|
Wednesday July 11, 2012 |
The European Commission, which initially indicated
that it would not respond to the posting of the leaked
CETA IP chapter, has now responded
by saying that the two ACTA provisions involving Internet providers
have been dropped from CETA. When asked
whether those were the only changes, EU Trade spokesperson John
Clancy said
there may be other changes but that this was the biggest one.
While the removal of the Internet provider provisions is a good
step, the European Parliament's overwhelming rejection of ACTA was
the result of far more than just the Internet provider provisions.
Indeed, there has been concern about digital locks, damages,
criminal provisions, and border measures. All of those provisions
also appeared in the February 2012 CETA draft and Clancy's response
suggest that most, if not all, remain there.
The decision
to respond to the CETA concerns is undoubtedly the result of
the enormous amount of attention the connection between ACTA and
CETA have received in Europe over the past 48 hours. This includes:
acta, anti-counterfeiting trade agreement, ceta Slashdot, Digg, Del.icio.us, Newsfeeder, Reddit, StumbleUpon, TwitterTagsShareWednesday July 11, 2012 |
|
View
|
|
|
Tuesday July 10, 2012 |
My post
yesterday on how the EU plans to use the Canada - EU Trade
Agreement (CETA) as a backdoor mechanism to implement the
Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) provisions has attracted
considerable attention with coverage from European
media and activists.
The European Commission refused
to comment, stating that it does not comment on leaks.
Some have noted
that since the leaked
CETA IP chapter dates from February 2012, the concern is
premature since the current EC position may change in light of the
recent European Parliament vote to reject ACTA. According
to this view, "it's more than likely that the European
Parliament will kill CETA just as (and because of) ACTA was killed
last week."
While a change to the IP chapter would be welcome (I argued
it should be removed from CETA altogether), I think the concern is
warranted for several reasons.
acta, anti-counterfeiting trade agreement, ceta Slashdot, Digg, Del.icio.us, Newsfeeder, Reddit, StumbleUpon, TwitterTagsShareTuesday July 10, 2012 |
|
View
|
|
|
Monday July 09, 2012 |
Last week, the European Parliament voted overwhelmingly to reject
ACTA, striking a major blow to the hopes of supporters who
envisioned a landmark agreement that would set a new standard for
intellectual property rights enforcement. The European Commission,
which negotiates trade deals such as ACTA on behalf of the European
Union, has vowed to revive the badly damaged agreement. Its most high-profile
move
has been to ask the European Court of Justice to rule on ACTA's
compatibility with fundamental European freedoms with the hope that
a favourable ruling could allow the European Parliament to
reconsider the issue.
While the court referral has attracted the lion share of attention,
my weekly technology law column (Toronto
Star version, homepage
version) reports that
there is an alternate secret strategy in which Canada plays a key
role. According to recently
leaked documents, the EU plans to use the Canada - EU Trade
Agreement (CETA), which is nearing its final stages of negotiation,
as a backdoor mechanism to implement the ACTA provisions. [UPDATE 7/10: new post on why the concern over ACTA in CETA is warranted] [UPDATE 7/11: EC responds by saying ACTA ISP provisions removed from CETA. Appears likely most of remaining provisions remain]
The CETA
IP chapter has already attracted attention due to EU
pharmaceutical patent demands that could add billions to provincial
health care costs, but the bigger story may be that the same chapter
features a near word-for-word replica of ACTA. According to the
leaked document, dated February 2012, Canada and the EU have already
agreed to incorporate many of the ACTA enforcement provisions into
CETA, including the rules on general obligations on enforcement,
preserving evidence, damages, injunctions, and border measure rules.
One of these provisions even specifically references ACTA. A
comparison table of ACTA and the leaked CETA chapter is posted
below.
has already attracted attention due to EU
pharmaceutical patent demands that could add billions to provincial
health care costs, but the bigger story may be that the same chapter
features a near word-for-word replica of ACTA. According to the
leaked document, dated February 2012, Canada and the EU have already
agreed to incorporate many of the ACTA enforcement provisions into
CETA, including the rules on general obligations on enforcement,
preserving evidence, damages, injunctions, and border measure rules.
