Don’t Keep the Trans-Pacific Partnership Talks Secret; New York Times, 4/14/15

Margot E. Kaminski, New York Times; Don’t Keep the Trans-Pacific Partnership Talks Secret:

"WHEN WikiLeaks recently released a chapter of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, critics and proponents of the deal resumed wrestling over its complicated contents. But a cover page of the leaked document points to a different problem: It announces that the draft text is classified by the United States government. Even if current negotiations over the trade agreement end with no deal, the draft chapter will still remain classified for four years as national security information. The initial version of an agreement projected by the government to affect millions of Americans will remain a secret until long after meaningful public debate is possible.

National security secrecy may be appropriate to protect us from our enemies; it should not be used to protect our politicians from us. For an administration that paints itself as dedicated to transparency and public input, the insistence on extensive secrecy in trade is disappointing and disingenuous. And the secrecy of trade negotiations does not just hide information from the public. It creates a funnel where powerful interests congregate, absent the checks, balances and necessary hurdles of the democratic process.

Free-trade agreements are not just about imports, tariffs or overseas jobs. Agreements bring complex national regulatory systems together, such as intellectual property law, with implications for free speech, privacy and public health...

Secrecy also delegitimizes trade agreements: The process has been internationally criticized as undemocratic. The European Parliament, for example, rejected the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement in large part over legitimacy concerns."

Is Europe Serious About Reforming Copyright, or Just Greasing the Squeaky Wheel?; Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), 7/3/14

Jeremy Malcolm, Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF); Is Europe Serious About Reforming Copyright, or Just Greasing the Squeaky Wheel? :

"Coordinated enforcement of intellectual property (IP) rights—copyright, patents and trade marks—has been an elusive goal for Europe. Back in 2005, the European Commission struggled to introduce a directive known as IPRED2 that would criminalize commercial-scale IP infringements, but abandoned the attempt in 2010 due to jurisdictional problems. IP maximalists took another run at it through ACTA, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, but that misguided treaty was roundly defeated in 2012 when the European Parliament rejected it, 478 votes to 39...

Although no response to that consultation has yet been officially released, we can get an inkling of how the Commission might view these proposals for reform from the recently leaked draft of a whitepaper that examines areas of EU copyright policy for possible review...

Similar reticence towards copyright law reform was demonstrated by the Commission this week at WIPO where its representative made a very clear statement that it was not willing to consider work leading to international instrument for limitations and exceptions for libraries and archives; doubling down on a position it adopted at the previous meeting of the same WIPO committee.

This does not paint a positive picture of the future of copyright in Europe."

European Parliament Rejects Anti-Piracy Treaty; New York Times, 7/4/12

Eric Pfanner, New York Times; European Parliament Rejects Anti-Piracy Treaty:

"European legislators on Wednesday rejected an international treaty to crack down on digital piracy, a vote that Internet freedom groups hailed as a victory for democracy but that media companies lamented as a setback for the creative industries.

Foes of the treaty said the vote, by an overwhelming margin in the European Parliament at Strasbourg, would probably end the prospects of European involvement in the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, or ACTA, which has been signed by the United States, Japan, Canada, Australia, South Korea and a number of individual E.U. members."

[Podcast] Backroom Dealing on ACTA; NPR's On the Media, 11/12/10

[Podcast] NPR's On the Media; Backroom Dealing on ACTA:

"For several years, dozens of countries – including the U.S. and members of the European Union – have been negotiating what’s called the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. It’s a kind of treaty involving copyright and intellectual property rights, matters of great public concern – only it’s been hammered out largely behind closed doors and subject to virtually no public input. Earlier this year an official draft of the treaty was finally released, allowing legal scholars to see what our trade reps have been up to. And many are not happy. Harvard Law School’s Jonathan Zittrain explains."

http://www.onthemedia.org/transcripts/2010/11/12/03

ACTA Negotiators Still Aiming At Agreement By Year’s End; Intellectual Property Watch, 9/25/10

Kaitlin Mara, Intellectual Property Watch; ACTA Negotiators Still Aiming At Agreement By Year’s End:

"Countries negotiating a semi-secret trade agreement against piracy and counterfeiting this week in Tokyo are still aiming to reach agreement by the end of this year, a negotiator told Intellectual Property Watch today. The negotiator also did not reject outright the notion that patents might still be included in the draft treaty text, instead saying it is still a matter for discussion.

