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-- enacting a global DMCA TPM legal framework (America's legal standard) in place of "the more open-ended language finally adopted in the 1996 WIPO Copyright Treaty and Performances and Phonograms Treaty. If ACTA makes it universally binding, US policy makers will achieve what they couldn't include in the 1996 agreement, accomplishing it only through bilateral agreements; and
-- criminalizing consumers' non-commercial behavior with regard to copyright and trademark infringements - what TRIPS mandated only for the worst cases, involving commercial-scale infringement and counterfeiting.
On June 23, American University Washington College of Law's Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property released an "Urgent ACTA Communique," stating that "over 90 academics, practitioners and public interest organizations from six continents" conclude that "the publicly released draft of ACTA threatens numerous public interests, including every concern specifically disclaimed by negotiators."
They called ACTA "the predictably deficient product of a deeply flawed process. What started as a relatively simple proposal to coordinate customs enforcement has transformed into a sweeping and complex new international intellectual property and internet regulation with grave consequences for the global economy and governments' ability to promote and protect the public interest."
"ACTA is hostile to the public interest in at least seven critical areas of global public policy: fundamental rights and freedoms (including free expression, health, education, due process, and judicial fairness); internet governance; access to medicines; scope and nature of intellectual property law; international trade; international law and institutions; and (the) democratic process."
If enacted, ACTA will subvert democratic freedoms, threatening privacy, free expression, civil liberties, a free, open and affordable Internet, and other consumer protections - lost under binding global rules.
Yet there's hope. On July 9, the Electronic Freedom Foundation (EFF) reported that "over 300 Members of (the) European Parliament (MEPs) have now signed the Written Declaration on ACTA," extending the deadline to September 9 for another needed 69. "This is an unprecedented achievement and a great reminder that we can make a difference. But the fight is not over yet!"
The remaining signatures are needed for the next Strasbourg September 6 - 9 plenary session for the measure to become the official European Parliament position - EFF urging:
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