Submit Your Comments About ACTA

alex_guy_CA Notes that the US Trade Representative — who has been negotiating the secret Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement without input from the American people or Congress — is seeking public submissions on how to conduct US foreign copyright policy. This means that Americans can file comments with the USTR asking for ACTA to be made public. Public Knowledge explains the process: "Under the Special 301 process the USTR seeks input from US copyright, trademark, and patent owners about whether policies and practices in foreign countries deny them adequate IP protection. The process has generally been used by IP holders to complain not only about lax enforcement in other countries, but also about limitations and exceptions in their laws that are beneficial to libraries, to education, to innovation, and to the public interest generally. The ability to comment in the Special 301 process is not limited to IP owners only. Any member of the public is free to file comments. If you believe in the importance of balanced copyright policies, file comments with the USTR and make your voice heard. Comments can be filed electronically via http://www.regulations.gov/ docket number USTR-2010-0003. You have to include the term '2010 Special 301 Review' in the 'Type Comment and Upload File' field. ... Deadline for filing is February 16 by 5 pm."

File a request? Request corruption enquiry

[syousef]

How under any circumstances is this legal? It's not national security you're talking about, it's a trade agreement. I'd be thankful I'm not American but unfortunately I'm Australian so with a government that's so I don't feel like I have any right to brag, nor reason to celebrate. What happened to the Western ideals of freedom and democrasy. Seem to have thrown the baby out with the bath water sometime around the start of the war on Terra.

My comments on ACTA

[morgan_greywolf]

You can take your unconstitutional further criminalization of what is ultimately a civil issue -- copyright infringement -- and shove it up your ass. Rights holders already have all the recourse they need -- the public court system. Taking away my constitutional rights to satisfy the profit needs of some rights holders is simply unacceptable. What do we have to do? Toss CDs and DVDs into Boston Harbor?

Lol

[santax]

How about the USA keeps there dictatorial policy on their own continent? Foreign policy... Don't make me laugh, next thing they want to bring democracy to Europe. Yeah sure, please mod this down... but the truth won't go away by modding this down.

Where can I read the leaked copy?

[H4x0r Jim Duggan]

    A leaked copy was posted on wikileaks, but they took everything offline due to their financial problems. Does anyone have a copy of the leaked document? Please post it here, or add it to this public wiki:

• http://en.swpat.org/wiki/Anti-Counterfeiting_Trade_Agreement [swpat.org]

    The URLs for the relevant wikileaks docs were:

• http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Classified_US%2C_Japan_and_EU_ACTA_trade_agreement_drafts%2C_2009 - where you'd find scans of the document
• http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Talk:Classified_US%2C_Japan_and_EU_ACTA_trade_agreement_drafts%2C_2009 - where people had started to type it up

I haven't found it in archive.org or Google cache. Help sought, thanks.

Re:Hmmm...

[gnieboer]

IMHO (and near-total guess), I don't think this is an RIAA-type copyright nazi push. It seems in the last 2 months or so that there's been a quiet directive from the current US administration to be more protectionist. It's a stand the president can't make publicly because then everyone else will follow suit, but it seems that in the quest for jobs, they want to try to encourage domestic consumption.

I mean first off you've got the DOT secretary going nuts about Toyota [cars.com]. Deserved? Maybe. Did the Secretary help the situation by saying "don't drive your cars"? Definitely not. Then there's NSA's involvement with the China/Google issue. More government involvement that seems out of place. The "Buy American" clause, changes in tax breaks announced at the State of the Union address, blah blah blah.

So if that's the case, then I focused in on the part of the summary about "policies and practices in foreign countries". Reading the actual docket, the request for info is strictly about what countries should be placed on a watch list, not what policies etc (searching iPods at the border) should be (or not be) in place. It's JUST about what countries out there are making fake CDs and handbags etc. and need to be placed on the "watch list".

I'll bet a fake Rolex that China ends up on the watch list.

Is there a point?

[DoofusOfDeath]

I don't mean this at all in a snarky way, but...

Does anyone have a sense of whether or not us submitting comments would actually change the outcome?

Not requesting public comment on ACTA per se

[diversiform]

Am I missing something? I read the Federal Notice rather quickly, but I don't see anything about ACTA. They're looking for comments specifically for "Identification of Countries Under Section 182 of the Trade Act of 1974." Wouldn't they just disregard any comments that don't address what they've asked for? (To "identify those countries that deny adequate and effective protection for intellectual property rights or deny fair and equitable market access to U.S. persons who rely on intellectual property protection.") I suppose one could submit a comment saying that the parties negotiating ACTA are denying adequate and effective protection (etc.) under Section 182 of the Trade Act of 1974, but I don't know that this would have any effect on the ACTA negotiations.

Re:My message

[tobiah]

Hi,

My comments regard the ACTA agreement currently under secret negotiation. It's not that secret, and as something that has a hugely prohibitive affect on my personal and professional life, and that of my children, I am very offended by both its content and the method in which it is being developed.

Respect for the law requires respect for the governed; the ACTA treaty in no way represents my interests, and has not been carried out in a democratic or representative manner. Furthermore, it is grossly out of sync with common practice of the public and the direction in which history and technology is headed.

I don't know specifically what the result would be if ACTA is realized, but history tells us that unjust and oppressive laws tend to elicit a strong backlash. One that turns out poorly for those who enacted those laws.

One-sided negotiations conducted in secret may be a convenient way to get what you want in a law. It is also a good way to permamently lose the public's good will. It is not too late to involve representatives of the public's interest into these negotiations, and save your treaty.