EFF and Public Knowledge Reluctantly Drop Lawsuit for
Information About ACTA
Government's 'National Security' Claims Keep IP Treaty
Under Wraps
Washington, D.C. - The Obama Administration's decision to
support Bush-era concealment policies has forced the
Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and Public Knowledge
(PK) to drop their lawsuit about the proposed
Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). EFF and PK had
been seeking important documents about the secret
intellectual property enforcement treaty that has broad
implications for global privacy and innovation.
Federal judges have very little discretion to overrule
Executive Branch decisions to classify information on
"national security" grounds, and the Obama Administration
has recently informed the court that it intends to defend
the classification claims originally made by the Bush
Administration.
"We're extremely disappointed that we have to end our
lawsuit, but there is no point in continuing it if we're
not going to obtain information before ACTA is finalized,"
said EFF International Policy Director Gwen Hinze.
"There's a fundamental fairness issue at stake here. It's
now clear that the negotiating texts and background
documents for this trade agreement have been made available
to representatives of major media copyright owners and
pharmaceutical companies on the Industry Trade Advisory
Committee on Intellectual Property. Yet private citizens
-- who stand to be greatly affected by ACTA -- have had to
rely on unofficial leaks for any substantive information
about the treaty and have had no opportunity for meaningful
input into the negotiation process. This can hardly be
described as transparent or balanced policy-making."
"Even though we have reluctantly dropped this lawsuit, we
will continue to press the U.S. Trade Representative and
the Obama Administration on the ACTA issues," said Public
Knowledge Deputy Legal Director Sherwin Siy. "The issues
are too far-reaching and too important to allow this
important agreement to be negotiated behind closed doors,"
he added.
Very little is known about ACTA, currently under
negotiation between the U.S. and more than a dozen other
countries, other than that it is not limited to
anti-counterfeiting measures. Leaked documents indicate
that it could establish far-reaching customs regulations
governing searches over personal computers and iPods.
Multi-national IP corporations have publicly requested
mandatory filtering of Internet communications for
potentially copyright-infringing material, as well as the
adoption of "Three Strikes" policies requiring the
termination of Internet access after repeat allegations of
copyright infringement, like the legislation recently
invalidated in France. Last year, more than 100 public
interest organizations around the world called on ACTA
country negotiators to make the draft text available for
public comment.
EFF and Public Knowledge first filed suit against the
Office of the U.S. Trade Representative in September of
2008 demanding that background documents on ACTA be
disclosed under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
Rather than pursuing a lawsuit with little chance of
forcing the disclosure of key ACTA documents, EFF and
Public Knowledge will devote their efforts to advocating
for consumer representation on the U.S. Industry Trade
Advisory Committee on IP, the creation of a civil society
trade advisory committee, and greater government
transparency about what ACTA means for citizens.
For more on this case:
http://www.eff.org/cases/eff-and-public-knowledge-v-ustr
For more on ACTA:
http://www.eff.org/issues/acta
For this release:
http://www.eff.org/press/archives/2009/06/17
About EFF
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is the leading civil
liberties organization working to protect rights in the
digital world. Founded in 1990, EFF actively encourages and
challenges industry and government to support free
expression and privacy online. EFF is a member-supported
organization and maintains one of the most linked-to
websites in the world at http://www.eff.org/
