cc-cl AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Lista de Correos Creative Commons Chile
List archive
- From: Alberto Cerda <alberto AT derechosdigitales.org>
- To: Lista de Correos Creative Commons Chile <cc-cl AT lists.ibiblio.org>
- Subject: [Cc-cl] URGENT: ACTA Communique Sign On Process
- Date: Mon, 21 Jun 2010 08:23:18 -0400
Estimados,
En vista de los serios cuestionamientos al tratado, así como del hecho de que próximamente hay nuevas negociaciones sobre el texto del mismo, quienes acudieron a la mencionada conferencia elaboraron una declaración, la que está abierta a su suscripción.
La declaración será difundida próximamente, a unos dias de la próxima ronda de negociación del tratado.
Aquellos de ustedes que deseen adherir a la declaración, aquí disponende la información.
Un cordial saludo,
A.
From: Sean Flynn <sflynn AT wcl.american.edu>
Date: 2010/6/19
Subject: URGENT: ACTA Communique Sign On Process
To: IP-ENFORCEMENT AT roster.wcl.american.edu
After further internal deliberation, we have decided to establish an individual sign on process both to avoid representing the views of those who do not wish to be identified and to open the endorsement process to individuals and organizations not at the meeting but who support the findings and conclusions adopted. Please help us maximize the sign ons to this important document.
The latest version of the draft communiqué is now posted to a public blog post at:
http://wcl.american.edu/pijip/go/acta-communique
Please share the draft with others, circulate on your blogs, etc.
The sign on process is as follows:
THIS DRAFT STATEMENT IS NOW OPEN FOR INDIVIDUAL AND ORGANIZATIONAL ENDORSEMENTS AS WELL AS EDITING COMMENTS.
• Please send signatures to: acta.declaration AT gmail.com
• Please enter edits into the draft (http://sites.google.com/site/ipenforcement2/draft-declaration) or send edits to: pijip AT wcl.american.edu
EDITING SUGGESTIONS
WILL BE ACCEPTED UNTIL NOON MONDAY JUNE 21. THE FINAL TEXT WITH EDITS INCLUDED WILL BE RELEASED BY 5PM MONDAY JUNE 21.
THE FINAL STATEMENT WILL BE RELEASED TO THE PUBLIC WITH ENDORSEMENTS ON WEDNESDAY JUNE 23 AT 10AM. ENDORSEMENTS WILL BE ACCEPTED UNTIL JUNE 23 AT 9AM.
ENDORSEMENTS:
WE WILL ACCEPT PROVISIONAL ENDORSEMENTS NOW. ENDORSERS WILL BE GIVEN THE OPTION TO OPT-OUT WHEN THE FINAL TEXT IS CIRCULATED BY 5PM MONDAY JUNE 21.
FOR INDIVIDUAL ENDORSEMENTS, SEND YOUR NAME, TITLE AND ORGANIZATION AND PLACE (CITY, COUNTRY) OF OCCUPATION
FOR ORGANIZATIONAL ENDORSEMENTS, ENTER THE NAME OF THE ORGANIZATION AND PLACE(S) (CITY(IES), COUNTRY(IES)) IN WHICH THE ORGANIZATION HAS OFFICES.
INDIVIDUALS WITHIN SIGNATORY ORGANIZATIONS MAY ENDORSE AS INDIVIDUALS AS WELL AS BEING PART OF THE ORGANIZATIONAL ENDORSEMENT.
PLEASE CIRCULATE WIDELY.
DRAFT Urgent Communique: Consultation of International Experts on ACTA and the Public Interest
Release Date: June 23, 2010
American University Washington College of Law
Washington, D.C.
http://wcl.american.edu/pijip/go/acta-communique
International Experts Find that Pending Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement Threatens Public Interests
This DRAFT statement reflects the conclusions reached at a meeting of over 90 academics, practitioners and public interest organizations from five continents gathered at American University Washington College of Law, June 16-18, 2010. In the days following the meeting, the statement received the individual and organizational endorsements listed below, and is still open for further endorsements at www.pijip.org
The meeting, convened by American University's Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property, was called to analyze the official text of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), released for the first time in April, 2010, after years of secretive negotiations. The text was released in the context of public criticism of the process and presumed substance of the negotiations (see Wellington Declaration, EU Resolution on Transparency and State of Play of the ACTA Negotiations). Negotiators claim that ACTA will not harm significant public interests.
We find that the terms of the agreement threaten numerous public interests, including nearly every concern specifically disclaimed by the negotiators in their announcement.
The proposed agreement is a deeply flawed product of a
deeply flawed process.
What started as a proposal to coordinate customs enforcement offices has
morphed into a massive new international intellectual property (IP) and
internet regulation with grave consequences for the global economy and
governments' ability to promote and protect public interests.
