Documents relating to a proposed international copyright
treaty to criminalise online file-sharing have beenclassified "in the interests of national
security"by US President Barack
Obama.
The proposed
Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (Acta) is believed to
criminalise the reproduction of copyright material both for and
without profit. At present, such activity is a civil matter between
the copyright owner and the alleged thief.
It is believed the agreement is aimed at large-scale forgers and
unauthorised distributors of copyright material, especially across
national borders. It was originally expected to come into play at
the end of 2008, but talks have being ongoing.
It is believed the treaty could affect peer-to-peer file-sharing
networks, but early documents suggested it gave border guards
unprecedented powers to stop and search travellers without warning,
and to copy and confiscate any digital material they might
have.
The UK Intellectual Property Office, which has been involved in
the discussions since they began early last year, has said
virtually nothing about the content of those discussions.
It is commonly believed that organisations representing the
movie, video, music and publishing industries are behind the
proposed treaty.
Civil liberties organisations, including the
Electronic Freedom Foundation,
have asked for the details of the talks to be made public. So far
they have been rebuffed by the Bush administration, and now by
Obama.
In a letter in response to a Freedom of Information request from
Jamie Love, director of the non-profit group Knowledge Ecology
International, Carmen Suro-Bredie, chief FOIA officer in the White
House's Office of the US Trade Representative, said the
Acta-related materials are "classified in the interest of national
security pursuant to Executive Order 12958".
The
1995Executive
Order 12958 allows material to be classified only if disclosure
would do "damage to the national security and the original
classification authority is able to identify or describe the
damage".
Earlier, the Bush administration turned down an FOIA request
from the EFF, saying all but 10 of 806 pages related to the treaty
were "classified in the interest of national security pursuant to
Executive Order 12958".
Love has 30 days to appeal the decision.