Treaty targets Internet, not knockoff purses
On April 21, negotiators released the draft of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement – a treaty containing the biggest changes to international intellectual property law since 1994. Negotiating governments have until now stonewalled attempts to access the agreement, which has prompted terrified speculation about border agents seizing laptops to search for downloaded songs. The draft reveals what many expected: The Internet, not counterfeit purses, is what is at issue here.
The agreement does three things:
1. It evinces zero respect for international law by arbitrarily creating new institutions and ignoring old ones.
2. It seeks to standardize Internet law to the most stringent standard available.
3. It lays the infrastructural groundwork for privacy and free-speech problems.
In international Intellectual Protocol law, developed countries push for strong IP protection because it benefits domestic industries. Developing nations, whose citizens are less able to afford premium prices for music or medicine, belatedly enter into institutions created by developed countries, and try to carve out exceptions that preserve basic human rights.
ACTA shows no respect for existing institutions: It instead creates an oversight committee of original treaty parties. ACTA’s existence demonstrates that when developed nations can’t get what they want out of existing institutions, they’re more than happy to bypass them.
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