Any agreement of this scope and consequence must be based on a broad and
consultative process and reflect a full range of public interest concerns. As
detailed below, this text fails to meet these standards.
Recognizing that the terms of the agreement are under negotiation, a fair
reading of the proposed text as a whole leads to our conclusions that ACTA:
THE INTERNET
-Encourages internet service providers to police users of the internet without
adequate court oversight or due process;
-Globalizes 'anti-circumvention' provisions which threaten innovation,
competition, open source business models, interoperability, copyright
exceptions, and user choice;
FREE TRADE AND ACCESS TO MEDICINES
-Disrupts the free trade in legitimate generic medicines and other goods, and
sacrifices the foundational principle that IP rights are territorial, by
requiring customs authorities to seize goods in transit countries even when
they do not violate any law of the producing and importing countries;
-Does little or nothing to address the problem of medicines with insufficient
or wrong ingredients as the majority of these are not IP but regulatory system
problems.
-Extends the powers of custom officials to search and seize a wide range of goods, including computers and other electronic devices, without adequate safeguards against unwarranted confiscations and privacy invasions;
-Extends 'ex officio' border search and seizures from willful, commercial scale trademark counterfeiting to a broad range of intellectual property infringements, including “confusingly similar” trademark violations, copyright infringement standards that require interpretation of "fair use" or similar user rights, and even to patent cases which frequently involve complex questions of law and fact that are difficult to adjudicate even by specialist courts after full adjudicative processes;
FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS
-Will curtail full enjoyment of fundamental rights and liberties, including
rights to privacy and the protection of personal data, health, access to
information, free _expression_, due process and presumptions of innocence,
cultural participation, and other internationally protected human rights;
SCOPE AND NATURE OF IP LAW
Distorts the balance fundamental to IP law between the rights and interests of
proprietors and users, including by
- introducing very specific rights and remedies for rights holders without correlative requirements to provide exceptions, limitations, and due process safeguards for users;
- shifting enforcement from private civil mechanisms to public authorities and third parties, including to customs officials, criminal prosecutors and internet service providers -- in ways that are likely to be more sensitive to proprietary concerns and less sensitive to user concerns;
- omitting liability and disincentives for abuses of enforcement processes by right holders; and
- requiring the adoption of automatic damages assessments unrelated to any proven harm;
-Alters the traditional and constitutionally mandated law making processes for IP by:
- locking in and exporting controversial aspects of US and EU enforcement practices whcih have already proven problematic, foreclosing future legislative improvements in response to changes in technology or policy;
- requiring substantive changes to intellectual property laws of a large number of negotiating countries.
INTERNATIONAL TRADE AND DEVELOPMENT
-Will disproportionately harm development and social welfare of the poor,
particularly in developing countries, including through raising unjustifiable
trade barriers to imports and exports of needed medicines and other knowledge
embedded goods;
-Contains provisions inconsistent with the WTO Agreement on Trade Related
Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement);
-Conflicts with the World Trade Organization Doha Declaration on TRIPS and
Public Health and World Health Assembly Resolution 61.21 by limiting the
ability of countries to exercise to the full flexibilities in the TRIPS
agreement that can promote access to needed medicines;
-Circumvents and undermines the commitments agreed to under the World
Intellectual Property Organization development agenda, particularly
recommendation 45 committing to “approach intellectual property
enforcement in the context of broader societal interests and especially
development-oriented concerns," and "in accordance with Article 7 of
the TRIPS Agreement";
INSTITUTIONAL ISSUES
-Creates a new and redundant international administration for IP issues outside
of WIPO or the WTO with broad powers but limited transparency, threatening
multilateralism in international IP norm setting;
-Encourages technical assistance, public awareness campaigns, and partnerships
with the private sector that appear designed to promote only the interests of
IP owners;
CONCLUSIONS ABOUT THE DEMOCRATIC PROCESS
The current process for considering public input into ACTA is fundamentally flawed in numerous respects. In many countries, the only consultations taking place are with select members of the public, off-the-record and without benefit of sharing the latest version of the rapidly changing text. There is little possibility that a fair and balanced agreement that protects and promotes public interests can evolve from such a distorted policy making process.
Governments, right holders and civil society should have an open and evidence-based discussion on the right strategy to confront willful commercial scale trademark counterfeiting and commercial scale copyright piracy. This discussion should take place in multilateral and national open and on-the-record forums with access to current negotiating text so that all interested stakeholders can participate.
ENDORSEMENTS
- Please send signatures (individual or Organization, City, Country) to: acta.declaration AT gmail.com
- Please send edits to: pijip AT wcl.american.edu
Sean Flynn
Associate Director
Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property
American University Washington College of Law
202 274 4157
--
Alberto Cerda
- [Cc-cl] URGENT: ACTA Communique Sign On Process, Alberto Cerda, 06/21/2010
Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.