[cc-community] ACTA: a bad IP governance idea from the USTR

Aaron Shaw adshaw80 at gmail.com
Sat Mar 8 20:32:02 EST 2008


Hi Folks,

I apologize in advance for the slightly off-topic post, but this seems like
an appropriate list to get the word out about another bad idea in
intellectual property regulation coming soon from the G8 country
governments.

I've just spent the last few hours reading and blogging about this
issue<http://fringethoughts.wordpress.com/2008/03/09/act-up-stop-acta-tell-the-us-trade-representative-to-work-within-wipo/>.
Basically, the US Trade Representative's Office is promoting the creation of
a new "Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement" (ACTA). There's a lot of back
story, but the short version is that ACTA looks like yet another outdated
"anti-piracy" agreement. The part that makes it really nasty is that it
comes right on the heels of a major victory for flexible IP at WIPO. Last
September, a coalition of 15 countries' representatives (led by Brazil and
Argentina and known as "the Friends of Development") successfully convinced
the WIPO general assembly to create a permanent committee addressing the
need for IP regimes that meet the needs of low and middle income countries.
Among the items on their agenda, many are likely to result in increased
institutional support for non-proprietary or flexible forms of IP.

The US and the EU accepted the WIPO decision, but within two weeks they
announced plans to form a new trade agreement outside the UN and the WTO.
That proposed agreement is ACTA and it looks like a poorly-disguised attempt
to undermine quasi-democratic global governance.

Luckily, the USTR office is currently requesting public comments on the
proposed agreement - you can read their request
here<http://blogs.officialexportguide.com/news/?p=529>.
While the information they provide is still quite vague, I think this is an
opportune moment to let them know that less democratic IP governance and
harsher enforcement of IP restrictions is not a viable way forward.

Perhaps some of you would like to join me in submitting your own comment?

Alternatively, perhaps someone has more information on this issue or another
idea for what to do about it? If so, please read the blog posts and let me
know where I've gone wrong...

thanks in advance,

Aaron
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