Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement

Forums › ICT Policies and Regulation › Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement

GerryAttrick

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#46287 6-Nov-2009 08:24

I just received the link to this wee gem in another newsletter I receive.

Dos this seem like George Orwell is alive and well?

http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/20233.cfm?utm_source=newsletterENG&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20091105

Why do these things have to start behind closed doors - is there something that they don't want made public?

GerryAttrick

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#270552 6-Nov-2009 08:41

And http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/11/policy-laundering.

That's why I posted this single line blog.

Summary from Acta round five.

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#270674 6-Nov-2009 15:42

Time for a New Zealand Pirate Party?

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#270789 7-Nov-2009 08:02

I'd just like National, ACT and the Greens to all do what they said they were going to do during the election and have a first principles review of copyright.

We need to get the government out of our living rooms.

---
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GerryAttrick

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#272604 13-Nov-2009 07:56

At last a sign of some sanity. This will make it harder to get the 3 strikes issue in place I hope

http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/20252.cfm

GerryAttrick

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#277713 30-Nov-2009 10:07

There's a New Zealand-based website just created to bring more information and discussion about ACTA into the foreground.

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#279363 4-Dec-2009 16:29

Dunne: What are we signing up to Mr Power?

United Future leader Peter Dunne has called on the Government to release details of the recent international negotiations on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement.

"There is a lot of conjecture about the contents of ACTA and what it will mean for the protection and enforcement of intellectual property and copyright law here in New Zealand," said Mr Dunne.

The veil of secrecy surrounding the contents of the ACTA agreement is causing a lot of concern not only here but also among the other nations involved.

The EU Parliament has just recently voted to force the European Commission to be much more transparent over ACTA and disclose documents relating to the negotiations.

It is in the public interest for the Government here to be as transparent as possible over ACTA.

While we have been told by Mr Power that the negotiations bear no relevance to the issues around the review of S.92A of the Copyright Act, many people are nervous that this is what has held the current review up.

A simple disclosure of the terms and text of ACTA negotiations would allay any misplaced anxiety while also giving New Zealanders the opportunity to voice concerns they may have.

Mr Power was quick to listen to New Zealanders over S.92A and scrap Labours unjust law; I encourage him to do the same over ACTA, said Mr Dunne.

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#279411 4-Dec-2009 18:58

The NZ Gov will sign it as they want a FTA with the US and it's the US Gov and Hollyweird pushing this thing..

Regards,

Old3eyes

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#280398 8-Dec-2009 14:44

A collection of links to ACTA-related posts is available here now: http://acta.net.nz/links

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holloway

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#280432 8-Dec-2009 16:06

old3eyes: The NZ Gov will sign it as they want a FTA with the US and it's the US Gov and Hollyweird pushing this thing..

You're right that ACTA and the US FTA are related, as well as s92A it seems:

Well, there is quite a close relationship between ACTA and the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiation, which includes the United States—there are eight countries involved.

On the section 92A question that you ask, the answer is difficult to give. I just do not know how the United States is going to approach this issue, either in TPP or in ACTA as yet, in that they have not come to a definitive negotiating position even in ACTA. It is also very early days, as you know, internationally in terms of putting place these kinds of provisions, and a lot of people are looking at New Zealand in terms of how we do it and whether we can provide something of a model for others to follow. The strong hope that we would have is that the kinds of provisions that we are going to recommend shortly—and that, hopefully, the Minister will propose shortly to Parliament—will be enough in terms of any further concessions sought from us from the United States, etc. I think that in terms of the kinds of bases that the US wants hit, we will hit them but we will still have enough safeguards to protect the interests of users as well as owners. (source)

That said, although Australia and South Korea FTAs with the US were heavily in favour of the US it's not true that we have no negotiating position or that certain things can't change. Right now we have leaked summary's documents, a lack of discussion documents, etc. The main thing now is to get transparency around ACTA so that we can inform politicians about what things are important to us.

Ragnor

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#280581 9-Dec-2009 03:53

Lest we forget that while the government is off sacrificing our civil liberties in back room deals to gain a free trade agreement with the US... this is what we can expect once we have one:

Vietnam signed a free trade deal with America in 2000. It was one of President Bill Clinton’s great achievements. This appeared wonderful. Vietnam’s budding entrepreneurs cottoned on to a great idea. Vietnam’s Mekong Delta is perfectly suited for fish farming. So they started exporting the local species of catfish to America. Within two years Vietnamese exporters had captured 20% of a US$590 million market for catfish, making Vietnamese farmers wealthier and lowering prices for US consumers. Almost 500,000 poor Vietnamese farmers were making a living from this trade by the end of 2002. Hooray for free trade…

By late 2002 the Catfish Farmers of America industry group was starting to lobby trade officials and politicians. They were a bit slow off the mark. They didn’t realise the Vietnamese could grow and export catfish…

A Republican senator, Trent Lott, introduced a clause in a completely unrelated piece of “Appropriations” legislation that only the “Ictaluridae” species of catfish - one out of 2000 species – could be sold as “Catfish” in the United States. Miraculously, the only farmers who sold this type of catfish were in Mississippi so the Vietnamese had to sell their fish in America branded as “basa” or “tra”.

