Considering how quiet Ottawa has been recently on the subject of its hotly denounced revisions to the Copyright Act, it is still in lock-step with the G8 nations on another subject that should be of equal — if not greater — controversy.
For some time online watchers have been warning of “quiet” behind-the-scenes negotiations between various governments to create an Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). The multilateral treaty was started in 2007 when the planet's wealthiest countries sought to create a new global standard for enforcing intellectual property rights. Steering this initiative was, not surprisingly, the United States and the European Commission, with help from Japan and Switzerland. Other countries invited to the negotiation process include Canada, Australia, Korea, Mexico and New Zealand.
Poorer countries that have small to no intellectual-property industries are presumably expected to abide by the treaty as well, meaning they will have to pay as much as industries in the signatory countries demand for IP-protected products and services.
Details of the treaty were leaked to Wikileaks last year .
And during the recent G8 summit in Japan, the subject was certainly brought up, though largely ignored by the media.
In its Report of Discussions: G8 Intellectual Property Experts' Group Meeting (released July 8), the G8 Intellectual Property Experts' Group, “building on the results achieved under the British, Russian and German presidencies, [recommended] concrete measures towards realizing a well-functioning and efficient intellectual property (IP) system and for combating counterfeiting and piracy.”
Paragraphs 17 and 18 are of interest:
17. Effective promotion and protection of IPR [Intellectual Property Rights] are critical to the development of creative products, technologies and economies. We will advance existing anti-counterfeiting and piracy initiatives through, inter alia, promoting information exchange systems amongst our authorities, as well as developing non-binding Standards to be Employed by Customs for Uniform Rights Enforcement (SECURE) at the World Customs Organization. We encourage the acceleration of negotiations to establish a new international legal framework, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), and seek to complete the negotiation by the end of this year. We will promote practical co-operation between our countries to develop tools to combat new techniques in counterfeiting and piracy and spread best practices. We reaffirm our commitment on government use of software in full compliance with the relevant international agreements and call on other countries to follow our commitment.
18. Firmly believing that an efficient and well-functioning IP system benefits countries at all stages of development, we:
(a) reaffirm the importance of global patent harmonization and expanding international patent collaboration, including accelerated discussions on the Substantive Patent Law Treaty; and
(b) welcome the progress achieved in the G8 technical assistance pilot plans as well as the launch of additional pilot plans and joint outreach programs for public awareness in these countries.
This seems to be based on the premise that all countries will have already ratified the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) treaties, which Canada is trying to do with its Copyright Act, which is far from ready and might run into some heavy weather in its efforts to mimic the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The DMCA is among the most restrictive IP legislations in the world, and one that has seen some catastrophic unforeseen side effects that actually crush development instead of encourage it.
It appears that across the developed world, tough new IP laws are regarded as so intrinsic to our benefit that they are not really being exposed to public scrutiny.
It's not surprising. As globalization continues, much of the developed world's manufacturing is being shipped out to nations offering cheap labour, and the G8 nations (especially) will be left with little to profit from other than their research and creativity.
A no-brainer, right? Yes. But it does need a lot more scrutiny. The WIPO treaties are terrifically friendly to the industries in developed nations, but not to start-ups and researchers, or to poorer nations.
I'd feel a lot happier if it appeared the G8 were actually considering these issues rather than indulging in self-congratulatory bulletins on how they all agree.
