Post Tagged with: "anti-counterfeiting trade agreementCounterfeiting"

ACTA is Not Dead

EDRI has a strong editorial that points out that while ACTA is damaged in Europe, it is not dead yet. The editorial comes as Switzerland announces that it is delaying plans to sign ACTA.

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May 10, 2012 Comments are Disabled News

U.S. Senator Wyden Raises Questions About ACTA Implementation

U.S. Senator Ron Wyden has written to U.S. President Barack Obama to raise questions about the U.S. plans to implement the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement without Congressional approval.

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October 13, 2011 2 comments News

Mexican Senate Rejects ACTA

In what is likely the most significant political rejection of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement to date, the Mexican Senate has voted to recommend against signing ACTA. While the issue in the hands of the President, the domestic opposition is notable as it may foreshadow similar battles in countries around the […]

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June 23, 2011 6 comments News

Developing world opposition mounts to anti-counterfeiting agreement

Appeared in the Toronto Star on June 28, 2010 as Developing World Opposition Mounts to Anti-Counterfeiting Agreement Just as the G8-G20 meetings conclude in Muskoka and Toronto, another round of negotiations on the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement resumes in Switzerland. In the aftermath of the last round of discussions in […]

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June 28, 2010 Comments are Disabled Columns Archive

Estimating The Cost of a Three-Strikes and You’re Out System

Canadian officials travel to Guadalajara, Mexico this week to resume negotiations on the still-secret Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement.  The discussion is likely to turn to the prospect of supporting three-strikes and you’re out systems that could result in thousands of people losing access to the Internet based on three allegations of copyright infringement. Leaked ACTA documents indicate that encouraging the adoption of three-strikes – often euphemistically described as "graduated response" for the way Internet providers gradually send increasingly threatening warnings to subscribers – has been proposed for possible inclusion in the treaty.

My weekly technology law column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) notes that while supporters claim that three-strikes is garnering increasing international acceptance, the truth is implementation in many countries is a mixed bag.  Countries such as Germany and Spain have rejected it, acknowledging criticisms that loss of Internet access for up to a year for an entire household is a disproportionate punishment for unproven, non-commercial infringement.

Those countries that have ventured forward have faced formidable barriers.  New Zealand withdrew a three-strikes proposal in the face of public protests (a much watered-down version was floated at the end of last year), the UK's proposal has been hit with hundreds of proposed amendments at the House of Lords, and France's adventure with three-strikes has included initial defeat in the French National Assembly, a Constitutional Court ruling that the plan was unconstitutional, and delayed implementation due to privacy concerns from the country's data protection commissioner.

Much of the three-strikes debate has focused on its impact on Internet users, yet the price of establishing such systems have scarcely been discussed.  That may be changing due to the UK government's own estimates on the likely costs borne by Internet providers and taxpayers in establishing and maintaining a three-strikes system.

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January 26, 2010 14 comments Columns