EFF, Public Knowledge Sue US Gov't Over Secret IP Pact

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: "lynn" <lynn () ecgincc com>
Date: September 19, 2008 8:01:22 AM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: EFF, Public Knowledge Sue US Gov't Over Secret IP Pact

http://www.pcworld.com/article/151213/suit_secret_treaty.html?tk=rss_news


EFF, Public Knowledge Sue US Gov't Over Secret IP Pact

Grant Gross, IDG News Service


Two digital rights advocacy groups have filed a lawsuit against the  
Office
of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) in an attempt to get the  
office to
turn over information about a secret international treaty being  
negotiated
to step up cross-border enforcement of copyright and piracy laws.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and Public Knowledge filed the
lawsuit Wednesday after USTR ignored their repeated requests to turn  
over
information about the proposed Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement  
(ACTA).

ACTA could include an agreement for the U.S., Canada, the European
Commission and other nations that are part of the talks to enforce each
other's intellectual-property (IP) laws, with residents of each country
subject to criminal charges when violating the IP laws of another  
country,
according to a supposed ACTA discussion paper posted on Wikileaks.org in
May.

The document posted on Wikileaks also talks about increasing border
searches in an effort to find counterfeit goods, encouraging ISPs
(Internet service providers) to remove online material that infringes
copyrights and increased cooperation in destroying infringing goods and
the equipment used to make them. The full text of the ACTA has not been
released, despite requests by EFF and Public Knowledge, as well as
Canadian groups. Wikileaks is a site that posts anonymous submissions of
sensitive documents.

"ACTA raises serious concerns for citizens' civil liberties and privacy
rights," EFF international policy director Gwen Hinze said in a  
statement.
"This treaty could potentially change the way your computer is  
searched at
the border or spark new invasive monitoring from your ISP. People need  
to
see the full text of ACTA now, so that they can evaluate its impact on
their lives and express that opinion to their political leaders.  
Instead,
the USTR is keeping us in the dark while talks go on behind closed  
doors."

snip





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