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p2pnet news view P2P | Politics:- In  his Open blog, Glyn Moody recently called ACTA a con-trick played on the world, likening it to iron pyrite, better known as fool’s gold.

ACTA’s inner workings  are closely guarded secrets and only those with a pressing need-to-know have been let in on the details.

They include >>>

• Three people from Google
• Three eBay reps
• An Intel lawyer
• The entertainment cartel’s International Intellectual Property Alliance
• Sony Pictures
• Rupert Murdoch’s News Corpse, and
• Two Business Software Alliance staffers.

However, now, “Legislators around the world are demanding more information on the secret Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement,” blogs Michael Geist, going on >>>

French Deputy Nicolas Dupont-Aignan raised ACTA questions in the National Assembly late last year, expressing concerns about a global three-strikes and you’re out approach, increased costs for medicines, and the lack of transparency associated with the process.

U.S. Senator Ron Wyden goes even further in a letter to the USTR this week that seeks answers to nearly a dozen questions about ACTA. Wyden asks about:

• possible constraints on domestic U.S. law reforms
• ensuring ACTA does not interfere with public health flexibilities in TRIPs
• the definition of counterfeit
• concerns about the inclusion of patents within ACTA
• the role of ISPs in ACTA
• whether increased monitoring of subscriber usage is envisioned by ACTA
• the privacy impact of ACTA
• details on border measures provisions
• third party liability for IP infringement
• possible commitments worldwide to comply with the DMCA

Wyden is not the first U.S. senator to raise questions about ACTA.  Last year, Senators Bernie Sanders and Sherrod Brown also wrote to the USTR as did Senators Pat Leahy and Arlen Specter in 2008.

Meanwhile, ACTA arose in the UK House of Commons yesterday, as Labour MP Tom Watson asked questions on the government’s plans for ACTA.  The government response included a desire to ensure that ACTA remains within the scope of existing UK legislation and a need to press for greater transparency in the ACTA negotiations.

“All of this comes on top of earlier efforts from Swedish Member of the European Parliament Jens Holm, New Zealand MP Clare Curran, who has repeatedly raised concerns about ACTA, and NDP MP Charlie Angus, who posed questions about ACTA in the Canadian House of Commons late last year,” Geist adds.

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First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Open blog – ACTA as the (Fool’s) “Gold Standard”, December 24, 2009
fool’s gold – ACTA — con-trick played on the world, December 26, 2009
let in on the details – ACTA secrecy ‘complicated’ – USTR Kirk, December 5, 2009
Michael Geist – Legislators Worldwide Asking Questions About ACTA, January 8, 2010

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