[Infowarrior] - UK MPs barred from ACTA talks

[Richard Forno]

(One really has to wonder how devilish the details of this treaty are  
if we see this kind of paranoia over the contents being disclosed  
before it's adopted.  Be afraid, be very very afraid.  --rf)

MPs frozen out of super-secret copyright talks
Preferences of foreign governments take precedence
By Chris Williams

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/01/21/acta_lammy/

Posted in Music and Media, 21st January 2010 11:57 GMT

The government has refused to give MPs access to papers on  
international negotiations about copyright enforcement on the internet  
and at national borders.

Junior business minister David Lammy said he could not put documents  
about the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) in the House of  
Commons Library, because other countries wanted to maintain secrecy.

Lammy said he was "sympathetic" to calls for more transparency and had  
told his officials to press the point at the talks, but added:  
"Disclosure of any documents without the agreement of all our ACTA  
negotiating partners would damage the United Kingdom's international  
relations.

"This would harm our ability to protect, promote and secure an outcome  
in the UK's interest, and the premature release of documents that are  
not agreed and not fully developed may also have a negative effect on  
the government's reputation."

The secrecy surrounding ACTA has prompted speculation the agreement  
will be favourable to the music and film industries, whose lobbyists  
are party to the discussions.

The European Commission, also involved in negotiations, responded that  
"ACTA will not go further than the current EU regime for enforcement  
of intellectual property rights".

It also rejected claims that ACTA will mean border guards will search  
digital devices for pirated material.

"EU customs, frequently confronted with traffics of drugs, weapons or  
people, do neither have the time nor the legal basis to look for a  
couple of pirated songs on an iPod music player or laptop computer,  
and there is no intention to change this," the Commission said,  
claiming talks on border measures concerned controls on conterfeiting.

In December, EuroISPA, an ISP trade association, said the ACTA talks  
could be used to spread disconnection policies for online copyright  
infringers, already proposed in the UK under the Digital Economy Bill.

"If some of the proposals currently under discussion in the context of  
these trade negotiations are adopted, ISPs will have to implement  
'graduated response' measures," EuroISPA said.

Others have argued that ACTA will make little difference to copyright  
enforcement in the UK. The true effect should be clear when the talks  
are completed this year and the final agreement published. ®