Blogging ACTA Across the Globe: CIPPIC's David Fewer on What ACTA Means for Canadian Citizens

by via the EFF

Tue, Jan 26, 2010 7:32AM

The next round of negotiations on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) — the secret copyright treaty that targets the Internet — starts tomorrow in Guadalajara, Mexico. From January 26-29, negotiators from Australia, Canada, the European Union, Japan, Jordan, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, Switzerland, and the United States will discuss civil enforcement, border measures, enforcement procedures in the digital environment (a.k.a. "the Internet chapter" of ACTA) and transparency.

It's been over two years since the ACTA negotiations were first announced in October 2007, and yet no one outside of these negotiators and a cherry-picked handful of U.S. lobbyists have seen the draft ACTA text. However, leaked information shows that ACTA raises significant concerns for citizens' rights and the future of the open Internet.

Because ACTA is intended to create new global IP enforcement norms above those in the 1994 agreement on Trade Related Aspects of IP, it threatens citizens' access to knowledge across the world. With that in mind, this week we are inviting expert commentators from other countries to share their perspective on how ACTA is likely to affect their national law and policy, and their citizens' rights. We will also be highlighting commentary and analysis from others following ACTA in negotiating countries.

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For more information: http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/01/blogg...

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