After two and a half years of calls for
more public
scrutiny, the current draft of the once-secret Anti-counterfeiting trade
agreement (ACTA) agreement has been released to the
public,
as the tech press has
reported.
The name notwithstanding, ACTA has
little to do with
counterfeiting and everything to do with copyright in the digital age.
In a misguided effort to improve global
IP enforcement, ACTA proposes to mandate familiar and occasionally
controversial
parts of U.S. intellectual property law – statutory damages, criminal
liability, anticircumvention (legal protection for “digital rights
management”)
and DMCA-like notice-&-takedown.
What ACTA does not do is mandate the
limitations and
exceptions to copyrights that, according to a 2007
study released by CCIA, are relied upon by industries that add $2.2
trillion in value to the U.S. economy.
As a result, ACTA will make foreign markets more hostile to U.S.
businesses,
rather than more hospitable.
CCIA’s first take on the text is here,
and more
information is available on CCIA’s ACTA
Resource Page. Additional
analysis comes from Canadian law professor Michael Geist on his blog.
