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India Seeking Allies To Oppose ACTA

With the next round of Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement negotiations scheduled for later this month in Lucerne, Switzerland (governments have been painfully slow this round in confirming dates, location, and agenda), the global politics behind the agreement escalated over the weekend with Indian officials acknowledging that they plan to establish a coalition of government opposed to the agreement.  Reports indicate that a major concern involves the possible seizure of goods in transit, which raises access to medicines fears with the potential detention of generic pharmaceuticals.

If India is able to line up a coalition of opposition – likely allies include Brazil, China, and Egypt – this will unquestionably escalate pressure on the ACTA countries to open the process.  I have previously argued that ACTA represents a major threat to WIPO and the Development Agenda.  The opposition from the U.S. and E.U. on a treaty for the visually impaired at a meeting last week in Geneva provides further evidence that with IP enforcement effectively removed from within WIPO's scope, those countries will have little incentive to advance the IP development concerns of the rest of the world. 

While some may suggest that the opposition provides evidence that ACTA is on the right track, the reality is that ACTA is largely designed to apply to the very countries that are now preparing to openly oppose it.  There is no mechanism to "force" these countries to abide by ACTA standards.  The best approach to gaining broader acceptance is to include those countries in the talks, not leave them on the outside in the hope of later pressuring them to comply with an agreement from which they were deliberately excluded.

6 Comments

  1. Happy Guy says:

    Finally! Now we’re getting somewhere actually helpful with this ridiculous thing.

  2. Go India!!!!!
    The world’s most populous democracy MUST have some clout in this?

  3. come on Canada.. join them

    (p.s. you too New Zealand)

  4. anonymous coward says:

    some progress :/ ?
    seriously. The BRIC – it needs to get into discussion. This will also affect the ASEAN block as singapore is a key player in this treaty.

    no one in Singapore is overly concerned with acta – the media as far as i am aware only published 1 article on ACTA – http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC100507-0000057/Slower-online-surfing,-at-greater-cost? . and then too they said we need to face slower speeds and increased monitoring of online traffic.

    Seriously. The World Cup gets more attention than a global invasive and unfair copyright treaty.

    i admit. stealing is wrong – we should live within our means. yes. but we are human and we want things. we want to watch shows the same time as other countries. not wait for 3 years and sometimes never. the people doing it are impatient. they want goods cheaper and at a convenient format they can shift.

    instead of changing and adapting with the times, especially the younger crowd, bug media still want to us to wait for 2 months for a book to get from US to here?

    what do?

  5. anonymous coward says:

    correction
    *big media

  6. Big Brother is here!! INDIA IS A DEMOCRACY! IS CANADA ???
    INDIA IS A DEMOCRACY! IS CANADA ???

    Bill C-32 is BULL…!!!

    Michael Geist already correctly noted: We don’t need a copyright reform in Canada.

    This proposed Bill C-32, is the sole result, of a suitcase full of U.S. lobby group money, landing on some Ottawa minister’s table.

    The majority of Canadians are against ANY changes to this copyright nonsense, so OTTAWA, listen up….

    We are just NOT GONNA TAKE IT, like the province of Ontario, introducing the HST!
    The HST DOES NOT HELP CONSUMERS! It only favors big business and large industrial corporations.
    Thanks, for NOT allowing us to petition against the HST introduction…….A REAL INJUSTICE.

    The introduction of Bill-C32, creates, what George Orwell named, a ‘Big Brother’ society.

    Example:
    The unfair, and virtually never-fairly enforceable, 3-strike policy for ISPs.
    ANYONE CAN CLAIM, “Hey, you violated my copyright!” Even if that claim is false….
    …ISPs will be forced by Ottawa to shut you down, i.e. REMOVE YOU FROM THE INTERNET!

    Are we in China, or Canada, or wazzup???!!!!

    Welcome to the NEW TOTALITARIAN STATE IN CANADA!!!

    If you are UNCLEAR of what this Bill means, go to youtube, and watch the ‘uncensored’ music video version of:
    M.I.A’s “Born Free” (!)

    ALL CANADIANS MUST STAND UP AN PROTEST RIGHT NOW !!!!
    We are NOT Americans, but CANADIANS, who have and make their own laws.
    PETITION NEEDED……RED ALERT, MICHAEL….NEED THE PETITION.

    OK, Michael, please post the link to the new petition…. let’s go!!!

    Love,

    Bobby

    Note: I give a rat’s rear-end about Hollywood content. I have long been boycotting content by U.S. firms, like Warner Bros., Universal, Sony, Fox…..and all the other Mega-Corporations, which have proven once again, that THEY CONTROL WHO MAKES THE LAW IN CANADA. (Obviously, not the people of Canada, who ‘democratically’ elected the current government, along with lobbygroup-bagholder Tony Clement). Kudos to you, Tony. Thanks. The irony…..and THE HORROR, THE HORROR !!!

    Note 2: Michael Geist:
    Michael, you are reason, logic, belief, dream, true vision, freedom and hope for all decent Canadians; YOU are the VOICE OF CANADIANS!!! All Canadians must now stand together. We love you!