ACTA so transparent, the text still has to be leaked

By Nate Anderson | July 14, 2010 | Ars Technica

At this point, one gets the sense that Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) negotiators are just yanking our collective chains with their talk of "transparency." After releasing a single version of the ACTA draft text back in April, the negotiations descended into their customary and unnecessary secrecy once more. After the most recent round of negotiations in Lucerne, the governments involved didn't even bother to release the new text. And when the European Commission briefed European members of parliament, the meeting was secret—so Pirate MEP Christian Engström left.

It's hard to say why the negotiators still insist on such secrecy, especially when draft texts of the treaty keep leaking anyway. Another one appeared today (PDF), courtesy of someone in the European Parliament, and it incorporates all the most recent changes from the Lucerne round.

At least ACTA's negotiators have opened up a bit when it comes to even discussing the treaty. US negotiator Stan McCoy spoke about ACTA this week in DC, while EU Commissioner for Trade Karel De Gucht held a public briefing yesterday at the European Parliament. And ACTA negotiators did take some questions from critics at Lucerne.

So—progress, of a sort, but it wasn't enough to win over 90 academics and advocates who gathered in Lucerne to discuss the ACTA. In late June, this group issued a statement that said, "We find that the terms of the publicly released draft of ACTA threaten numerous public interests, including every concern specifically disclaimed by negotiators."

It continued, "Recognizing that the terms of the agreement are under further closed-door negotiation over a text we do not have access to, a fair reading of the April 2010 draft leads to our conclusion that ACTA is hostile to the public interest in at least seven critical areas of global public policy: fundamental rights and freedoms; internet governance; access to medicines; scope and nature of intellectual property law; international trade; international law and institutions; and democratic process."

Despite the secrecy, the leaks and the public scrutiny have already resulted in positive changes; the suggestion that ISPs adopt a "three strikes and you're out" approach to copyright infringement allegations appears to be gone for good, for instance.

Negotiations resume soon in Washington, DC, where the EU plans to draw a line in the sand over the inclusion of its geographic marks (like "Parmiggiano-Reggiano" and "Champagne"). Without US recognition of these marks, De Gucht said that the EU gains little from ACTA.

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(with thanks to James...--jef)

Cory Doctorow at 10:51 PM Wednesday, Jul 14, 2010

With the latest round of secret negotiations over ACTA, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, concluded last week in Switzerland, it was only a matter of time until the full text of the treaty's current draft leaked into the public domain, which it has duly done.

ACTA is an extreme copyright treaty that threatens to establish a world of border iPod and laptop searches for infringing music and movies; jail sentences for downloading; universal network surveillance; and whole-house Internet disconnection orders served on ISPs against customers who are accused (without proof) of violating copyright law.

It has been negotiated in secret over protests from MPs, Congressmen, MEPs, public interest groups, technology industry associations, archivists, educators, groups representing people with disabilities, poor countries, and anyone who isn't an utter corporate lickspittle.

But it continues to function in secret, and it continues to leak. The current leak shows the negotiating position of all the participating countries. The US does not cover itself in glory here -- but then, it was Obama's White House that intervened to keep the treaty secret, citing "National Security."

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New ACTA leak: It's a screwjob for the world's poor countries
Cory Doctorow

The secret Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement has leaked again. Michael Geist has analysis below:

New ACTA leaks have emerged this week that fill in the blanks about the remainder of the still-secret treaty. While earlier leaks provided extensive detail on the Internet and civil enforcement chapters, these latest leaks shed new light into the criminal enforcement section, the chapter on ACTA institutional issues, and international cooperation.

The international cooperation chapter includes extensive provisions on capacity building and technical assistance. This is noteworthy since it (1) confirms the vision that developing countries will ultimately be pressured to join ACTA and (2) represents a counter to the developing country focus at WIPO. While WIPO has typically provided this assistance, the emergence of the development agenda has promoted a more balanced approach to technical assistance in developing countries. ACTA seeks to return technical assistance to an enforcement oriented approach.

Translation for non-wonks: Historically, developing countries have asked the UN's World Intellectual Property Organization for "technical assistance" with their copyright laws. This has usually amounted to "Create copyright laws that will make it easier for rich countries to get richer," but in the past several of years, WIPO has found itself with a large cadre of public interest activists and now, WIPO is working on a treaty on its "Development Agenda" to figure out a copyright system that serves humanitarian goals, too (for example, by making it legal for archivists and educators to work together to translated and adapt works that have different copyright rules in different countries).

We've all known that ACTA is a way of writing copyright treaties without having to let poor countries and human rights advocates into the room. We've suspected that poor countries -- who aren't invited to the negotiations -- will be strong-armed into signing onto the treate afterwards.

This leak confirms our worst fears: ACTA throws out the pretence of justice, fairness, and humanitarianism present at the UN, for pure, naked, crony-capitalism. It's an instrument for allowing entrenched corporations from rich countries change the laws of other countries to their benefit -- and to the detriment of the people of those countries.

It's a hijacking of the world's legislative systems by private interests, abetted by the US Trade Rep.