Sorry for any cross-posting.<br>I forward to you a call for signatures on a draft statement about ACTA. The text of the statement can be found below.<br>Please help to spread the word.<br>Regards,<br>Marília<br><br>---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>
From: <b class="gmail_sendername">Sean Flynn</b> <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:sflynn@wcl.american.edu" target="_blank">sflynn@wcl.american.edu</a>></span><br>
Date: Sat, Jun 19, 2010 at 2:23 PM<br>Subject: URGENT: ACTA Communique
Sign On Process<br>To: <a href="mailto:IP-ENFORCEMENT@roster.wcl.american.edu" target="_blank">IP-ENFORCEMENT@roster.wcl.american.edu</a><br><br><br>
<p class="MsoNormal">After further internal deliberation, we have
decided to
establish an individual sign on process both to avoid representing the
views of
those who do not wish to be identified and to open the endorsement
process to
individuals and organizations not at the meeting but who support the
findings
and conclusions adopted. Please help us maximize the sign ons to this
important
document.</p>
<h3><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-weight: normal;">The latest
version of the draft communiqué is now posted to
a public blog post at:</span></h3>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://wcl.american.edu/pijip/go/acta-communique" target="_blank">http://wcl.american.edu/pijip/go/acta-communique</a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Please share the draft with others, circulate on
your blogs,
etc.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The sign on process is as follows:</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">THIS DRAFT STATEMENT IS NOW OPEN FOR INDIVIDUAL AND
ORGANIZATIONAL ENDORSEMENTS AS WELL AS EDITING COMMENTS.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">• Please send signatures to: <a href="mailto:acta.declaration@gmail.com" target="_blank">acta.declaration@gmail.com</a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">• Please enter edits into the draft (<a href="http://sites.google.com/site/ipenforcement2/draft-declaration" target="_blank">http://sites.google.com/site/ipenforcement2/draft-declaration</a>)
or send edits to: <a href="mailto:pijip@wcl.american.edu" target="_blank">pijip@wcl.american.edu</a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u>EDITING SUGGESTIONS </u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">WILL BE ACCEPTED UNTIL NOON MONDAY JUNE 21. THE
FINAL TEXT
WITH EDITS INCLUDED WILL BE RELEASED BY 5PM MONDAY JUNE 21. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">THE FINAL STATEMENT WILL BE RELEASED TO THE PUBLIC
WITH
ENDORSEMENTS ON WEDNESDAY JUNE 23 AT 10AM. ENDORSEMENTS WILL BE ACCEPTED
UNTIL
JUNE 23 AT 9AM. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u><span style="text-decoration: none;"> </span></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u>ENDORSEMENTS:</u> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">WE WILL ACCEPT PROVISIONAL ENDORSEMENTS NOW.
ENDORSERS WILL
BE GIVEN THE OPTION TO OPT-OUT WHEN THE FINAL TEXT IS CIRCULATED BY 5PM
MONDAY
JUNE 21. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u><span style="text-decoration: none;"> </span></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u>FOR INDIVIDUAL ENDORSEMENTS,</u> SEND YOUR NAME,
TITLE
AND ORGANIZATION AND PLACE (CITY, COUNTRY) OF OCCUPATION </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u>FOR ORGANIZATIONAL ENDORSEMENTS</u>, ENTER THE
NAME OF
THE ORGANIZATION AND PLACE(S) (CITY(IES), COUNTRY(IES)) IN WHICH THE
ORGANIZATION HAS OFFICES.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">INDIVIDUALS WITHIN SIGNATORY ORGANIZATIONS MAY
ENDORSE AS
INDIVIDUALS AS WELL AS BEING PART OF THE ORGANIZATIONAL ENDORSEMENT.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">PLEASE CIRCULATE WIDELY.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<h3><span style="font-size: 11pt;">DRAFT
Urgent Communique: Consultation of International Experts on ACTA and the
Public
Interest </span></h3>
<p><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Release
Date: June 23, 2010</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 11pt;">American
University Washington College of Law</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Washington,
D.C.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://wcl.american.edu/pijip/go/acta-communique" target="_blank">http://wcl.american.edu/pijip/go/acta-communique</a></p>
<h4><a name="12958321b923f3a8_129513cf62e110dc_TOC-International-Experts-Find-that-Pen"></a><span style="font-size: 11pt;">International Experts Find that
Pending Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement Threatens Public Interests </span></h4>
<p><span style="font-size: 11pt;">This DRAFT
statement reflects the conclusions reached at a meeting of over 90
academics,
practitioners and public interest organizations from five continents
gathered
at American University Washington College of Law, June 16-18, 2010. In
the days
following the meeting, the statement received the individual and
organizational
endorsements listed below, and is still open for further endorsements at
<a href="http://www.pijip.org/" target="_blank">www.pijip.org</a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The meeting, convened by American University's
Program on
Information Justice and Intellectual Property, was called to analyze the
official text of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA),
released for
the first time in April, 2010, after years of secretive negotiations.
