ACTA vs Copyrighted Material Online

Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Law, PIPA & SOPA

ACTA stands for the "Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement", a document initialized between the U.S., the EU, Switzerland, and Japan in 2007. Australia, Canada, Japan, South Korea and the United States joined the agreement in October, 2011.

Although it was originally announced that the ACTA would counter international trading of illegal counterfeit goods, it quickly became clear that the main objective was restricting the transfer of copyrighted materials online as is the intention of U.S. bills PIPA and SOPA.

How will ACTA Restrict The Transfer of Copyrighted and Patented Content?

By giving more leverage to law enforcement and ISPs (internet service providers) to monitor and penalize those who upload and view copyrighted content, ACTA proposes to keep intellectual property in the hands of rights-holders.

ACTA was recently signed by 20 EU states, as well as the UK, and notably Poland, which saw widespread protests. As a trade agreement, ACTA will not change laws in individual countries, though some argue that the language in the agreement is overly vague, and could be interpreted to require changes in laws.

ACTA will also create a committee to make amendments tothe agreement. However, this is another source of controversy, because the committee will not be accountable to the countries governed by the agreement.

How has ACTA been Changed due to Protests?

As a result of negative public attention, the potency of the Agreement has been considerably diluted. As E.D. Kain from Forbes reports, college kids downloading music no longer face possible seizure of equipment or custodial sentences. ISPs and computer manufacturers will not be held responsible for the behaviour of their consumers.

Countries will not have to offer ISPs safe harbours from customer infringement. The DRM (Digital Rights Management - encryption in digital devices to protect copyrighted material from being duplicated) provisions were also altered to allow for unintentional and legal circumvention.

What Effects will ACTA Have When it is Passed?

As it is now, ACTA will apply the U.S. system of statuary damages to jurisdictions that do not have statuary damages now. This will mean that right-holders can charge infringers for every work they illegally download, which can amount to "hundreds of thousands of dollars for downloading a couple dozen songs" says Rashmi Rangnath, a writer at Public Knowledge.

AIrport security could be affected. ACTA allows for laptops and portable devices to be checked for infringing material before crossing borders. Countries can opt-out of this part of the agreement.

The EU states that customs do not have "the time nor the legal basis to look for a couple of pirated songs on an iPod music player or laptop computer, and there is no intention to change this," and will presumably opt-out, but other countries may not.

ACTA will only take effect after five of the signing nations have implemented the agreement. This will likely take until 2013. Until then, other documents, such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, continue to fight for control over copyrighted material. The Electronic Frontier Foundation claims the TPP is a plan between the US and eight other countries including Australia but not yet Canada, which will force all members to adopt more restrictive laws around the rights intellectual property owners, including copyright terms and digital locks. John Ibbitson of The Globe and Mail reported on 5 February that Canadian officials have said Canada will "put everything on the table" in this agreement if it is admitted.