I was able to attend a meeting of people worried about ACTA last week. Here
are my notes (Chatham House Rules). Happy to field questions:
- The Lisbon Treaty has the EU parliament engaged in policy issues, so
they're paying attention
- The parliament sees ACTA as "legislation laundering" to bypass existing
institutions (WIPO, etc.) [this is a theme that came up repeatedly]
- The March 10th vote that was a good outcome was on procedure, not
substance
- The pro-ACTA lobby is regrouping after this so the next couple weeks
are key
- EU-Korea free trade agreements (as well as many US bilateral FTAs) have
similar enforcement mechanisms
- Related issues like 3-strikes and net neutrality are seen as assaults
on 'fundamental freedoms'
- ACTA is not addressing the institutional arrangements of what happens
if it passes - wither WIPO/WTO?
- EU Commission is eager to be in the open, but unclear how they feel on
the substance (except on data privacy where they are strong protectors)
- There could be an opportunity to divide and conquer b/w the Parliament
and Commission using public anger; alternatively, Europeans feel this is
another example of USA bullying on tech policy
- Since transparency is becoming an issue of the past, how about we focus
on "consumer protection" language within the treaty
- Can we 'kill' ACTA or reform it?
- What role for WIPO? Can they do an assessment of the likely impact of
it on international system?
- In the USA, we can likely expect a hearing soon on ACTA
- Where are the libraries?
- Consumers are the ones actually hurt by counterfeits, but they don't
get to have a say. Consumer protection.
- Link this to open standards and privacy which the EU is good on
- When Obama talks about access to information in China, what is he
thinking about on ACTA?
- KEIonline.org has published detailed looks at what the legal language
means
- ACTA is TRIPs+ minus the protections
- Why aren't we making the existing institutions work? ACTA just creates
less inclusive ones.
- Where are the conservatives in America? Obama/USTR are forcing this
through as an executive agreement. It is a power-grab in line with Bush era
(where is started). Paging Glenn Beck....
- TACD will be having an April 28th event at Dept. of Commerce
--
Kevin Donovan
Georgetown '11: SFS
630.849.8285
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