USTR Offers Answers To Some Thorny Questions On ACTA

USTR Offers Answers To Some Thorny Questions On ACTA

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A letter from the United States government answering a variety of sticky questions about the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement has been released online. The 28 January letter is addressed to Senator Ron Wyden (Democrat, Oregon) from US Trade Representative Ron Kirk.

The letter gives vague answers on the expansion of rights-holders’ ability to obtain information possessed by an alleged infringer related to the alleged infringement, and on whether ACTA parties would have to obey the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

It also addresses questions about possible changes to US law, the definition of “counterfeit,” patent infringement injunctions, parallel trade, criminal penalties, dubious foreign patents, penalties for online service providers, the possibility of terminating internet services to repeat infringers, third-party liability for internet service providers, and inter-industry arrangements to reduce piracy risks.

The countries involved in the ACTA negotiations are: Australia, Canada, the European Union, Japan, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea and Switzerland.

I am a supporter of controlling piracy, yet there are industries that depend a great deal on "street promotions" such as the Hip Hop mix tape circuit. There should be some control and restrictions for those that do blatantly pirate, but for those that legally are given intellectual property to promote within the infrastructure of their own career or business (dj, blogger, podcastor, marketing company, etc), I think there should be some leeway given for those few who are not trying to make a profit off it, except for advertisers on their digital media platforms. This could spell the end of the Hip Hop mix tape industry and those independent artists that use mix tapes as a vehicle for promotion.