[A2k] WIRED: Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement: Fact or Fiction?

[Manon Ress]

Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement: Fact or Fiction?

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/09/international-i.html

By David Kravets

There's been speculation for months concerning the Anti-Counterfeiting
Trade Agreement. If ratified, many suggest it would criminalize peer-
to-peer file sharing, subject iPods to border searches and allow
internet service providers to monitor their customers' communications.

Yet all we know for certain is it's a treaty (.pdf) about beefing up
intellectual property protections being negotiated in secret by the
European Union, the United Sates, Japan, South Korea, Canada, Mexico,
Australia, Switzerland and New Zealand.

Dozens of special-interests groups on Monday urged the trade
representatives from those nations to disclose the language of the
evolving agreement in a bid to end speculation on its contents and to
assist in crafting its language.

"Because the text of the treaty and relevant discussion documents
remain secret, the public has no way of assessing whether and to what
extent these and related concerns are merited," the groups said in a
letter (.pdf) to trade representatives from the participating nations.

The groups include Consumers Union, Electronic Frontier Foundation,
Essential Action, IP Justice, Knowledge Ecology International, Public
Knowledge, Global Trade Watch, U.S. Public Interest Research Group, IP
Left (Korea), Australian Digital Alliance, The Canadian Library
Association, Consumers Union of Japan, National Consumer Council (UK)
and Doctors without Borders' Campaign for Essential Medicines.

Robert Weissman, director of the public interest group, Essential
Action of Washington, D.C., said, "Intentionally or not, a treaty to
prevent unauthorized copying may easily go too far, and undermine
important consumer interests. That's why it is so important that this
deal be negotiated in the light of day."

The rampant speculation concerning the treaty's contents is based
largely on a leaked document posted on WikiLeaks, and from comments
from copyright and patent holders.

Among other things, according to the comments and leaked document, the
special interest groups speculate the treaty would:

     Require Internet Service Providers to monitor all consumers'
Internet communications, terminate their customers' Internet
connections based on rights holders' repeat allegation of copyright
infringement, and divulge the identity of alleged copyright infringers
possibly without judicial process, threatening Internet users' due
process and privacy rights; and potentially make ISPs liable for their
end users' alleged infringing activity.

     Interfere with fair use of copyrighted materials.

     Criminalize peer-to-peer file sharing.

     Interfere with legitimate parallel trade in goods, including the
resale of brand-name pharmaceutical products.

     Impose liability on manufacturers of active pharmaceutical
ingredients (APIs), if those APIs are used to make counterfeits -- a
liability system that may make API manufacturers reluctant to sell to
legal generic drug makers, and thereby significantly damage the
functioning of the legal generic pharmaceutical industry.

     Improperly criminalize acts not done for commercial purpose and
with no public health consequences; and Improperly divert public
resources into enforcement of private rights.
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Manon Ress
manon.ress@keionline.org,

1621 Connecticut Ave, NW, Washington, DC 20009 USA
Tel.:  +1.202.332.2670, Fax: +1.202.332.2673