Negotiators for the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) are meeting from 23 September to 1 October in Tokyo for what some have said could be the final round of the negotiation."

http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/2010/09/25/acta-negotiators-still-aiming-at-completion-by-year%e2%80%99s-end/

ABA Journal Highlights How The Music Industry Is Thriving And How Copyright Might Not Be That Important; TechDirt, 5/28/10

Mike Masnick, TechDirt; ABA Journal Highlights How The Music Industry Is Thriving And How Copyright Might Not Be That Important:

"Michael Scott points us to one of the best summaries I've seen of the state of the music business today -- published in the ABA Journal. It's an incredibly balanced piece, that really does carefully present both sides of the story on a variety of issues, and presents actual evidence, which suggests the RIAA is blowing smoke on a lot of its claims. The piece kicks off by highlighting that the music industry appears to be thriving, and then noting that it's not the same as the recording industry, which has been struggling.

Much of the piece does present the RIAA's viewpoint on things, such as the idea that the legal strategy the labels have taken has been a "success." However, it follows it up by questioning what kind of success it has been when more people are file sharing and more services are available for those who want to file share. From there it segues into a discussion on "three strikes" and ACTA, which includes the jaw-dropping claim from an RIAA general counsel that "three strikes" was "never even put on the table."

I've heard from numerous ISP folks who say that's not true at all. However, the article does a good job (gently) ripping apart the RIAA's claims, with evidence to the contrary, and does a beautiful job digging deep into ACTA to show how the text might not explicitly require three strikes, but is worded in such a way as to make it hard to qualify for safe harbors without implementing three strikes.

The latter part of the article then focuses on how the music industry really is booming, and how more people are making music, and there are lots of opportunities for musicians to do well these days, even without relying on copyright law. The arguments made (and the people and studies quoted) won't be new to regular Techdirt readers, but it really is a very strong piece, targeted at lawyers (many of whom may not have realized some of these details). For example:

If the ultimate goal is to promote the creation of new works, then perhaps it isn't really necessary to take stronger legal actions against illegal file-sharing because the evidence does not suggest that it is hindering the creation of new works by musicians I certainly don't agree with everything in the article, and there are a few statements from the RIAA folks that could have been challenged more directly. But, on the whole, it's definitely one of the better articles I've seen looking at the music industry from the perspective of the legal profession that doesn't automatically drop into the "but we must protect copyrights!" argument from the outset."

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100527/0347199599.shtml

Axis of P2P Evil? Congress, RIAA call out six worst websites in the world; Ars Technica, 5/19/10

Nate Anderson, Ars Technica; Axis of P2P Evil? Congress, RIAA call out six worst websites in the world:

"This morning, the Congressional International Anti-Piracy Caucus held a press conference along with RIAA CEO Mitch Bainwol to call out the six worst websites in the world. Think of them as an "Axis of P2P Evil."

Who made the cut? The Pirate Bay, naturally. Canada's IsoHunt was no surprise. One-click download service RapidShare was less expected, as a German court ruled only two weeks ago that the site was not responsible for infringement by its users and that it had no duty to preemptively censor uploaded content.

More surprising were the last three sites: Ukraine's MP3fiesta, which operates like the now-shuttered allofmp3.com; Luxembourg's RMX4U.com, which bills itself as "the biggest community for black music in world!"; and Baidu, the Chinese search engine so popular, Google couldn't even make a dent in its ratings.

The IAPC is a bipartisan group of 11 senators and a huge number of representatives, and they are concerned that America's copyright industries are suffering at the hands of "lax or nonexistent enforcement by many foreign governments." That's why, they wrote in a recent letter (PDF), the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) is so important.

But look at that list of websites and services for a moment. What's missing? Grokster, Demonoid, Oink, Allofmp3, LimeWire, Napster, Newzbin, Mininova...

That's because the copyright industries have in fact been remarkably successful in court within the existing legal frameworks of both the US and foreign countries over the last few years.

Newzbin announced its own closure this week after a long legal fight, while LimeWire lost in a US federal court last week. Even the Pirate Bay's ISP had to stop hosting the site this week, and a Swedish court has already ruled against The Pirate Bay's administrators.

Hold your children close

Still, even with such tremendous victories behind it, the RIAA can't resist a spot of over-the-top rhetoric.

