Watchdog Circulates Obama IP Letter
A high-tech watchdog group is circulating a petition to President Obama regarding transparency of the proposed Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. Knowledge Ecology's letter asks that negotiations regarding the intellectual property enforcement pact with a handful of U.S. trading partners be opened up for more public vetting. IP protection is critical but is also "a complex area where the 'solutions' to the enforcement issues are often controversial," the letter states.
Unlike nearly all other multilateral and plurilateral discussions about IP norms, the ACTA negotiations have been held in deep secrecy, the document argues. That has led to "a chorus of criticism," which prompted the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to offer some individuals access to documents in the negotiation after signing a non-disclosure agreement. Knowledge Ecology was not asked to review the paperwork.
The letter goes on to state that "the only rationale for keeping the proposed ACTA text from the public is to suppress criticism and critical thinking about the norms that are being proposed." The group calls it "Orwellian and an insult to our intelligence" to claim the secrecy of the ACTA text has anything to do with national security. Read more here.
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