Thread: ACTA

In the recent light of the success and due diligence of the internet over the Corporate influenced draconian anti-piracy bills SOPA and PIPA, much of the internet is in high spirits. However, in the shadows, there has been lurking a plurilateral agreement for the past six years. The focus of the agreement would be to introduce executive powers required to fight against counterfeiting as well as maintain intellectual property rights enforcement standards.

This agreement is the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, or ACTA, for short.

https://www.eff.org/issues/acta

Starting in 2006, Japan and the United States began talks on this bill. By 2008, the participating countries would grow to include Canada, The EU, Switzerland, Australia, Mexico, Morroco, New Zealand, South Korea, and Singapore. In the United States proceedings of these negotiations would be classified as secret on the grounds that information surrounding the bill would pose a threat to 'national security'. And to help with writing the agreement, a consortium of large US-based transnational corporations have formed a committee to formulate the various drafts.

Who are the cleared advisors that have access to secret ACTA documents? | Knowledge Ecology International

On October 1, 2011, The United States, Australia, Canada, Japan, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, and South Korea held a signing ceremony in Tokyo. The European Union, Mexico, and Switzerland did not sign the treaty, but "attended the ceremony and confirmed their continuing strong support for and preparations to sign the Agreement as soon as practicable".

Joint Press Statement of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement Negotiating Parties | Office of the United States Trade Representative

Unfortunately, due to the vast secrecy of the agreement, what little known has only been made knowledge through the various leaks over the years. What we do know is that signatory parties will be forced into implementing three-strikes schemes or internet censorship practices in an effort to enforce copyrights. It would also enable Customs and Border's agents the power to search through electronic devices in search of copyrighted material.

An open letter signed by EDRi, FSF, EFF, and many many other groups, they state that "the current draft of ACTA would profoundly restrict the fundamental rights and freedoms of European citizens, most notably the freedom of expression and communication privacy." In addition, the FSF argues that ACTA will create a culture of surveillance and suspicion and that ACTA will make it harder for users of free operating systems to play non-free media because DRM protected media would not be legally playable with free software.

Aaron Shaw, Research Fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, argues that "ACTA would create unduly harsh legal standards that do not reflect contemporary principles of democratic government, free market exchange, or civil liberties. Even though the precise terms of ACTA remain undecided, the negotiants' preliminary documents reveal many troubling aspects of the proposed agreement" such as removing "legal safeguards that protect Internet Service Providers from liability for the actions of their subscribers" in effect giving ISPs no option but to comply with privacy invasions. Shaw further says that "[ACTA] would also facilitate privacy violations by trademark and copyright holders against private citizens suspected of infringement activities without any sort of legal due process".

Since ACTA is an international treaty, it is an example of policy laundering used to establish and implement legal changes. Policy laundering allows legal provisions to be pushed through via closed negotiations among private members of the executive bodies of the signatories. This method avoids use of public legislation and its judiciary oversight. Once ratified, companies belonging to non-members may be forced to follow the ACTA requirements since they will otherwise fall out of the safe harbor protections. Also, the use of trade incentives and the like to persuade other nations to adopt treaties is a standard approach in international relationships. Additional signatories would have to accept ACTA's terms without much scope for negotiation.

Michael Geist - Government Should Lift Veil on ACTA Secrecy

In the United States, both the Bush and Obama administrations have maintained secrecy over the agreement per their stance that it is a matter of national security. This is despite calls for transparency by numerous NGO's as well as more than 75 professors of law and a letter written by senators Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH). And because of this secrecy, aside from the leaks, we have no idea what is going on. This is especially concerning as transnational corporations are playing a major role in this agreement.

http://keionline.org/sites/default/f...brown_acta.pdf

This is a 2010 draft of the agreement that was leaked

http://www.dfat.gov.au/trade/acta/Fi...gal-Review.pdf

In conclusion, we have no idea what is going on. Only that our freedoms of speech through the vehicle of the internet are being stripped away, but this time, in almost complete secrecy.






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