"The global challenge in the years to come will be to win the battle for a civilized Internet that respects property, privacy and security," said Bainwol. "An Internet of chaos may meet a utopian vision but surely undermines the societal values of safe and secure families and job and revenue-creating commerce. Shining the spotlight on these websites sends a vital message to users, advertisers, payment processors and governments around the world."

Yes, that's right: a Ukrainian website called "mp3fiesta" is threatening the safety and security of your family. And a good chunk of Congress wants to do something about it."

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/05/axis-of-p2p-evil-congress-riaa-call-out-six-worst-websites-in-the-world.ars

Copyright Law Could Get Ugly If ACTA Is Adopted as Is; IT Business Edge, 5/17/10

Lori Bentley, IT Business Edge; Copyright Law Could Get Ugly If ACTA Is Adopted as Is: Lora Bentley spoke to Jim Burger, an intellectual property attorney in the Washington, D.C., offices of Dow Lohnes, about the proposed Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement and the impact it would have on the tech industry:

"Bentley: I've read that Internet service providers are concerned about the ACTA treaty, but I'm unclear what in particular they don't like about it. Is it the secondary liability provision?

Burger: Device manufacturers are more concerned about secondary liability than ISPs. The ISPs are primarily concerned about secondary liability where the search engines are concerned. The ISPs are primarily concerned about the safe harbor issue - the section 512 issue.

Generally in their space, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which was a very carefully negotiated piece of legislation, gives them a safe harbor for users posting [copyrighted] material on their websites. So their concern, on a macro level, is that the DMCA was a very hard-fought battle. Almost every word mattered. In the ACTA treaty, they have a Reader's Digest version of [the safe harbor provision]. It gives them great concern because liability is huge.

Couple that with a provision in the enforcement section that says, essentially, countries will have predetermined damages. In the United States, it's potentially $150,000 maximum per infringing title, which is significant. For example, in the Viacom YouTube case, Viacom is alleging 100,000 titles. Multiply 100,000 by $150,000 and that's real money even for Google. So that's the problem the ISPs have in a nutshell."

http://www.itbusinessedge.com/cm/community/features/interviews/blog/copyright-law-could-get-ugly-if-acta-is-adopted-as-is/?cs=41213

ICC IP Guidelines Issued At Anti-Piracy Gala; Intellectual Property Watch, 12/1/09

Intellectual Property Watch; ICC IP Guidelines Issued At Anti-Piracy Gala:

"The International Chamber of Commerce released its “Intellectual Property Guidelines for Business” in Spanish and Portuguese during a special session at the 1-3 December Fifth Global Congress on Combating Counterfeiting and Piracy in Cancun, Mexico. The IP guidelines “provide information to businesses on practical steps they can take to protect their own innovation and creativity in IP-based products and services, as well as to protect against the risk of using counterfeit materials or infringing the IP rights of other companies,” ICC said in a press release. The guidelines cover “internal IP use, supply chain practices, relations with intermediaries, and the handling of third-party IP. They deal with IP management in all its forms within companies, from IP development to component sourcing, manufacturing, wholesaling, retailing and internal corporate use,” it said.

In recent years, there has been pushback by IP users, the technology industry and others against overly strong IP rights protection, arguing among other things that it hurts innovation and economic growth, but efforts continue to address piracy and counterfeiting. The next negotiation of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement is expected to be in Mexico in January. The anti-counterfeiting congress is cosponsored by the World Intellectual Property Organization, World Customs Organization, and Interpol. Yo Takagi, WIPO assistant director general told the meeting, “WIPO has adopted an inclusive, development-oriented approach to the shared endeavor of building respect for intellectual property which will enable the international community to better calibrate their collaborative efforts,” according to a WIPO press release."

http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/2009/12/01/icc-ip-guidelines-issued-at-anti-piracy-gala/

Current ACTA drafts ban DRM interoperability laws; Ars Technica, 11/30/09

Nate Anderson, Ars Technica; Current ACTA drafts ban DRM interoperability laws:

1,700 European ISPs and the Swedish Communications Minister both worry about the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, but only one gets to tell the US government all about it this week in Washington. Leaked EU documents this week also reveal that the current ACTA draft could ban DRM interoperability laws.

"It's not just bloggers who are upset about both the content and secrecy surrounding the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA); the Swedish government is displeased, the European Union has concerns, and 1,700 European ISPs have now expressed their opposition to the process. While the worst fears of the ACTA worriers have yet to be realized, there's still plenty of opposition to a secretive treaty that attempts to push the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) on the rest of the world.

