The anti-counterfeiting trade agreement could criminalise internet users globally. But it hasn’t been ratified yet …
Acta is the latest copyright enforcement scheme to cause alarm among digital activists. Given its reach, this is understandable.
The anti-counterfeiting trade agreement is, despite its name, effectively an international treaty that forces signatories to criminalise “commercial-scale” copyright and trademark infringement. Some of it covers knock-off merchandise, but most applies to the digital world as well. Many of Acta’s provisions already exist in countries such the US and the UK – for example, it makes sure courts can block or take down infringing websites – and the idea is ostensibly to bring the rest of the world in line.
However, some elements would go further than existing laws in most of the countries that sign up. Acta criminalises activities such as breaking the digital locks on rights-protected files, or even distributing tools to help people do so. Stripping the artist information from a music file becomes a crime, as does decrypting content that has been scrambled for copyright protection. Acta also codifies the flawed idea, in calculating damages from so-called piracy, that every unlawful download represents a lost sale.
One reason for the heightened attention being paid to Acta is the recent derailing of the Stop Online Piracy Act (Sopa) and the Protect IP Act (Pipa) in the US. These bills were, in many ways, more dangerous than Acta – Sopa wanted to alter the DNS, the core of the internet – but the spirit is the same. After winning a round against the US bills, citizens and activists are raring to take on a new challenge.
Acta was the brainchild of the US and Japan. Its formulation began in 2007, outside the frameworks of the World Trade Organisation and without the involvement of China, India and other countries that are major sources of pirated goods. Because it was technically a trade agreement, negotiations took place behind closed doors, with the only look-in afforded to citizens’ groups or even elected representatives coming via a series of leaks.
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