solarbird | Still catching up on open tabs: ACTA

Michael Geist has extensive coverage of the mostly-secret negotiations ongoing on ACTA, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. This is essentially similar to a global version of the US's DMCA. Notably:

Anti-circumvention legislation that establishes a WIPO+ model by adopting both the WIPO Internet Treaties and the language currently found in U.S. free trade agreements that go beyond the WIPO treaty requirements. For example, the U.S.-South Korea free trade agreement specifies the permitted exceptions to anti-circumvention rules. These follow the DMCA model (reverse engineering, computer testing, privacy, etc.) and do not include a fair use/fair dealing exception. Moreover, the free trade agreement clauses also include a requirement to ban the distribution of circumvention devices. The current draft does not include any obligation to ensure interoperability of DRM.

I am stringently opposed to these sections of the DMCA. Those of you in DMCA-free countries should work to remain DMCA-free. In particular:

If Canada agrees to these ACTA terms, flexibility in WIPO implementation (as envisioned by the treaty) would be lost and Canada would be forced to implement a host of new reforms (this is precisely what U.S. lobbyists have said they would like to see happen). In other words, the very notion of a made-in-Canada approach to copyright would be gone.

This isn't a counterfeiting treaty, it's a copyright-extension treaty on US terms. Avoid, avoid, avoid.