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March Round of ACTA Negotiations Delayed at U.S. Request

By Michael Geist

Inside U.S. Trade reports (sub required) that the next round of ACTA negotiations, which had been scheduled for next month in Morocco, has been delayed at the request of U.S. officials.  While this does not signal a change in perspective on ACTA, the U.S. did want to provide incoming USTR officials time to review ACTA before continuing with the negotiations.  No new meeting has been established.

The meeting had planned to review the full ACTA draft, which has language proposed for most of the six chapters (more details on the unreleased ACTA here and here).  The report indicates that much of the discussion is focusing on the form of dispute resolution (with the possibility of a binding mechanism) and the Internet-related chapter, with fears that the U.S. may push for the inclusion of an international DMCA.  In other words, beyond the earlier leaked provisions that raise serious privacy concerns, the treaty could ultimately lead to a backdoor Canadian DMCA with a dispute resolution policy that forces Canada to comply.  Given those possibilities, any delay is welcome and the need for greater transparency is more urgent than ever.

Full post as published by Michael Geist on February 20, 2009 (boomark / email).