ACTA Internet Document Leaked, New EU Transparency Call

A new leaked document from the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) negotiations confirms earlier statements by officials that the agreement does not include mandatory internet cut-off for accused copyright infringers. Yet versions of the so-called “three strikes and you’re out” model have passed in France, New Zealand, South Korea and Taiwan. And the leaked document, allegedly the draft internet chapter of the controversial ACTA, indicates such models are still an option. The document was first seen by IDG News Service, which said the text dates from October and is the most recent text available.

Canadian law expert Michael Geist in a quick analysis of the document also draws attention to notice-and-take-down procedures as well as anti-circumvention provisions, which deal with attempts to get around technical protection measures. The anti-circumvention provisions in the leaked document, Geist said, are an attempt to change the World Intellectual Property Organization internet treaties, using ACTA as a “mechanism to win the policy battle lost in Geneva in 1996.” They would oblige countries to adopt the stricter laws used in the United States against technical protection circumvention, and reduce the flexibility for different implementations that is explicitly contained in the WIPO treaties.

Separately, European Data Protection Supervisor Peter Hustinx yesterday called on the European Commission [pdf] to “establish a public and transparent dialogue on ACTA,” and criticised EU negotiators for not consulting him. Hustinx recommended that negotiating countries look for “less intrusive means to fight piracy” than the three-strikes-policy and said intellectual property, while important, “should not be placed above individuals’ fundamental rights to privacy, data protection, and other rights such as presumption of innocence, effective judicial protection and freedom of expression.”

Today, the European Parliament Committee on International Trade will be exchanging views with the European Commission on ACTA.