet copyright infringement, it is hoped that these valuable industries will be protected and will allow companies to recoup revenues lost to counterfeiting. i.e. It’s all about the money.
• SOPA and PIPA extend US law to foreign infringing sites, ACTA writes the law internationally, and does not allow democratic governments to tweak their own copyright law.
• The support of major economies (US, Europe, Canada and Japan) will put pressure on developing countries to adopt the treaty. Particular areas of concern include the crack down on generic drugs and making food patents from large Multinational Corporations. i.e. It protects corporations laws internationally and really is all about  the money.

Main Criticisms

• It is undemocratic
• It blurs the lines between piracy and counterfeiting
• It criminalises copyright infringement when there are civil sanctions already
• It creates a barrier to changing national law by democractic governments.

What you can do about it?

1. Raise Awareness by talking about it and getting the word out.
2. You can write to your MP to oppose it. La Quadrature du Net has created a handy guide telling you how best to do this.

The content from the article above has been summarised from Wired (UK)

Tags: ACTA, SOPA, PIPA, Law, EFF, Money, Corporations, Democracy, Summary, Wired, Undemocratic, Counterfeiting, copyright, civil

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Simply put, the traditional model was based on the consumer first experiencing a stimulus in some form (TV Advertising, being given a sample, etc.) which then lead to the first moment of truth at “the shelf” where the consumer would be faced with the decision to buy the product and the second moment of truth at home where they would be actually using and experiencing the product. This model was popularised by P&G back in the day and is one of the cornerstones of how marketers used to deal with consumers.

Traditional Model

In the new era, Google, and others, have added another moment of truth. The “Zero Moment of Truth” (ZMOT) which is the moment where the consumer picks up their smartphone, scans the product, looks for reviews, etc. before making a decision on the product to be bought.

Zero Moment of Truth

The big change from here is this feedback loop which informs all our purchasing decisions, adding the social and community element to the consumption cycle. Further, as you can see from the diagram above, the second moment of truth then lends more to the ZMOT of others by us writing our own reviews, commenting on-line, etc. after having used the product or service.

This philosophy makes sense and in fact it sort of forms a basis of how marketing people are going to need to operate in future. This is a fundamental change in a big consumer-decision-making cornerstone, and following on from there Marketing spend and resource will need to take into account the ZMOT in which consumers will be gathering information and spreading information which will ultimately affect the bottom line.

This philosophy also shows Google’s seriousness about doing business right and taking consumers to heart just as many marketers do with their brands.  One of Google’s tenets “Focus on the user and all else will follow…” seems to low through not just their search business but now through all of their other endeavours as well.

I can see great things coming from Google+ and its introduction of business usage along with its tracking and analytics tools as well as its myriad of content provision tools. It can only get better. The major difference I see between Facebook and Google in terms of this is that Facebook seems to be very self-focused instead of user-focused, that’s why I’ll be putting my money on Google in the next phase.