[A2k] Wired on Wyden ACTA letter to USTR

[Judit Rius Sanjuan]

Source: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/01/senator-demands-details/

Senator Demands IP Treaty Details
By David Kravets, January 7, 2010

It=92s alarming a U.S. senator must ask a federal agency to share
information regarding a proposed and =93classified=94 international anti-
counterfeiting accord the government has already disclosed to
Hollywood, the recording industry, software makers and even some
digital-rights groups.
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) is demanding U.S. Trade Representative Ron
Kirk to confirm leaks surrounding the unfinished Anti-Counterfeiting
Trade Agreement, which is being negotiated largely between the
European Union and United States. Among other things, Wyden wants to
know whether the deal paves the way for international guidelines
leading to consumers losing internet access if they are believed to be
digital copyright scofflaws.

He also wants to know whether internet service providers could lose so-
called =93safe harbor=94 protection for failing to police their customers=
=92
digital content for copyright infringement violations. Such a move
would heap copyright liability onto the ISP, and fundamentally alter
U.S. copyright law.

What =93legal incentives,=94 Wyden asked Kirk in a Wednesday letter, would
=93encourage Online Service Providers (OSPs) to cooperate with copyright
owners to deter the unauthorized storage or transmission of
copyrighted materials.=94

The questions came weeks after leaked documents from the European
Union suggested the United States was taking those positions in
connection to the accord=92s draft internet section.

Nefeterius Akeli McPherson, a Kirk spokeswoman, said in an e-mail that
the office is =93looking forward to responding=94 to the letter that was
disclosed Thursday by human-rights lobby Knowledge Ecology
International.

Wyden wrote that the =93objectives behind the negotiations still remain
inadequately clear to the American public.=94

The administration has shared the secret treaty=92s internet-section
contents with more than three dozen individuals in the private sector,
from the left and the right of the copyright debate. Those individuals
include Business Software Alliance attorney Emery Simon, Google
copyright czar Bill Patry and president of Public Knowledge Gigi Sohn.
Lawyers for the movie studios and record labels, which stand to gain
the most from the accord, were also given access.

All signed confidentiality agreements with Kirk=92s office.

In response to a Freedom of Information Act claim from Knowledge
Ecology International, Kirk=92s office declined to divulge the accord=92s
working draft =96 maintaining that the negotiating texts were =93properly
classified=94 national security secrets. Kirk said last month that the
international community would walk away from the negotiating table if
the public could see the working drafts.

The ACTA negotiating nations include Australia, Canada, European Union
states, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore,
Switzerland and the United States. They are to meet Jan. 25 in Mexico
City.

The agreement does not require congressional approval.