The US drafted the section of ACTA dealing with Internet copyright infringement and recently unveiled it to negotiating partners at a meeting in Seoul, South Korea. The draft does not mandate "three strikes" Internet disconnection laws, nor does it propose to strip ISPs of their "intermediary" immunity from prosecution. But it does push the DMCA's anti-circumvention rules and "notice-and-takedown" provisions on the rest of the world, even going so far as to stop countries from making DRM interoperability laws (requiring Apple to open its Fairplay DRM, for instance, so that content from iTunes could be used on other devices."

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/11/current-acta-drafts-bans-drm-interoperability-laws.ars

What is Acta and what should I know about it?; Guardian, 11/11/09

Bobbie Johnson, Guardian; What is Acta and what should I know about it?:

""Unlike other high-powered government meetings – which are often accompanied by protests and brouhaha – Acta, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, has been progressing for two years without much fanfare.

Supporters say the treaty will help create a broad consensus on how to deal with counterfeit goods: the kind of legislation usually aimed at criminals who mass-manufacture and sell pirate DVDs, or flood the market with dangerous fake products such as batteries and electrical equipment. In truth, the treaty also contains suggestions for the control of internet content that some believe could radically alter the nature of copyright law worldwide.

According to information that leaked from a secret meeting in South Korea last week, officials are proposing new ways to deal with intellectual property infringement online, including a global three-strikes law that could effectively override any British laws, regardless of whether or not the controversial Mandelson plan goes through parliament...

On top of all this, say campaigners, Acta is being thrashed out in total secrecy – leaving everyone guessing at what laws might be on the way. Professor Michael Geist, a prominent legal expert at the University of Ottowa, says this cloak-and-dagger approach is part of a wider set of problems with the treaty.

"A copyright agreement is being treated akin to nuclear secrets, with virtually no transparency but for a few leaks that have emerged," he told CBC. "As a policy-making matter, it's enormously problematic – but then the provisions associated with the treaty are even more problematic."...

The US government appears to be pushing for three strikes – despite the fact that it has been categorically rejected by the European parliament," said Gwen Hinze of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, adding that the leaks "confirmed everything that we feared"."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/nov/11/acta-trade-agreement

Perpetual Protection Of Traditional Knowledge “Not On Table” At WIPO; Intellectual Property Watch, 10/22/09

Kaitlin Mara, Intellectual Property Watch; Perpetual Protection Of Traditional Knowledge “Not On Table” At WIPO:

"The director general also weighed in on issues of copyright.

On the secretive Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, Gurry said that WIPO too did not know a great deal about the talks.

“Naturally we prefer open, transparent international processes to arrive at conclusions that are of concern to the whole world,” he said, citing WIPO’s role as an international, United Nations agency. And, he added, “IP is of concern to the whole world.”

On copyright protection in the internet age, the “problem we have is massive,” he said, citing the example of the newspaper industry and the music industry, both suffering as new technology necessitates changes in old business models."

http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/2009/10/22/perpetual-protection-of-traditional-knowledge-%e2%80%9cnot-on-table%e2%80%9d-at-wipo/

ACTA Text Revealed To 42 Select Insiders; Intellectual Property Watch, 10/15/09

Intellectual Property Watch; ACTA Text Revealed To 42 Select Insiders:

"In the weeks leading up to the next negotiating session (first week of November in Seoul) of the secretive Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, 42 Washington, DC-area insiders, mostly from industry, were invited by the United States Trade Representatives to see copies of its text on the internet, according to a new report.

In response to a Freedom of Information Act request to the USTR, think-tank Knowledge Ecology International received copies [pdf] of the non-disclosure agreements the insiders signed prior to viewing the ACTA text.

The list included several members of software industry group the Business Software Alliance, online auction site eBay, internet media giant Google, conservative media conglomerate News Corporation, and nongovernmental group Public Knowledge, among others.

A full list of names of those who saw the draft, and their affiliations, is available on the KEI website here."

http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/2009/10/15/acta-text-revealed-to-42-select-insiders/

‘Drop Internet Issues From ACTA, Add Public Interest’; Intellectual Property Watch, 7/17/09

Intellectual Property Watch; ‘Drop Internet Issues From ACTA, Add Public Interest’:

"Nine organisations representing the technology industry, libraries, digital rights and privacy interests have sent a letter to United States Trade Representative Ron Kirk urging that issues related to the internet be dropped from negotiations for an Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). They also demanded that in the secretive ACTA negotiation, negotiating documents be made available to those representing the public interest, and that advisory committees be created to include civil society and internet-related industry interests.

