[Ecommerce] FYI: Techdaily on Buzz about US/Australia FTA

[Manon Ress]

*International Roundup: February 11, 2004*
*The Buzz About U.S.-Australia Trade*
by William New <mailto:wnew@nationaljournal.com>

The technology and copyright communities in the United States and
Australia are buzzing about the trade deal reached between the two
nations over the weekend. The text has not been made public, so some
details are elusive, but tech industry sources are piecing together the
provisions that could benefit their sector.

Governments and industry groups on both sides said 99 percent of
manufactured products would be duty free immediately under the
agreement. But most information technology products already pass between
the two countries duty free under the World Trade Organization's
Information Technology Agreement
<http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/inftec_e/inftec_e.htm> (ITA). It is
unclear what additional products, if any, were included in the bilateral
agreement.

[SNIP]

*Copyright Standards Cause A Stir*
Australia's acceptance of an extension of its term of copyright
protection from 50 to 70 years, in line with U.S. and European Union
terms, is upsetting academics and librarians there.

*Matthew Rimmer*, a legal academic at Australian National University
<http://www.anu.edu.au/>, said the provision was the subject of "intense
lobbying by a group of powerful corporate copyright holders, most
notably Walt Disney," which faced the expiration of its copyright on
*Mickey Mouse*. "I am concerned that the extension of the copyright term
will interfere with the activities of libraries, cultural institutions
and electronic publishers," Rimmer told the U.S. Consumer Project on
Technology <http://www.cptech.org/>.

He also quoted *Colette Ormand* of the Australian Library and
Information Association <http://www.alia.org.au/> as saying the
copyright extension in the United States helped publishing conglomerates
and film and record producers but disadvantaged copyright users. Use of
licensed material became more expensive, and work that was out of
copyright became protected again. Generally, Australians see copyright
protections as favoring the United States and Europe, which control far
more rights.

Rimmer also criticized the agreement because Australia adopted key
features of the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act
<http://www.copyright.gov/legislation/dmca.pdf> -- stronger
technological protection measures and regulations for Internet service
providers -- but did not adopt others. The agreement does not harmonize
the two nations' intellectual property laws, he said.

Australia did not accept the higher standard of content originality or
the open-ended "fair use" defense against infringement in the United
States, he said. "As a result, Australia will arguably have even higher
standards of copyright protection than the United States," Rimmer said.

The deal also requires a dispute-settlement mechanism for trademarks
used in Internet addresses and encourages the development of an online
system for registering and maintaining trademarks, as well as a
searchable database, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative
<http://www.ustr.gov/> (USTR) said.

[SNIP]

--
Manon Anne Ress
Consumer Project on Technology
www.cptech.org
PO Box 19367, Washington, DC 20036
manon.ress@cptech.org, voice: 1.202.387.8030, fax: 1.202.234.5176