I was asked to write an article for the Romanian paper Adevărul. This is the original text in English:

ACTA has really passed through all possible stages of institutional awareness. Between 2007 and 2010, the only people who had access and influence over the contents were representatives of the copyright industry. Then, a number of draft leaks made it impossible for the negotiators to blanket deny agents from other industries (like telecoms) and civil society. Now, that the agreement is public, entire governments are protesting the text.

ACTA represents several choices. According to a study conducted on behalf of the European Parliament last year, an approval of the agreement would mean that the member states and the parliament approve of the Commission taking the liberty of going beyond their negotiation mandates. For ACTA pushes the boundaries of present EU customs cooperation and the Commission isn't formally allowed to re-negotiate EU law through international trade. So, the choice is whether or not to condone the Commission circumventing normal legislative procedures.

Second, some of the world's fastest growing economies, India and China, have not been party to the negotiations and they are upset. They are upset with the contents, the scope and that they were denied influence. So it's a choice of whether we will mark ourselves down as a a Union that happily goes behind the back of our most important trading partners or not.

Third, it's a choice of network platform. Currently, we have one internet, a dynamic place of market-based and non-market based cross-border interactions. But self-regulatory measures imposed on platform providers and internet service providers will lead to a harmonisation towards the lowest common denominator of permissible material and geographical splits. First, because anything that is not permitted in one jurisdiction will be removed from the platforms for all jurisdictions with an impact similar to that of the take-down of MegaUpload the other week. Second, because ISPs will start merging their service packages with online distribution platforms essentially making every ISP into a content network detached from other ISPs' content networks. Future innovation or entrepreneurship in online distribution? Virtually impossible.

The above text, especially my third point, is very related to what is currently going on in the Netherlands with internet service provider merges with online distribution platforms. I'm keeping an eye on this also in South Korea and the impact of vertical integration and reduced competition, especially higher market entrance barriers on to online markets, is a question very dear to me and that I care about a lot.