tangent4ronpaul
01-22-2009, 07:01 PM
http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Secret_Counterfeiting_Treaty_Public_Must_be_Made_P ublic%2C_Global_Organizations_Say
Secret Counterfeiting Treaty Public Must be Made Public, Global Organizations Say
More than 100 public interest organizations from around the world today called on officials from the countries negotiating Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) -- the United States, the European Union, Switzerland, Japan, South Korea, Canada, Mexico, Australia and New Zealand -- to publish immediately the draft text of the agreement.
Secrecy around the treaty negotiation has fueled concerns that its terms will undermine vital consumer interests.
Organizations signing the letter include: Consumers Union, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Essential Action, IP Justice, Knowledge Ecology International, Public Knowledge, Global Trade Watch, U.S. Public Interest Research Group, IP Left (Korea), Australian Digital Alliance, The Canadian Library Association, Consumers Union of Japan, National Consumer Council (UK) and Doctors without Borders’ Campaign for Essential Medicines.
Based on leaked documents and industry comments on the proposed treaty, the groups expressed concerns that ACTA may:
* Require Internet Service Providers to monitor all consumers' Internet communications;
* Interfere with fair use of copyrighted materials;
* Criminalize peer-to-peer electronic file sharing; and
* Undermine access to low-cost generic medicines.
"Because the text of the treaty and relevant discussion documents remain secret, the public has no way of assessing whether and to what extent these and related concerns are merited," say the public interest groups in their letter.
Worsening the problem is the perception that industry lobbyists have access to the text and are influencing the negotiations. "The lack of transparency in negotiations of an agreement that will affect the fundamental rights of citizens of the world is fundamentally undemocratic. It is made worse by the public perception that lobbyists from the music, film, software, video games, luxury goods and pharmaceutical industries have had ready access to the ACTA text and pre-text discussion documents through long-standing communication channels."
"Why in the world are trade negotiators keeping the treaty a secret?" asks Robert Weissman, director of Essential Action. "Are they worried about counterfeiters influencing the negotiations? What possible rationale is there for secrecy -- other than to lock out the public? Intentionally or not, a treaty to prevent unauthorized copying may easily go too far, and undermine important consumer interests. That's why it is so important that this deal be negotiated in the light of day."
Essential Action is a public health and corporate accountability group located in Washington, DC.
[...]
Based on news reports and published material from various business associations, we are deeply concerned about matters such as whether the treaty will:
* Require Internet Service Providers to monitor all consumers' Internet communications, terminate their customers' Internet connections based on rights holders' repeat allegation of copyright infringement, and divulge the identity of alleged copyright infringers possibly without judicial process, threatening Internet users' due process and privacy rights; and potentially make ISPs liable for their end users' alleged infringing activity;
* Interfere with fair use of copyrighted materials;
* Criminalize peer-to-peer file sharing;
* Interfere with legitimate parallel trade in goods, including the resale of brand-name pharmaceutical products;
* Impose liability on manufacturers of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), if those APIs are used to make counterfeits -- a liability system that may make API manufacturers reluctant to sell to legal generic drug makers, and thereby significantly damage the functioning of the legal generic pharmaceutical industry;
* Improperly criminalize acts not done for commercial purpose and with no public health consequences; and
* Improperly divert public resources into enforcement of private rights.
[...]
-t
Secret Counterfeiting Treaty Public Must be Made Public, Global Organizations Say
More than 100 public interest organizations from around the world today called on officials from the countries negotiating Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) -- the United States, the European Union, Switzerland, Japan, South Korea, Canada, Mexico, Australia and New Zealand -- to publish immediately the draft text of the agreement.
Secrecy around the treaty negotiation has fueled concerns that its terms will undermine vital consumer interests.
Organizations signing the letter include: Consumers Union, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Essential Action, IP Justice, Knowledge Ecology International, Public Knowledge, Global Trade Watch, U.S. Public Interest Research Group, IP Left (Korea), Australian Digital Alliance, The Canadian Library Association, Consumers Union of Japan, National Consumer Council (UK) and Doctors without Borders’ Campaign for Essential Medicines.
Based on leaked documents and industry comments on the proposed treaty, the groups expressed concerns that ACTA may:
* Require Internet Service Providers to monitor all consumers' Internet communications;
* Interfere with fair use of copyrighted materials;
* Criminalize peer-to-peer electronic file sharing; and
* Undermine access to low-cost generic medicines.
"Because the text of the treaty and relevant discussion documents remain secret, the public has no way of assessing whether and to what extent these and related concerns are merited," say the public interest groups in their letter.
Worsening the problem is the perception that industry lobbyists have access to the text and are influencing the negotiations. "The lack of transparency in negotiations of an agreement that will affect the fundamental rights of citizens of the world is fundamentally undemocratic. It is made worse by the public perception that lobbyists from the music, film, software, video games, luxury goods and pharmaceutical industries have had ready access to the ACTA text and pre-text discussion documents through long-standing communication channels."
"Why in the world are trade negotiators keeping the treaty a secret?" asks Robert Weissman, director of Essential Action. "Are they worried about counterfeiters influencing the negotiations? What possible rationale is there for secrecy -- other than to lock out the public? Intentionally or not, a treaty to prevent unauthorized copying may easily go too far, and undermine important consumer interests. That's why it is so important that this deal be negotiated in the light of day."
Essential Action is a public health and corporate accountability group located in Washington, DC.
[...]
Based on news reports and published material from various business associations, we are deeply concerned about matters such as whether the treaty will:
* Require Internet Service Providers to monitor all consumers' Internet communications, terminate their customers' Internet connections based on rights holders' repeat allegation of copyright infringement, and divulge the identity of alleged copyright infringers possibly without judicial process, threatening Internet users' due process and privacy rights; and potentially make ISPs liable for their end users' alleged infringing activity;
* Interfere with fair use of copyrighted materials;
* Criminalize peer-to-peer file sharing;
* Interfere with legitimate parallel trade in goods, including the resale of brand-name pharmaceutical products;
* Impose liability on manufacturers of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), if those APIs are used to make counterfeits -- a liability system that may make API manufacturers reluctant to sell to legal generic drug makers, and thereby significantly damage the functioning of the legal generic pharmaceutical industry;
* Improperly criminalize acts not done for commercial purpose and with no public health consequences; and
* Improperly divert public resources into enforcement of private rights.
[...]
-t