[governance] Call for Support of International Civil Society

Tue Jun 22 09:49:40 EDT 2010

When, lo so many years ago, I signed on to be an attorney, these types of problems were a major reason.  I just wrongfully assumed that fighting these travesties was what it was all about. My lessons were strong and brutal. The "bar" involved in this type of overbearing draconian movements such as ACTA have the power to ostracize and destroy those in the "profession" that would rally and fight against such bastardization of centuries of jurisprudence. So I signed off of being an "attorney". Damned if I want any part of a profession that can proudly take away so many rights from the underrepresented people.
Signing and participation in these objections and stands against this crap is vital.  It allows lawmakers to adopt laws countering such malfeasance and it gives the young and spirited advocates that rage against bar associations some leverage and most importantly some encouragement. We as concerned global netizens must stand united and resolute in order to counterbalance wrongful detractions from self evident and confirmed human rights of speech and freedom from financial legal oppression.
Eric

--- On Sun, 6/20/10, SAMUELS,Carlton A <carlton.samuels at uwimona.edu.jm> wrote:

From: SAMUELS,Carlton A <carlton.samuels at uwimona.edu.jm>
Subject: RE: [governance] Call for Support of International Civil Society
To: "governance at lists.cpsr.org" <governance at lists.cpsr.org>, "Robin Gross" <robin at ipjustice.org>
Date: Sunday, June 20, 2010, 1:14 PM

Dear Robin: 

Thanks for this.   Knowing that this and related matters are
concerns in these groups, I have onward circulation to the Library Association
of Jamaica  (LIAJA) and the ICT4D Jamaica Group. 

Carlton Samuels 

From: Robin Gross
[mailto:robin at ipjustice.org] 

Sent: Saturday, June 19, 2010 5:21 PM

To: governance at lists.cpsr.org

Subject: [governance] Call for Support of International Civil Society
Declaration Against ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement) 

Dear Friends, 

As you are probably aware, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade
Agreement (ACTA)
is a dangerous proposal to radically expand intellectual property rights at the
global level.  The draft agreement has been negotiated in secret, without
inclusion of developing nation perspectives, and without any participation from
civil society or regard for the global public interest.  ACTA specifically
targets the Internet and regulates the flow of information in a digital
environment.  ACTA would create significant negative consequences for
fundamental freedoms, access to medicines, innovation, the balance of
public/private interests, access to knowledge and culture, to name a few of its
problems.  ACTA represents a "wish list" from Hollywood and Big
Pharma which will be imposed unilaterally on developing countries through trade
pressure from the US, Europe and other wealthy states. 

Please consider signing on to the below (draft) International Civil
Society Declaration, which was the result of a meeting
in Washington, DC this week of over 90 academics from 5 continents,
public interest organizations and other legal experts concerned with the public
interest aspects of ACTA.  The meeting of international experts was hosted
by American University Washington College of Law Program on Information Justice
and Intellectual Property (PIJIP). 

Both organizations and individuals are welcome to sign-on to
the statement until 23 June 9am (US East Coast time) by email
to < acta.declaration at gmail.com >.

Further details for sign-on and proposing edits to the draft
declaration are below.  Please take a moment and read the declaration and
consider signing-on and adding your support to raise awareness on ACTA.
 And also please help to spread the word and gather additional civil
society support from your own networks and contacts by forwarding this email on
to others or reference to the website: http://www.wcl.american.edu/pijip/go/blog-post/urgent-acta-communique for
details. 

The next closed-door ACTA negotiations are scheduled for 28
June - 2 July 2010 in Lucerne, Switzerland, and the US promises a final
agreement will be concluded shortly thereafter.  Time is of the essence to
act on ACTA. 

Thank you for any support and assistance you can provide to
raise awareness on the public interest concerns with ACTA.  It is only
through global grass-roots efforts and small individual actions made by many
people that we can fight to overcome this flawed treaty. 

All best, 

Robin Gross 

Begin forwarded message: 

From: "Sean Flynn" <sflynn at wcl.american.edu> 

Date: June 19, 2010 10:30:38 AM PDT 

To: "Robin
Gross" <robin at ipjustice.org> 

Subject: acta communique 

The
DRAFT statement below 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.
The statement is now open to endorsements. 