The text
was released in the context of public criticism of the process and
presumed
substance of the negotiations (see <a href="http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fpublicacta.org.nz%2Fwellington-declaration%2F&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFrqEzfubbC70zfhmFyirMRjPZ4kr2vUPQ" target="_blank">Wellington
Declaration</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.europarl.europa.eu%2Fsides%2FgetDoc.do%3FpubRef%3D-%2F%2FEP%2F%2FTEXT%2BTA%2BP7-TA-2010-0058%2B0%2BDOC%2BXML%2BV0%2F%2FEN&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFrqEze0LJTmjtyUTkRz83RCgSGUKYea-g" target="_blank">EU
Resolution on Transparency and State of Play of the ACTA Negotiations</a>).
Negotiators
<a href="http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ustr.gov%2Fabout-us%2Fpress-office%2Fpress-releases%2F2010%2Fapril%2Foffice-us-trade-representative-releases-statement-ac&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFrqEzfNswTHzwtNHUVVm9uNU4-oSK6NyQ" target="_blank">claim</a>
that ACTA will not harm significant public interests. </p>
<p><span style="font-size: 11pt;">We find
that the terms of the agreement threaten numerous public interests,
including
nearly every concern specifically disclaimed by the negotiators in their
announcement. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The proposed agreement is a deeply flawed product
of a
deeply flawed process. <br>
<br>
What started as a proposal to coordinate customs enforcement offices has
morphed into a massive new international intellectual property (IP) and
internet regulation with grave consequences for the global economy and
governments' ability to promote and protect public interests. <br>
<br>
Any agreement of this scope and consequence must be based on a broad and
consultative process and reflect a full range of public interest
concerns. As
detailed below, this text fails to meet these standards.<br>
<br>
Recognizing that the terms of the agreement are under negotiation, a
fair
reading of the proposed text as a whole leads to our conclusions that
ACTA:<br>
<br>
THE INTERNET<br>
-Encourages internet service providers to police users of the internet
without
adequate court oversight or due process;<br>
<br>
-Globalizes 'anti-circumvention' provisions which threaten innovation,
competition, open source business models, interoperability, copyright
exceptions, and user choice; <br>
<br>
FREE TRADE AND ACCESS TO MEDICINES<br>
-Disrupts the free trade in legitimate generic medicines and other
goods, and
sacrifices the foundational principle that IP rights are territorial, by
requiring customs authorities to seize goods in transit countries even
when
they do not violate any law of the producing and importing countries;<br>
<br>
-Does little or nothing to address the problem of medicines with
insufficient
or wrong ingredients as the majority of these are not IP but regulatory
system
problems. </p>
<p><span style="font-size: 11pt;">-Extends
the powers of custom officials to search and seize a wide range of
goods,
including computers and other electronic devices, without adequate
safeguards
against unwarranted confiscations and privacy invasions;</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 11pt;">-Extends
'ex officio' border search and seizures from willful, commercial scale
trademark counterfeiting to a broad range of intellectual property
infringements, including “confusingly similar” trademark
violations, copyright infringement standards that require interpretation
of
"fair use" or similar user rights, and even to patent cases which
frequently involve complex questions of law and fact that are difficult
to
adjudicate even by specialist courts after full adjudicative processes;</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS<br>
-Will curtail full enjoyment of fundamental rights and liberties,
including
rights to privacy and the protection of personal data, health, access to
information, free expression, due process and presumptions of innocence,
cultural participation, and other internationally protected human
rights; <br>
<br>
SCOPE AND NATURE OF IP LAW<br>
Distorts the balance fundamental to IP law between the rights and
interests of
proprietors and users, including by</p>
<ul type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal">introducing very specific rights and remedies for
rights holders without correlative requirements to provide
exceptions,
limitations, and due process safeguards for users;</li><li class="MsoNormal">shifting enforcement from private civil
mechanisms to public authorities and third parties, including to
