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World unites to knock out knockoffs
Eric Pfanner, NYT News Service, 9 February 2010, 01:20am
PARIS: Behind a veil of secrecy, the US, the EU, Japan and other countries are forging ahead with plans to coordinate an international crackdown
on illegally copied music, movies, designer bags and other goods that change hands in sidewalk souks and internet bazaars.
Negotiators, under intense pressure from media companies, luxury brands and other corporate victims of piracy, are scrambling to complete a so-called Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement by the end of the year.
After the most recent round of negotiations late last month in Guadalajara, Mexico, news of disagreements has been trickling out, despite an official vow of silence from the participants, which has itself been a main source of friction.
EU negotiators, for example, reportedly balked at a US-backed proposal to require internet service providers to take tough steps against digital piracy. Under such a structure, leaked papers show, internet providers might be required to filter out illegally copied songs and films from their networks or to sever copyright violators' internet connections.
German and Swedish officials have ruled out such measures, and politicians elsewhere in Europe have sought to enshrine internet access as a fundamental human right.
Critics say the lack of transparency is highly unusual for a trade agreement with so many parties involved, especially since the deal could influence the workings of the internet and affect hundreds of millions of people around the world.
"You'd think it was nuclear weapons kind of stuff, not intellectual property law," said Eddan Katz, international affairs director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which campaigns against regulation of the internet. "The fact that there are 30 or 50 people sitting around a table deciding the laws of the world's nations, when there are major areas of disagreement, seems like a wholesale contravention of the democratic process."
Lawmakers have also largely been kept out of the loop. In the US last month, Senator Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, wrote to Ron Kirk, the US trade representative, whose office is negotiating on behalf of the US, to seek information about the negotiations. In Britain, members of the three main political parties have signed a parliamentary motion calling on their government to release details.
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Eric Pfanner, NYT News Service, 9 February 2010, 01:20am
PARIS: Behind a veil of secrecy, the US, the EU, Japan and other countries are forging ahead with plans to coordinate an international crackdown
on illegally copied music, movies, designer bags and other goods that change hands in sidewalk souks and internet bazaars.
Negotiators, under intense pressure from media companies, luxury brands and other corporate victims of piracy, are scrambling to complete a so-called Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement by the end of the year.
After the most recent round of negotiations late last month in Guadalajara, Mexico, news of disagreements has been trickling out, despite an official vow of silence from the participants, which has itself been a main source of friction.
EU negotiators, for example, reportedly balked at a US-backed proposal to require internet service providers to take tough steps against digital piracy. Under such a structure, leaked papers show, internet providers might be required to filter out illegally copied songs and films from their networks or to sever copyright violators' internet connections.
German and Swedish officials have ruled out such measures, and politicians elsewhere in Europe have sought to enshrine internet access as a fundamental human right.
Critics say the lack of transparency is highly unusual for a trade agreement with so many parties involved, especially since the deal could influence the workings of the internet and affect hundreds of millions of people around the world.
"You'd think it was nuclear weapons kind of stuff, not intellectual property law," said Eddan Katz, international affairs director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which campaigns against regulation of the internet. "The fact that there are 30 or 50 people sitting around a table deciding the laws of the world's nations, when there are major areas of disagreement, seems like a wholesale contravention of the democratic process."
Lawmakers have also largely been kept out of the loop. In the US last month, Senator Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, wrote to Ron Kirk, the US trade representative, whose office is negotiating on behalf of the US, to seek information about the negotiations. In Britain, members of the three main political parties have signed a parliamentary motion calling on their government to release details.
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