IP Justice Publications
IP Justice Analysis of 3 EU Proposals (Council, EP, and Commission) on Key Issues
IP Justice Comparison of Key Provisions in EU Proposals to Enact the EU Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive  Article 2 � Scope of Directive Commission[1] European Parliament[2] Council[3] Comments All civil infringements of Intellectual Property (IP) All civil infringements of Intellectual Property (IP) All civil infringements of Intellectual Property (IP) ~ Council position is recommended because it assures that the directive does not apply to criminal infringements. ~ Council position should be narrowed, however, to apply only in civil cases of commercial piracy and commercial counterfeiting.� ~ The directive should not apply in cases involving minor or commonly engaged in activities that technically constitute infringement.� ~ The directive should only apply in cases where there is an intent to infringe for commercial purposes. Criminal � �for commercial purposes or causes significant harm� All criminal infringements * NOT applicable to criminal infringements ~ Under Council position, nations maintain sovereignty to determine criminal laws on their own.� ~ Criminalizing non-commercial infringements would change substantive criminal law in many states. ~ This procedure lacks proper authority to make criminal laws.� ~ Criminal provisions would likely be struck down in a legal challenge brought under the European Court of Justice. ~ Commission�s position would criminalize common everyday non-commercial infringements such as P2P file-sharing.      Article 9 � Right of [...]
IP Justice Santo Domingo Statement: ‘Why the Americas Should Resist Pressure to Adopt the FTAA’s Intellectual Property Rights Chapter’
IP Justice Santo Domingo Statement: Why the Americas Should Resist Pressure to Adopt the FTAA's Intellectual Property Rights Chapter View statement as PDF document with footnotes View statement as Word document with footnote 28 January 2004 IP Justice Santo Domingo Statement: Why the Americas Should Resist Pressure to Adopt the FTAA's Intellectual Property Rights Chapter Despite enormous pressure from the United States on countries to adopt the intellectual property rights chapter in the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) Treaty, nations must reject the chapter's dangerous provisions that threaten traditional civil liberties, endanger public health, undermine democracy and national sovereignty, and place a chokehold on competition and innovation. It makes little sense to extend intellectual property monopolies in the context of a "free trade agreement", which should work toward eliminating trade barriers, not increasing them. The FTAA's IP chapter creates greater barriers to knowledge, information and technology, particularly for developing countries. The FTAA's IP chapter enables the building of a "new colonialism" designed for the information age that will only increase the concentration of wealth in the North at the expense of the economies in the South. The FTAA's intellectual property rights chapter is bloated with new mandates to increase intellectual property holders' rights at the expense of traditional civil liberties such as freedom of expression and [...]
Fourtou Proposes EU Law to Send European P2P File-Sharers to Prison
Fourtou Proposes EU Law to Send European P2P File-Sharers to Prison Urges Controversial Amendment to Intellectual Property Enforcement Directive The battle over the proposed EU IP Enforcement Directive grows more contentious. Due in part to the growing public criticism over the EU Commission's draft, which threatens civil liberties and market competition, 199 amendments have been proposed and its vote pushed back. But one amendment submitted by Conservative French MEP Janelly Fourtou (who also happens to be the wife of Vivendi's CEO) would criminalize non-commercial infringement, such as P2P file-sharing. Fourtou's proposal threatens to send millions of otherwise law-abiding European citizens to prison -- simply for swapping music over the Internet. In addition to the clear conflict of interest, Fourtou's proposal to send non-commercial infringers to prison has been criticized for creating substantive criminal law, when the scope of the enforcement directive is limited to only standardizing existing law enforcement procedures. Most countries in Europe currently do not imprison their non-commercial infringers, so this policy would substantially change those countries' domestic laws. In her Sept. 17 committee report, which proposes the amendment, the only justification given for the sweeping change in European law is "self-explanatory." Specifically, Fourtou proposes to amend Article 20 of the Commission's draft, which provides for criminal procedures and penalties against infringement. Article 20 of the Commission's draft [...]
“FTAA Intellectual Property Rights Chapter Threatens Freedom and Free Trade”
Español October 20, 2003 Media contact: Robin Gross, IP Justice Executive Director +1 415-553-6261 robin@ipjustice.org FTAA Treaty Chapter on IP 'Threatens Freedom and Free Trade' IP Justice White Paper Reveals Treaty Would Send P2P File-Sharers to Prison Sponsors Petition to Delete Intellectual Property Chapter International civil liberties group IP Justice published a report today entitled "FTAA: A Threat to Freedom and Free Trade," that analyzes key sections of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) Treaty. The FTAA Treaty will govern the lives of 800 million Americans in the Western Hemisphere in 2005. Similar to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the FTAA Treaty seeks to bind the 34 democracies in the Western Hemisphere (including the US) to a single trade agreement. It will require all countries to change their domestic laws on a wide range of topics, including intellectual property rights. The draft intellectual property rights chapter in the FTAA Agreement vastly expands criminal procedures and penalties against intellectual property infringements throughout the Americas. One clause would require countries to send non-commercial infringers such as Peer-to-Peer (P2P) file-sharers to prison. It is estimated that 60 million Americans use file-sharing software in the US alone. According to the IP Justice report, "unless the second proposed clause to Article 4.1 is deleted from the FTAA Treaty, Internet music swapping [...]