Negotiators are meeting this week in Seoul to discuss
enforcement measures against copyright infringement as part of a
global anti-counterfeiting trade agreement (Acta).
Leaked documents suggest that the proposals may give enormous
power to copyright holders to police material on the internet
without internet users having recourse to the courts.
The Electronic Freedom Foundation, an internet lobby group, has
been fighting to expose the substance of the talks. In a
blog entry, the EFF's Gwen Hinzer said, "The leaks confirm
everything that we feared about the secret Acta negotiations.
"The internet provisions have nothing to do with addressing
counterfeit products, but are all about imposing a set of copyright
industry demands on the global internet, including obligations on
ISPs to adopt three strikes internet disconnection policies, and a
global expansion of DMCA-style [Digital Millennium Copyright Act]
laws."
Business secretary Peter Mandelson has confirmed the UK
government's intention to
introduce a three strikes, notice and take down procedure in
the Digital Economy Bill now being prepared to give effect to the
final Digital Britain report.
"Three strikes/graduated response is the top priority of the
entertainment industry," Hinze said. According to
reports, Mandelson decided to speed up the introduction of the
three strikes legislation following a meeting with Hollywood mogul
David Geffen.
Although the substance of the Acta talks has been kept secret,
it emerged in early September that the US Trade Representative was
using nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) to share copies of the Acta
internet text selectively outside of the USTR formal advisory board
system.
Using a Freedom of Information request, the
Knowledge Ecology
International website discovered who had signed the NDAs. They
included Google, eBay, Dell, Intel, Business Software Alliance,
Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, Sony Pictures, Time Warner, the
Motion Picture Association of America, and Verizon.
Michael
Geist, a Canadian academic who has been following the Acta
talks, said the provisions do not include a fair use/fair dealing
exception for using copyright material.
"Moreover, the free trade agreement clauses also include a
requirement to ban the distribution of circumvention devices," he
said in a blog entry.
Last week's
rejection of Amendment 138 of the Telecoms Package by the
European Council of Ministers may have its roots in the Acta
negotiations. The amemdment aimed to protect internet users from
interference by third parties.
According to Axel Horns, a German patent attorney who writes the
IP::JUR blog, it appeared that "vested interests" namely
copyright holders, had been "forum shopping" for lawmakers who
could force through their agenda.
Not trusting their fortunes entirely to US negotiators at the
Acta talks, they also tried the European lawmakers, in particular,
the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament. "The crucial
point is to shift the debate to the bodies on EU level dealing with
the current Telecoms Package," he said.
The European Parliament will debate new language to replace
amendment 138.
Monica Horten, who is studying the law-making process governing
the Telecoms Package said that the Council of Ministers would
accept only a text that permitted the Mandelson proposals, as well
as Sarkozy's three strikes law.
"The European Parliament has proposed a text which is not great,
but which does contain language that will make it awkward for the
UK government," she said. "The issue for tonight is whether or not
the European Parliament stands up for its own principles, and
therefore protects British citizens as well as everyone else in the
EU.
"Now that the Lisbon Treaty is ratified, the European Parliament
has more power, and we should expect it to exercise that power on
our behalf, and demonstrate that it is capable of scrutinising
legislation in a democratic way," she said.