Google D.C. Talk: ACTA – The Global Treaty That Could Reshape The Internet
Irene
lossofprivacy.com
15 Jan 2010
The drive to ram through the secret Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement is ramping up, with the next meeting set for the end of this month in Mexico. ACTA is an unprecedented copyright treaty (unprecedented in that it reaches farther than previous copyright treaties, and that it is being negotiated behind closed doors, without any public input or oversight) that will force copyright policing duties on Internet companies (vastly increasing the cost of hosting “user-generated content”); create new penalties for infringement (including Draconian penalties such as disconnection from the Internet on accusations of infringement); and require countries to search hard-drives, personal media players, and other personal data at their borders.
The U.S. and other countries have been negotiating the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, known as ACTA, for the last two years. A number of consumer advocates and technology companies, including Google, have raised serious concerns about ACTA’s potential reach and the impact it could have on Internet users’ rights and innovation.
The panel tackles important questions like: Will ACTA preserve the existing balance in intellectual property laws, providing not just enforcement for copyright holders but also appropriate exceptions for technology creators and users? Will it undermine the legal safe harbors that have allowed virtually every Internet service to come into existence? And will it encourage governments to endorse “three strikes” penalties that would take away a user’s access to the Internet?
The talk was moderated by Washington Post Consumer Technology Columnist Rob Pegoraro.
