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MeneameThe European Commission is seeking a mandate from member states to negotiate a new Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) with major trading partners, including the US, Japan, Korea, Mexico and New Zealand, the EU said on its website.
The agreement has reportedly been signed by 22 European member states. Cyprus, Estonia, Slovakia, Germany and the Netherlands did not sign, but have committed to do so in the near future.
The agreement is expected to reinforce efforts to protect European intellectual property around the world through an international framework that strengthens global enforcement and helps to protect consumers from health and safety risks associated with many counterfeit products.
Under ACTA, the EU would seek to replicate the coordinated anti-counterfeiting work that it is already doing with countries like the US. To that end, the EU has offered technical assistance to help advanced developing countries join the pact in the future.
Counterfeiting' evolution from being mainly a problem for luxury goods makers to an issue worrying a number of industries calls for creating a modern legal framework that reflects the changing nature of intellectual property theft in the global economy, the EU said.
This is the case in the IT industry, with increasingly easy-to-copy digital goods posing security risks for users and resulting in economic losses.
As part of the efforts to protect European intellectual property around the world, the European Commission has included strong intellectual property rights clauses in its new generation of free trade agreements (FTAs), including Latin America.
In this regard, Peruvian e-government organization Egov has already expressed concern, since the country has FTAs with a number of nations that have already signed the agreement, Egov said on its Twitter account.
On October 1, eight ACTA negotiating partners signed the agreement - the US, Australia, Canada, Korea, Japan, New Zealand, Morocco and Singapore.
OPPOSITION
Since its inception in 2008, ACTA has been criticized for the secrecy of its negotiations and accused of excluding civil society. But the European Commission has said "for reasons of efficiency, it is only natural that intergovernmental negotiations dealing with issues that have an economic impact do not take place in public and that negotiators are bound by a certain level of discretion."
It has also been argued that ACTA would restrict freedom of expression and communications privacy for European citizens. In addition, it could be a threat to the free software sector, creating "a culture of surveillance and suspicion," according to the Free Software Foundation's statement against ACTA.
"We've been hearing a lot lately about SOPA and PIPA in the US. In the meantime, ACTA has been creeping along under the radar," the foundation said. "ACTA can still be rejected by the European Parliament."
Although ACTA has remained under the global radar so far, it would seem very likely that the commotion caused by the US congress' Stop Online Piracy Act (Sopa) and Protect IP Act (Pipa) bills also draws some attention to its European sibling.
In fact, reports have already surfaced of alleged threats from the hacktivist group Anonymous, promising retaliation against the EU if ACTA moves forward.
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