Post Tagged with: "Counterfeit"

Dutch Government Says No CETA With ACTA Provisions

The Dutch government has confirmed that it will not sign a Canada – EU Trade Agreement that includes provisions found in the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement.

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September 19, 2012 2 comments News

Australian Parliamentary Committee Warns Against ACTA Ratification (For Now)

Australia should be added to the growing list of countries that are either rejecting the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement or expressing serious doubts about it. The Australian Joint Standing Committee on Treaties, which conducted an extensive review of ACTA, has just released its report and it is cautioning against ratification for now, noting that “there appears a very real possibility that ACTA will not be ratified by sufficient countries in order to come into existence.” The committee found many shortcomings with the treaty.  For example, on secrecy and the lack of transparency:

The most troubling aspect throughout the development of ACTA has been the opaque nature of the process. Whilst DFAT has stated that a certain level of confidentiality is required for trade negotiations, and while there is ground to enable a certain degree of secrecy where complex issues warrant negotiations in confidence, there is no valid rationale for the level of secrecy that DFAT has maintained for what is essentially a copyright treaty.

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June 26, 2012 3 comments News

The IP Lobby’s Post-Bill C-11 Playbook: ACTA, SOPA, Warrantless Search and the Criminalization of IP

The Canadian intellectual property’s lead lobby group, the Canadian IP Council (itself a group within the Canadian Chamber of Commerce) released a new policy document yesterday that identifies its legislative priorities for the coming years. Anyone hoping that the SOPA protests, the European backlash against ACTA, and the imminent passage of Bill C-11 might moderate the lobby group demands will be sorely disappointed. Counterfeiting in the Canadian Market: How Do We Stop It? is the most extremist IP policy document ever released in Canada, calling for the implementation of ACTA, SOPA-style rules including website blocking and stopping search results from resolving, liability for advertisers and payment companies, massive surveillance at the border and through delivery channels including searching through individual packages without court oversight, and spending hundreds of millions of tax dollars on private enforcement.

This long post reviews the report, focusing on the case it makes for addressing counterfeiting concerns in Canada and on the resulting recommendations. The recommendations are divided into five main groups:

  1. Introduce a Canadian SOPA
  2. ACTA Implementation
  3. New Search Powers Without Court Oversight
  4. The Criminalization of Intellectual Property
  5. Massive Increase in Public Spending Creating an IP Enforcement Subsidy

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June 8, 2012 59 comments News

Romania Will Not Ratify ACTA

Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta says his country will not ratify the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement unless the European Parliament modifies the agreement. Since the EP does not have the power to amend ACTA, that makes ratification unlikely.

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May 22, 2012 1 comment News

U.S. Law Professors Raise ACTA Constitutional Concerns

Dozens of leading U.S. law professors have written to the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance to express concern about the lack of constitutional authority to approve the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement without submitting it for Congressional approval.

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May 17, 2012 Comments are Disabled News