Then the Catfish Farmers of America filed an “anti-dumping” claim against the Vietnamese catfish exporters with the US Commerce Department. An “anti-dumping” claim is one where a domestic producer accuses an exporter of deliberately making a loss to offer “predatory” prices unfairly. The Commerce Department couldn’t actually find any evidence of deliberate loss making, so they declared Vietnam a “non-market economy” where there might be some subsidies that were distorting trade. It then slapped a tariff ranging from 37% to 64% on the Vietnamese catfish exports. This has decimated the industry, throwing hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese out of work and ruining many who had invested in these farms.

The hypocrisy was extraordinary coming from a country that said it wanted to encourage free trade and yet has just passed a Farm Bill granting US$289 billion in subsidies to US farmers the next five years. Non-market economy my arse. To cap it off, Democratic congressman Marion Berry suggested that Vietnamese catfish weren’t safe because of Agent Orange in the waterways…

Why do American politicians and trade officials allow this to happen?

Ref:
http://www.interest.co.nz/ratesblog/index.php/2008/09/24/why-an-american-free-trade-deal-is-ludicrous-and-dangerous-idea/

The premise is a one on one deal with the US is pointless since they have all the market power and a corrupt political system at the whim of lobby groups. We should only bother going into multilaterl group deals with the US and keep working on the actually useful one on one deals with Asia/pacific.

rossmnz

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#280619 9-Dec-2009 09:17

i just find it extremely distasteful that the US government has such a say in the liberty of citizens of other countries.

You are correct, Old3Eyes in that this copyright stuff is essentially the barrow being pushed by the US govt. It miraculously reappears every time we have a fresh round of talks with the USA around a FTA.

Is the internet Americas "next Iraq"?

The force is strong with this one!

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#295190 1-Feb-2010 14:58

Here is an updated timeline and guide to ACTA:

The ACTA Guide, Part One: The Talks To-Date

The ACTA Guide, Part Two: The Documents (Official and Leaked)

The ACTA Guide, Part Three: Transparency and ACTA Secrecy

The ACTA Guide: Part Four: What Will ACTA Mean To My Domestic Law?

The ACTA Guide, Part Five: Speaking Out?

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#303988 3-Mar-2010 14:45

Just received:

Submissions sought on Anti-Counterfeit Trade Deal

Tuesday, 2 March 2010, 2:50 pm

Press Release: New Zealand Government

Minister calls for submissions on Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement

Commerce Minister Simon Power is calling for submissions on a range of intellectual property proposals in the digital arena to help develop the proposed Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA).

This is the third round of public consultations on ACTA, and New Zealand will be hosting Round 8 of the ACTA negotiations in Wellington from 12-16 April.

Digital enforcement measures will be one of the topics that will be discussed by delegations from Australia, Canada, the European Union, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Singapore, Switzerland, Morocco, and the US.

"Intellectual property rights infringement is changing in nature with the development of technology. Therefore, enforcement measures need to be constantly reviewed to ensure they remain effective.

"I encourage interested parties to provide submissions to help set a higher benchmark for the enforcement of intellectual property rights."

The Ministry of Economic Developments discussion paper can be found at: http://www.med.govt.nz/templates/MultipageDocumentTOC____42582.aspx

Submissions about digital enforcement can be sent to: trademarks@med.govt.nz.

The closing date for submissions is Wednesday 31 March 2010.

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#303989 3-Mar-2010 14:46

Also from InternetNZ:

InternetNZ to take public message to ACTA negotiators Media Release
2 March 2010

InternetNZ (Internet New Zealand Inc) will assist the public in voicing its concerns about the controversial international Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) through an open conference to be held next month in Wellington, New Zealand.

“We’re going to give the public the chance to have their say - in contrast to the secrecy of the negotiation process,” says Jordan Carter, InternetNZ Policy Director.

PublicACTA will be held on Saturday, 10 April 2010, two days ahead of Round 8 of the ACTA negotiations on 12-16 April in Wellington. The outputs of PublicACTA will be provided to the New Zealand government negotiators.

PublicACTA will be an open and public opportunity for people to critique the known and likely content of the ACTA proposals, providing a counterpoint to the secrecy of the negotiations.

“These plurilateral negotiations appear to extend well beyond the area of trade and physical counterfeiting to potentially cover non-commercial infringement of copyright material by ordinary citizens and digital rights management,” Carter says.

Despite the high level of secrecy surrounding the process, some of the proposals have leaked and demonstrate cause for concern.

"ACTA could affect everyone's rights on the Internet. Proposals from some countries seek to go beyond New Zealand's current public position.

It is therefore very important that there is a forum for public discussion," says Carter.

"The aim of PublicACTA is to raise the public’s concerns, seek improvements to the Agreement, and provide an opportunity for people to connect and discuss the issues. The output will be an agreed statement that the public and interested organisations can sign up to, to be delivered to New Zealand Government negotiators and politicians."

The New Zealand Government today called for submissions on ACTA identifying the dates of the negotiations and outlining some specific areas they would like feedback on. InternetNZ will also submit on that document, which has a deadline of 31 March 2010.

Details of the programme of and high profile international guests at PublicACTA will be provided in coming days.

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#305902 10-Mar-2010 11:19

Resurrecting this discussion. This is a link to the MED copy of ACTA, as signed by New Zealand.

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