What is the Proposed Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA)?
In 2007 a select handful of the wealthiest countries began a treaty-making process to create a new global standard for intellectual property rights enforcement, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). ACTA is spearheaded by the United States, the European Commission, Japan, and Switzerland — those countries with the largest intellectual property industries. Other countries invited to participate in ACTA’s negotiation process are Canada, Australia, Korea, Mexico and New Zealand.Noticeably absent from ACTA’s negotiations are leaders from developing countries who hold national policy priorities that differ from the international intellectual property industry.
After the multi-lateral treaty’s scope and priorities are negotiated by the few countries invited to participate in the early discussions, ACTA’s text will be “locked” and other countries who are later “invited” to sign-on to the pact will not be able to re-negotiate its terms. It is claimed that signing-on to the trade agreement will be "voluntary", but few countries will have the muscle to refuse an “invitation” to join, once the rules have been set by the select few conducting the negotiations.
The US is negotiating ACTA through the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR), an office within the Bush Administration that has concluded more than 10 “free trade” agreements in recent years, all of which require both the US and the other country to increase intellectual property rights enforcement measures beyond the international legal norms in the WTO-TRIPS Agreement.
As of 11 January 2009, no draft text has been published yet to provide the public with substance of the proposed international treaty. A “Discussion Paper on a Possible Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement” was reportedly provided to select lobbyists in the intellectual property industry, but not to public interest organizations concerned with the subject matter of the proposed treaty. ( Wikileaks posted the leaked ACTA discussion paper on 22 May 2008).
6 May, 2009: EFF & PK: Government Still Blocking Information on Secret IP Enforcement Treaty Broken Promises from the Obama Administration Keep Americans in the Dark About ACTA. Public interest groups today called on the US government to stop blocking the release of information about a secret intellectual property trade agreement with broad implications for privacy and innovation around the world. EFF and Public Knowledge said that the April 30th release of 36 pages ...
14 Mar, 2009: Canada Favours Early Release of ACTA Text (Geist) "While the U.S. claims that ACTA documents are a matter of national security and the European Parliament demands greater transparency, it would appear that the Canadian delegation would favour an early release of the draft treaty. According to a confidential November 2008 memorandum that was prepared for Stockwell Day, the Minister of International Trade obtained under the Access to ...
13 Mar, 2009: Who are the cleared advisors that have access to secret ACTA documents? (KEI) "The negotiating text of ACTA and many other documents, including even the lists of participants in the negotiations, are secret. The US White House claims the secrecy is required as a matter of "national security". But that does not mean the documents are off limits to everyone outside of the government. Hundreds of advisors, many of them corporate lobbyists, ...
12 Mar, 2009: European Parliament to EU: Turn over ACTA docs! (Ars Technica) The European Parliament has demanded more transparency in the EU, and it made a point of singling out the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. Parliament has been considering a general transparency bill, but one amendment to the bill demanded access to ACTA documents—access that negotiators have so far been unwilling to provide. "In accordance with Article 255(1) of the ...
12 Mar, 2009: Copyright treaty is classified for ‘national security’ (CNET) "President Obama's White House has tightened the cloak of government secrecy still further, saying in a letter this week that a discussion draft of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement and related materials are "classified in the interest of national security pursuant to Executive Order 12958." The 1995 Executive Order 12958 allows material to be classified only if disclosure would do ...
9 Feb, 2009: ACTA, ISP Liability, Limitations & Exceptions Top Global Copyright Issues in 2009 (IP-Watch) "The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement has sparked an outcry from public interest groups. “The speed with which it has been rushed through - and the secrecy of the meetings and the provisions is alarming,” said IP Justice Executive Director Robin Gross. ACTA will make routine surveillance of laptops, iPods and other devices in the hope of finding questionable music, videos and ...
3 Feb, 2009: Details Emerge of Secret ACTA Negotiation (KEI) "There are plans for the next ACTA negotiation to take place in Rabat, Morocco. However, since none of the Obama trade people have been placed at USTR, this might be delayed. The USTR is still maintaining secrecy over details of the negotiation, including the names of participants and all of the proposed texts for negotiations. Despite this, ...
20 Dec, 2008: No ACTA Deal Yet As EU Parliament Seeks Narrower Scope, More Transparency (IP-Watch) "As negotiations on the proposed Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) continued in Paris this week with again no public details the European Parliament Thursday sent a strong signal by requesting transparency in the negotiations. Parliament meeting in Strasbourg on 18 December passed a resolution on the impact of counterfeiting in international trade “calls on the [European] Commission and the member ...
19 Dec, 2008: Canada’s Official Statement on Dec. 2008 ACTA Negotiations The meeting was opened by French Trade Minister, Mrs. Anne-Marie Idrac, who reaffirmed the strong commitment of the EU in favour of intellectual property rights (IPR), against counterfeiting and piracy, and called for constructive and ambitious negotiations. Participants reaffirmed their commitments to negotiate an agreement to combat global infringements of IPR, particularly in the context of counterfeiting and piracy, ...
