The European Parliament delivered a political blow to Hollywood and the Obama administration, voting Wednesday 663 to 13 in opposition to a proposed and secret intellectual property agreement being negotiated by the European Union, United States and a handful of others.
Wednesday's developments concerning the Anti-Counterfeiting and Trade Agreement are substantial because the European Union's 27 countries vastly outnumber the remaining countries negotiating the deal. They are Australia, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, Switzerland and the United States. Ambassador Ron Kirk, the top U.S. trade official, is spearheading the deal that began being crafted under the George W. Bush administration.
Kirk's office declined comment.
To be sure, there is a dispute and heavy confusion concerning whether internet service providers under ACTA would be forced topunish customers deemed copyright scofflaws by reducing or eliminating service, according to a string of leaked documents. So parliament members also agreed Wednesday to oppose the measure if it contains so-called "three strikes" or "graduated response" policies -- regardless of whether that's now in the text.
And because of the text's secrecy, parliament on Wednesday also demanded (.pdf) that the private agreement still under negotiation be publicly released.
Whether parliament's action scuttles ACTA is another matter.
Michael Geist, a law professor at the University of Ottawa, said in a telephone interview that Wednesday's resolution also OKs more ACTA global negotiations on behalf of the European Union.
Geist said he expects Europe to participate in the next round of ACTA negotiations to get underway April 12 in New Zealand.
European Union leaks months ago portended Wednesday's vote.
The leaks underscored that European officials were concerned about the ever-changing pact and were unhappy that the United States' "overarching objective" was to "facilitate the continued development of industry." European drafters had said the document needed to "mention culture and individual creators and not only industry."
In November, meanwhile, the Motion Picture Association of America told the Senate that opponents of ACTA are "actively hostile toward efforts to improve copyright enforcement worldwide."
(The United States has shown working drafts of the accord to representatives from the MPAA, Recording Industry Association of America, Google and the major software players and even the digital-rights group Public Knowledge. They all are forbidden from disclosing any information about what they saw.)
For its part, the Obama administration, which has five former Recording Industry Association of America lawyers in the Justice Department, has declared ACTA negotiations a national security secret and has refused to publicly divulge the treaty's contents.
See Also:
- Europe Worries U.S. Bowing to 'Industry' in ACTA Talks
- Obama Administration Declares Proposed IP Treaty a 'National Security' Secret
- Report: U.S. Fears Public Scrutiny Would Scuttle IP Treaty Talks
- Copyright Treaty Is Policy Laundering at Its Finest
- Details Lacking in Counterfeiting Treaty Paper
- MPAA Says Copyright-Treaty Critics Hate Hollywood
- The Heat Is On for Details of Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement
