Europe wants greater ACTA transparency
p2pnet news view | P2P | Politics:- The European Parliament wants more transparency and public access to documents.
And significantly, a new proposal includes, “specific language about the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement,” blogs Ottawa law professor Michael Geist.
In particular, he says, it states »»»
Acting in accordance with Article 255(1) of the EC Treaty, the European Commission should immediately make all documents related to the ongoing international negotiations on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) publicly available.
The justification is »»»
The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) will contain a new international benchmark for legal frameworks on what is termed intellectual property right enforcement. The content as known to the public is clearly legislative in character.Further, the Council confirms that ACTA includes civil enforcement and criminal law measures.
Since there can not be secret objectives regarding legislation in a democracy, the principles established in the ECJ Turco case must be upheld
“The vote sends a strong signal on the need to open the ACTA process and heightens the pressure on the negotiating countries to remove the veil of secrecy,” says Geist.
Undermining vital consumer interests
The United States Trade Representative (USTR) is apparently refusing to release hundreds of documents about ACTA, the secret intellectual property enforcement treaty being negotiated by the US and more than a dozen other countries, said a recent p2pnet post, going on »»»
That should come as no surprise. Under George W. Bush and his cronies, the US trade rep`s office became little more than a taxpayer subsidised extension of the Hollywood movie studios, with the Big 4 record labels in the wings.
Nor, then, should it come as a surprise that, according to the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation), the USTR is refusing to release details about the infamous ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement).
If Hollywood could order intellectual property laws for Christmas, what would they look like? This is pretty close, p2pnet quoted Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC) counsel David Fewer as saying last year.Hollywood front man Dan Glickman and other corporate interests desperately want to see the ACTA become law, we said, going on:
But More than 100 international public interest organizations are demanding officials from Canada, the United States, Mexico, the European Union, Switzerland, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand, all of which are negotiating ACTA, publish immediately the draft text of the agreement.
Secrecy around the treaty negotiation has fueled concerns that its terms will undermine vital consumer interests, said CIPPIC.
The EU is similarly stonewalling demands that ACTA details be released.
Now, In a pending federal lawsuit, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and Public Knowledge are demanding that background documents on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) be released under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), says the EFF, going on:
But the USTR has claimed that more than 1300 pages should be withheld because they implicate national security or expose the USTR`s deliberative processes. The USTR has released only 159 pages for public viewing.
The EFF and Public Knowledge first made their FOIA request of the USTR in June of 2008, says the EFF, adding:
After the agency dragged its feet in responding, EFF and Public Knowledge filed suit in federal court in Washington, DC, in September of 2008.
The EFF says it`ll ask the court to stay further action in the case pending the release of new guidelines by the Attorney General implementing President Obama`s January 21 memorandum stating that all agencies `should adopt a presumption in favor of disclosure, in order to renew their commitment to the principles embodied in FOIA, and to usher in a new era of open Government`.
The story includes the, “substantive suggestions for provisions of the ACTA that the RIAA sent to the USTR on March 17, 2008,” as per Knowledge Ecology International in June, 2008.
Stay tuned.
Michael Geist – European Parliament Votes For Greater ACTA Transparency, March 11, 2009
p2pnet – ACTA details still secret, says Obama`s USTR, January 29, 2009
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March 12th, 2009 at 11:29 am
We don’t need democracy it seems…. but it’s funny how Bush wanted to push this BS system around the world to “free the world from terror”.
I really don’t fear terrorists anymore… I fear the government. This is not democracy, this is the work of a dictator.