customs
officials, criminal prosecutors and internet service providers --
in ways
that are likely to be more sensitive to proprietary concerns and
less
sensitive to user concerns;</li><li class="MsoNormal">omitting liability and disincentives for abuses
of enforcement processes by right holders; and</li><li class="MsoNormal">requiring the adoption of automatic damages
assessments unrelated to any proven harm; </li></ul>
<p class="MsoNormal">-Alters the traditional and constitutionally
mandated law
making processes for IP by:</p>
<ul type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal">locking in and exporting controversial aspects of
US and EU enforcement practices whcih have already proven
problematic,
foreclosing future legislative improvements in response to changes
in
technology or policy;</li><li class="MsoNormal">requiring substantive changes to intellectual
property laws of a large number of negotiating countries.</li></ul>
<p class="MsoNormal">INTERNATIONAL TRADE AND DEVELOPMENT<br>
-Will disproportionately harm development and social welfare of the
poor,
particularly in developing countries, including through raising
unjustifiable
trade barriers to imports and exports of needed medicines and other
knowledge
embedded goods;<br>
<br>
-Contains provisions inconsistent with the WTO Agreement on Trade
Related
Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement); <br>
<br>
-Conflicts with the World Trade Organization Doha Declaration on TRIPS
and
Public Health and World Health Assembly Resolution 61.21 by limiting the
ability of countries to exercise to the full flexibilities in the TRIPS
agreement that can promote access to needed medicines; <br>
<br>
-Circumvents and undermines the commitments agreed to under the World
Intellectual Property Organization development agenda, particularly
recommendation 45 committing to “approach intellectual property
enforcement in the context of broader societal interests and especially
development-oriented concerns," and "in accordance with Article 7 of
the TRIPS Agreement"; <br>
<br>
INSTITUTIONAL ISSUES<br>
-Creates a new and redundant international administration for IP issues
outside
of WIPO or the WTO with broad powers but limited transparency,
threatening
multilateralism in international IP norm setting;<br>
<br>
-Encourages technical assistance, public awareness campaigns, and
partnerships
with the private sector that appear designed to promote only the
interests of
IP owners; <br>
<br>
CONCLUSIONS ABOUT THE DEMOCRATIC PROCESS </p>
<p><span style="font-size: 11pt;">The
current process for considering public input into ACTA is fundamentally
flawed
in numerous respects. In many countries, the only consultations taking
place
are with select members of the public, off-the-record and without
benefit of
sharing the latest version of the rapidly changing text. There is little
possibility that a fair and balanced agreement that protects and
promotes
public interests can evolve from such a distorted policy making process.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Governments,
right holders and civil society should have an open and evidence-based
discussion on the right strategy to confront willful commercial scale
trademark
counterfeiting and commercial scale copyright piracy. This discussion
should
take place in multilateral and national open and on-the-record forums
with
access to current negotiating text so that all interested stakeholders
can
participate.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 11pt;">ENDORSEMENTS</span></p>
<ul type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal">Please send signatures (individual or
Organization, City, Country) to: <a href="mailto:acta.declaration@gmail.com" target="_blank">acta.declaration@gmail.com</a></li><li class="MsoNormal">Please send edits to: <a href="mailto:pijip@wcl.american.edu" target="_blank">pijip@wcl.american.edu</a>
</li></ul>
<p class="MsoNormal">Sean Flynn</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Associate Director</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Program on Information Justice and Intellectual
Property</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">American University Washington College of Law</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">202 274 4157</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.pijip.org/" target="_blank">www.pijip.org</a></p><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Centro de Tecnologia e Sociedade<br>FGV Direito Rio<br><br>Center for Technology and Society<br>Getulio Vargas Foundation<br>
Rio de Janeiro - Brazil<br>