[Discussioni][announce a ipjustice.org: FTAA Treaty '"Threatens Freedom and Free Trade"]

[Leandro Noferini]

----- Forwarded message from IP Justice <announce a ipjustice.org> -----

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Date: Sun, 19 Oct 2003 22:29:56 -0700
To: announce a ipjustice.org
From: IP Justice <announce a ipjustice.org>
Subject: FTAA Treaty '"Threatens Freedom and Free Trade"

IP Justice Media Release
October 20, 2003
Media contact: Robin Gross, IP Justice Executive Director
+1 415-553-6261     robin a ipjustice.org


FTAA Treaty Chapter on IP '"Threatens Freedom and Free Trade"
IP Justice White Paper Reveals Treaty Would Send P2P File-Sharers to Prison
Sponsors Petition to Delete Intellectual Property Chapter

- International civil liberties group IP Justice published a report today 
entitled "FTAA: A Threat to Freedom and Free Trade," that analyzes key 
sections of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) Treaty. The FTAA 
Treaty will govern the lives of 800 million Americans in the Western 
Hemisphere in 2005.

Similar to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the FTAA Treaty 
seeks to bind the 34 democracies in the Western Hemisphere (including the 
US) to a single trade agreement. It will require all countries to change 
their domestic laws on a wide range of topics, including intellectual 
property rights.

The draft intellectual property rights chapter in the FTAA Agreement vastly 
expands criminal procedures and penalties against intellectual property 
infringements throughout the Americas. One clause would require countries 
to send non-commercial infringers such as Peer-to-Peer (P2P) file-sharers 
to prison. It is estimated that 60 million Americans use file-sharing 
software in the US alone.

According to the IP Justice report, "unless the second proposed clause to 
Article 4.1 is deleted from the FTAA Treaty, Internet music swapping will 
be a felony throughout the Western Hemisphere in 2005."

The proposed agreement forbids consumers from bypassing technical 
restrictions on their own CDs, DVDs and other property, similar to the 
controversial US Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Even though bills 
are pending in the US Congress to repeal the DMCA, FTAA proposes to outlaw 
even more speech and legitimate conduct.

Mislabeled as a "free trade" agreement, the FTAA Agreement would actually 
make it illegal to bypass trade barriers such as DVD region code 
restrictions and it would enable price discrimination against consumers in 
the Americas.

The draft treaty also imposes new definitions for "fair use" and "personal 
use," curtailing traditional fair use and personal use rights to a single 
copy and only under limited circumstances. This prevents consumers from 
backing-up their media collections, using their media in new and innovative 
ways, and accessing media for educational and non-commercial purposes.

Another clause would require all countries to amend their copyright laws to 
extend copyright's term to at least 70 years after the life of the author, 
essentially forcing the new US standard on all other 33 countries in the 
hemisphere. Although forbidden by the US Constitution, FTAA's copyright 
section would allow companies to copyright facts and scientific data.

Another provision requires all domain name trademark disputes to be decided 
by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a 
private and unaccountable organization that is ill equipped to determine 
the limits of freedom of expression rights or the scope of intellectual 
property rights. Americans would no longer have access to their local 
public courts to adjudicate rights over their Internet domain names.

"The FTAA Treaty's IP chapter reads like a 'wish list' for RIAA, MPAA, and 
Microsoft lobbyists," said IP Justice Executive Director Robin Gross. 
"Rather than promote competition and creativity, it is bloated with 
provisions that create monopolies over information and media devices," 
stated the intellectual property attorney.

In conjunction with the White Paper, IP Justice published an online 
petition calling upon the FTAA Trade Ministers to delete the entire chapter 
on intellectual property rights from the trade agreement. Earlier this year 
Brazil called for scrapping the chapter on intellectual property rights also.

FTAA Treaty negotiators, including the Office of the US Trade 
Representative who negotiates on behalf of US government, will meet in 
Miami from November 16-21, 2003. Debate over the text of the FTAA Treaty 
will conclude by January 2005 and the treaty is due to take effect by 
December 2005.

IP Justice White Paper on FTAA IP Chapter:
http://www.ipjustice.org/ftaa/whitepaper.shtml

IP Justice FTAA Educational Campaign:
http://www.ipjustice.org/ftaa

IP Justice's Top 10 Reasons to Delete FTAA's IP Chapter:
http://www.ipjustice.org/ftaa/topten.shtml

IP Justice Petition to Delete FTAA's IP Chapter:
http://www.ipjustice.org/ftaa/petition.shtml

Official FTAA Website:
http://www.ftaa-alca.org

Draft chapter on intellectual property rights in FTAA Agreement:
http://www.ftaa-alca.org/ftaadraft02/eng/draft_e.asp

IP Justice is an international civil liberties organization that promotes 
balanced intellectual property law. IP Justice defends individual rights to 
use digital media worldwide and is a registered California non-profit 
organization. IP Justice was founded in 2002 by Robin D. Gross, who serves 
as its Executive Director. To learn more about IP Justice, visit the 
website at http://www.ipjustice.org.



----- End forwarded message -----

-- 
Ciao
leandro
Lei è come tutti i dilettanti: le importa far qualcosa piuttosto che
qualcosa sia fatto.
(Goethe - Le affinità elettive)
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