One of these provisions even specifically references ACTA. A
comparison table of ACTA and the leaked CETA chapter is posted
below.
acta, anti-counterfeiting trade agreement, ceta, copyright Slashdot, Digg, Del.icio.us, Newsfeeder, Reddit, StumbleUpon, TwitterTagsShareMonday July 09, 2012 |
|
View
|
|
|
Monday July 09, 2012 |
Appeared
in the Toronto Star on July 8, 2012 as Controversial Copyright
Rules Threaten Canada - European Trade Deal
In October 2007, several leading economies, including the U.S.,
European Union, and Canada, announced plans to negotiate the
Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). Despite being shrouded
in secrecy, ACTA details slowly began to emerge, including
revelations that lobby groups had been granted privileged access to
the draft text as well as leaks that indicated that individual
Internet users could be a prime target of new enforcement measures.
The ACTA talks concluded in 2010, but the controversy over the deal
continued to grow. Earlier this year, thousands took the streets in
Europe to protest against an agreement that was negotiated in secret
and that raised serious concerns about privacy and free speech.
With public pressure mounting, the European Parliament voted
overwhelmingly last week to reject ACTA, striking a major blow to
the hopes of supporters who envisioned a landmark agreement that
would set a new standard for intellectual property rights
enforcement.
The European Commission, which negotiates trade deals such as ACTA
on behalf of the European Union, has vowed to revive the badly
damaged agreement. Its most high-profile move has been to ask the
European Court of Justice to rule on ACTA's compatibility with
fundamental European freedoms with the hope that a favourable ruling
could allow the European Parliament to reconsider the issue.
While the court referral has attracted the lion share of attention,
there is an alternate secret strategy in which Canada plays a key
role. According to recently
leaked documents, the EU plans to use the Canada - EU Trade
Agreement (CETA), which is nearing its final stages of negotiation,
as a backdoor mechanism to implement the ACTA provisions.
The CETA
IP chapter has already attracted attention due to EU
pharmaceutical patent demands that could add billions to provincial
health care costs, but the bigger story may be that the same chapter
features a word-for-word replica of ACTA. According to the leaked
document, dated February 2012, Canada and the EU have already agreed
to incorporate many of the ACTA enforcement provisions into CETA,
including the rules on general obligations on enforcement,
preserving evidence, damages, injunctions, and border measure rules.
One of these provisions even specifically references ACTA.
The EU has also proposed incorporating ACTA's criminal enforcement
and co-operation chapters into CETA. The criminal provisions were
the target of European Parliament criticism for their lack of
proportionality and uncertain application.
Canada has similarly pushed for the inclusion of ACTA provisions,
proposing identical digital lock rules as well as ACTA-style
Internet service provider provisions that raised privacy concerns
from the European Data Protection Supervisor. In fact, Canada would
like to extend ACTA by mandating an anti-camcording provision (a
similar provision is currently voluntary in ACTA).
The European Commission strategy appears to be to use CETA as the
new ACTA, burying its provisions in a broader Canadian trade
agreement with the hope that the European Parliament accepts the
same provisions it just rejected with the ACTA framework. If
successful, it would likely then argue that ACTA poses no new
concerns since the same rules were approved within the Canadian
trade deal.
The backdoor ACTA approach creates enormous risks for Canada's trade
ambitions. Given the huge anti-ACTA movement, the Canada - EU trade
deal could face widespread European opposition with CETA becoming
swept up in similar protests.
With anti-ACTA sentiment spreading across Europe, Canada should push
to remove the intellectual property chapter from CETA
altogether. The move would not be unprecedented. Many of
Canada's free trade agreements feature only limited IP provisions
and last year a Canadian parliamentary committee recommended that
"domestic copyright policies are not part of any present or future
trade negotiations."
Meanwhile, the U.S. and EU recently announced their own plans to
negotiate a trade deal but agreed to keep intellectual property
issues out of the talks. If CETA becomes known as ACTA II, the
future of the Canada - EU trade deal may hinge on adopting a similar
approach.
Michael Geist holds the Canada Research Chair in Internet and
E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law. He can
reached at mgeist@uottawa.ca or online at www.michaelgeist.ca.
acta, ceta, copyright Slashdot, Digg, Del.icio.us, Newsfeeder, Reddit, StumbleUpon, TwitterTagsShareMonday July 09, 2012 |
|
|
