[A2k] Senators Sanders and Brown ask White House to make ACTA text public

[James Love]

http://keionline.org/node/698

Senators Sanders and Brown ask White House to make ACTA text public
23 November 2009

Senators Bernie Sanders (I-VI) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) have written to
USTR, asking that the ACTA text be made public. The strongly worded
letter was sent to Ambassador Ron Kirk, the United States Trade
Representative, an office of the White House.

The letter states:

   "ACTA involves dozens if not hundreds of substantive aspects of
intellectual property law and its enforcement, including those that have
nothing to do with counterfeiting. . . . There are concerns about the
impact of ACTA on the privacy and civil rights of individuals, on the
supply of products under the first sale doctrine, on the markets for
legitimate generic medicines, and on consumers and innovation in
general."

The letter says "the public has a right to monitor and express informed
views on proposals of such magnitude."

Senators Sanders and Brown say the ACTA negotiations have not been
conducted in a manner consistent with the President's January 21, 2009
Memorandum on Transparency and Open Government. Noting in closing:

   "We are surprised and unpersuaded by assertions that disclosures of
basic information about the negotiation would present a risk to the
national security of the United States, particularly as regards
documents that are shared with all countries in the negotiations, and
with dozens of representatives of large corporations. We are concerned
that the secrecy of such information reflects a desire to avoid
potential criticism of substantive provisions in ACTA by the public, the
group who will be most affected by the agreement. Such secrecy has
already undermined public confidence in the ACTA process, a point made
recently by Dan Glickman, the CEO of the Motion Picture Association of
America (MPAA) - a group highly supportive of the ACTA negotiation, as
well as by the members of the TransAtlantic Consumer Dialogue -- a group
more critical of the negotiations."

   "We firmly believe that the public has a right to know the contents
of the proposals being considered under ACTA, just as they have the
right to read the text of bills pending before Congress."

http://keionline.org/sites/default/files/sanders_brown_acta.pdf

--
James Love, Director, Knowledge Ecology International
http://www.keionline.org | mailto:james.love at keionline.org
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