The latest version of the draft communiqué is
now posted to a public blog post at: 

http://wcl.american.edu/pijip/go/acta-communique 

Please share the draft with others, circulate on your blogs, etc. 

THIS DRAFT STATEMENT IS NOW OPEN FOR INDIVIDUAL AND ORGANIZATIONAL
ENDORSEMENTS AS WELL AS EDITING COMMENTS. 

•            
Please send signatures to: acta.declaration at gmail.com 

•            
Please send edits to: pijip at wcl.american.edu 

EDITING SUGGESTIONS 

WILL BE ACCEPTED UNTIL NOON MONDAY JUNE 21. THE FINAL TEXT WITH
EDITS INCLUDED WILL BE RELEASED BY 5PM MONDAY JUNE 21.  

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.  

ENDORSEMENTS: 

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. 

FOR INDIVIDUAL ENDORSEMENTS, SEND YOUR NAME, TITLE
AND ORGANIZATION AND PLACE (CITY, COUNTRY) OF OCCUPATION to acta.declaration at gmail.com 

FOR ORGANIZATIONAL ENDORSEMENTS, ENTER THE NAME OF THE
ORGANIZATION AND PLACE(S) (CITY(IES), COUNTRY(IES))  IN WHICH THE
ORGANIZATION HAS OFFICES to acta.declaration at gmail.com. 

INDIVIDUALS WITHIN SIGNATORY ORGANIZATIONS MAY ENDORSE AS
INDIVIDUALS AS WELL AS BEING PART OF THE ORGANIZATIONAL ENDORSEMENT. 

PLEASE CIRCULATE WIDELY. 

DRAFT Urgent Communique: Consultation of International Experts on
ACTA and the Public Interest 

Release
Date: June 23, 2010 

American
University Washington College of Law 

Washington,
D.C. 

http://wcl.american.edu/pijip/go/acta-communique 

International Experts
Find that Pending Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement Threatens Public
Interests    

We
find that the terms of the agreement threaten numerous public interests,
including nearly every concern specifically disclaimed by the negotiators in
their announcement. 

The proposed agreement is a deeply flawed product of a deeply
flawed process. 

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. 

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.

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:

THE INTERNET

-Encourages internet service providers to police users of the internet without
adequate court oversight or due process;

-Globalizes 'anti-circumvention' provisions which threaten innovation,
competition, open source business models, interoperability, copyright
exceptions, and user choice; 

FREE TRADE AND ACCESS TO MEDICINES

-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;

-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. 

-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; 

-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; 

FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS

-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; 

SCOPE AND NATURE OF IP LAW

Distorts the balance fundamental to IP law between the rights and interests of
proprietors and users, including by 

 introducing
     very specific rights and remedies for rights holders without correlative
     requirements to provide exceptions, limitations, and due process
     safeguards for users; 
 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; 
 omitting
     liability and disincentives for abuses of enforcement processes by right
     holders; and 
 requiring the
     adoption of automatic damages assessments unrelated to any proven harm;  

-Alters the traditional and constitutionally mandated law making
processes for IP by: 

 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; 
 requiring
     substantive changes to intellectual property laws of a large number of
     negotiating countries. 

INTERNATIONAL TRADE AND DEVELOPMENT

-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;

-Contains provisions inconsistent with the WTO Agreement on Trade Related
Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement); 

-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;   

-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"; 

INSTITUTIONAL ISSUES

-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;

-Encourages technical assistance, public awareness campaigns, and partnerships
with the private sector that appear designed to promote only the interests of
IP owners; 

CONCLUSIONS ABOUT THE DEMOCRATIC PROCESS 

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. 

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. 

ENDORSEMENTS 

 Please send
     signatures (individual or Organization, City, Country) to: acta.declaration at gmail.com 
 Please send
     edits to: pijip at wcl.american.edu 

Sean Flynn 

Associate Director 

Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property 

American University Washington College of Law 

202 274 4157 

www.pijip.org 

IP JUSTICE 

Robin Gross, Executive Director 

1192 Haight Street, San Francisco, CA  94117  USA 

p: +1-415-553-6261    f: +1-415-462-6451 

w: http://www.ipjustice.org 
   e: robin at ipjustice.org 

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