The demands are based on information that rights holders alone have had access to the negotiating texts, and the fact that leaked versions of the draft treaty text showed ACTA “could harm a significant portion of the economy as well as consumer interests.” USTR officials, who have claimed the talks are transparent, are at an undisclosed location in Morocco on 16-17 July for the latest round of closed-door negotiations of the plurilateral treaty.

The 14 July letter is available here [pdf]."

http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/2009/07/17/%e2%80%98drop-internet-issues-from-acta-add-public-interest%e2%80%99/

Share a File, Lose Your Laptop?; PC World, 5/14/09

Bill Snyder via PC World; Share a File, Lose Your Laptop?:

"Called the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), the new plan would see the United States, Canada, members of the European Union, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, and Switzerland form an international coalition against copyright infringement. What's making groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation especially nervous is the veil of secrecy around the negotiations. In fact, it took some well-placed leaks and a Freedom of Information Act request to find out the most basic details of the plan."

http://www.pcworld.com/article/164889/share_a_file_lose_your_laptop.html

Obama Administration Claims Copyright Treaty Involves State Secrets?!?, TechDirt, 3/13/09

Via TechDirt: Obama Administration Claims Copyright Treaty Involves State Secrets?!?:

"Plenty of folks are quite concerned about the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) negotiations are being negotiated in secret. This is a treaty that (from the documents that have leaked so far) is quite troubling. It likely will effectively require various countries, including the US, to update copyright laws in a draconian manner. Furthermore, the negotiators have met with entertainment industry representatives multiple times, and there are indications that those representatives have contributed language and ideas to the treaty. But, the public? The folks actually impacted by all of this? We've been kept in the dark, despite repeated requests for more information. So far, the response from the government had been "sorry, we always negotiate these things in secret, so we'll keep doing so...

Can the US Trade Representative please describe the damage to national security if the public gets to see what's being proposed that would require governments around the country to enact significantly more draconian intellectual property laws?"

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090313/1456154113.shtml

American Citizen Detained At Border Due To Drawing Of An SUV - Techdirt, 10/9/08

American Citizen Detained At Border Due To Drawing Of An SUV:

"If you want to understand why we're so troubled by the ACTA treaty that many nations are working on in secret, we just need to look at a story highlighted recently at Boing Boing about an American woman who was detained for a while at the US-Canadian border because she had a drawing of an SUV. The customs officials accused her of being an industrial spy and copyright infringer. In actuality, she's a professor and artist, who was doing an art project involving an SUV."
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20081008/1618002497.shtml

Even Senators Who Want Stronger Copyright Laws Are Worried About ACTA - Techdirt, 10/3/08

Even Senators Who Want Stronger Copyright Laws Are Worried About ACTA:
from the as-they-should-be dept:
"We've been wondering for a while now about why the ACTA treaty is being negotiated in such secrecy -- since the treaty will almost certainly greatly expand copyright laws around the world, without any real judicial approval. So it's good to see our concerns are echoed even by politicians who have long supported Hollywood's efforts to strengthen copyright law."
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20081003/0029142439.shtml

Key senators oppose DRM, ISP filtering in secret ACTA treaty - ars technica, 10/3/08

Key senators oppose DRM, ISP filtering in secret ACTA treaty:
"Most of the concerns are about the limits ACTA could put on "Congress's ability to make constructive policy changes in the future." But the concerns are compounded by "the lack of transparency inherent in trade negotiations" and the "speed with which the process is moving.""
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081003-key-senators-oppose-drm-isp-filtering-in-secret-acta-treaty.html

Secret ACTA treaty emerges blinking into the sunlight - ars technica, 9/24/08

Secret ACTA treaty emerges blinking into the sunlight:
"The much-maligned, drafted-in-secret, Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, is an odd beast. It's being drafted by a group that includes the US, the EU, and Japan... but also Canada, Mexico, and Korea, which are on US Trade Representative's "special 301" watch list for intellectual property problems."
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080924-secret-acta-treaty-emerges-blinking-into-the-sunlight.html