[A2k] FYI: Trade Talks Hone in on Internet Abuse and ISP Liability - PC World

[Manon Ress]

http://www.pcworld.com/article/181312/trade_talks_hone_in_on_internet_abuse_and_isp_liability.html

Trade Talks Hone in on Internet Abuse and ISP Liability

Paul Meller, IDG News Service

ISPs around the world may be forced to snoop on their subscribers and
cut them off if they are found to have shared copyright-protected
music on the Internet, under an international agreement being promoted
by the U.S.

Countries including Japan, Canada, South Korea, Australia as well as
the European Union and U.S. have been negotiating an
anticounterfeiting trade agreement (ACTA) over the past two years to
combat the growing problem of counterfeit products ranging from
designer clothes to downloadable music.

The countries are due to discuss the ACTA at a meeting in South Korea
on Wednesday, focusing specifically on the issue of Internet piracy.
The U.S. has drafted the text of the chapter on the Internet.

In a summary of the U.S.'s position shared orally with trade officials
at the European Commission in September, signatories of the accord
must "provide for third-party liability." The Commission informed all
27 countries in the E.U. of the U.S. position in a memo seen by IDG
News service.

Under existing laws in the U.S., the E.U. and elsewhere, ISPs are
granted immunity from prosecution for illegal activities carried out
by subscribers across their networks. This new global trade agreement
appears to contradict the legal status quo, said Michael Geist, a law
professor at Ottawa University, Canada.

This provision would mean that every country that signs up to ACTA
must allow content owners such as record companies and Hollywood
studios to sue ISPs for failing to stop their subscribers from
illegally sharing copyright-protected material such as music and movies.

U.S. trade officials have been slow to show any of its trading
partners its draft of the Internet chapter ahead of Wednesday's
meeting. "This is an intellectual property agreement yet it is being
treated like nuclear secrets," Geist said.

The Commission memo said the U.S. is secretive about the Internet
chapter because it is "sensitive due to the different points of view
regarding the internet chapter both within the Administration, with
Congress and among stakeholders (content providers on one side,
supporters of internet freedom on the other)."

Geist has been "troubled" about the secretive way the ACTA has been
drafted "from the beginning."

"It is unprecedented for an IP treaty that impacts literally millions
of people to be negotiated in such secrecy," he said, adding that the
U.S. negotiating stance "runs counter to the Obama Administration's
commitment to transparency."

Europe appears willing to back up the U.S.'s plans to make ISPs more
liable for the content on their networks, according to Joe McNamee,
European affairs specialist for Digital Rights Europe, a free speech
and privacy pressure group.

The prevailing E.U. law on the matter of ISP liability is the e-
commerce directive, which grants service providers protection from
prosecution as long as they are just the conduit and not involved with
the sender or receiver of illegal content.

"The Commission appears to be opening up ISPs to third party
liability, even though the European Parliament has expressly said this
mustn't happen," McNamee said, adding that ACTA looks likely to erode
European citizens' civil liberties.

The European Commission wasn't immediately available to comment.

The debate about ISP liability comes at a sensitive time in Europe,
where some member countries are starting to crack down on copyright
infringement on the Internet.

The U.S. wants ACTA to force ISPs to "put in place policies to deter
unauthorized storage and transmission of IP infringing content (for
example clauses in customers' contracts allowing a graduated
response)," according to the Commission memo.

The term "graduated response" is used to describe the recently passed
French law otherwise known as the "three strikes and you are out law."
People found guilty under the code get two warnings and are then
banned from the Internet for up to two years for illegally sharing
music or movies online.

Meanwhile, the name of the agreement is misleading, said Geist. "First
up, none of the best known countries for counterfeiting are parties to
the talks," he said, referring to China and Russia.

"At the moment it's just a coalition of the willing -- other countries
will be pressured to sign up later once the agreement has gained the
respectability of an international treaty," he said.

"Anyway, it's not really about counterfeiting, it's more about
copyright and so should be called a copyright treaty," Geist said.


***************************************************************************
Manon Ress
manon.ress@keionline.org
Knowledge Ecology International
1621 Connecticut Ave, NW, Washington, DC 20009 USA
Tel.:  +1.202.332.2670, Fax: +1.202.332.2673