For three years, technology and telecommunications companies have watched nervously from the sidelines as the United States and nearly a dozen trading partners have negotiated a trade agreement that critics feared could undermine all sorts of online activities.
But on Wednesday, the U.S. Trade Representative released the latest draft of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, or ACTA. And several proposals that had the high-tech sector most worried — including language that some expected to hold Internet service providers and other technology companies responsible for copyright infringement by their users — are missing.
In their place are broader, more flexible provisions that expose tech companies to less legal risk and are likely to be more palatable to the industry.
The Bush administration began negotiating ACTA in the fall of 2007 in an effort to harmonize intellectual property protections across different nations. The far-reaching agreement would encompass everything from counterfeit pharmaceuticals to fake Prada bags to online piracy of music and movies.
From the start, ACTA has been mired in controversy and encountered significant opposition both inside the U.S. and beyond, particularly in Europe. A number of academics, companies and public interest groups have painted the agreement as an attempt by the U.S. government to export harsh anti-counterfeiting rules, based in large part on existing U.S. law, to other countries with very different standards for protecting intellectual property — all under the guise of a trade agreement.
What’s more, with 10 rounds of negotiations held behind closed doors, critics complain that there has been little opportunity for public comment or outside input. “This was presented as take it or leave it,” said Sherwin Siy, deputy legal director for Public Knowledge.
Still, it appears that “public backlash, corporate backlash and political backlash” have helped produce a “watered-down version of ACTA … that I suspect many Internet and telecommunications companies can…