More challenges to secret copyright treaty

The EU is under pressure to release details about its involvement in the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement

The European Union has come under attack from groups attempting to uncover details about ongoing negotiations in the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA).

Last week the EU released a briefing paper revealing its part in the ACTA treaty, which seeks to set up a global framework for dealing with the privacy of intellectual property.

The latest round of negotiations, between Australia, Canada, the EU, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, Switzerland and the US, were held last weekend.

However, the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII) is now considering legal action to obtain more details from the EU about the negotiations, after its request for information was turned down.

"We do not have much time. The only solution we see is that the parliaments of Europe force the Council to publish the texts by making parliamentary scrutiny reservations," said Ante Wessels, an analyst at the FFII.

"Parliaments cannot build an informed opinion about ACTA and therefore will not be well prepared to use their power."

ACTA is causing considerable concern among civil liberties groups, partly because of the secrecy surrounding the negotiations but also because business interests could be harmed if countries are forced to amend their copyright laws and use government staff to enforce media ownership.

From a practical standpoint many business travellers are worried about the security implications of allowing laptops to be searched when crossing borders. At least one major bank is now issuing empty travel laptops to senior executives so that company secrecy is maintained.

The US government is already being sued over the negotiations, and Australian and Canadian groups are getting ready for action in their own countries.

Very little in the way of information on the ACTA negotiations has been officially released, but some documents have made their way onto the Wikileaks site.

"The process on ACTA so far has been cloak and dagger. This certainly raises concerns," David Fewer, staff counsel at the University of Ottawa's Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic, told Canada.com.

"If Hollywood could order intellectual property laws for Christmas what would they look like? This is pretty close."