EFF and Public Knowledge Reluctantly Drop Lawsuit for Information About ACTA

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originally made by the Bush Administration.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/

Complete
Story