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Last Saturday, while half of us were trying not to watch Meat Loaf earn a reported $500,ooo (here, here or here) or tweeting, the Minister for Trade travelled to Japan to sign ACTA (the Department’s home page currently has a photograph of the actual signing).

According to the Minister’s Press Release:

The implementation of ACTA will not require legislative changes in Australia. Rather, trading partners will adapt their laws to the high standards of IP enforcement that already apply in Australia.

According to the USTR, no changes would be required to US law either.

The Minister for Trade’s Press Release states that Australia is one of 10 countries attending the signing + the EU. Howard Knopf reports that those signing included Australia, Canada,  Japan, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, (South) Korea & USA, but the EU didn’t. According to ZDNet, the EU still working on it. So this may be a bit “optimistic”.

According to the USTR, the EU, Mexico and Switzerland did attend and “confirmed their continuing strong support for and preparations to sign the Agreement as soon as practicable”.

Lid dip @howardknopf

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According to this press release from Trade Minister Craig Emerson, ACTA was finalised overnight.

A pdf of the finalised text (subject to legal review) may be downloaded here.

DFAT’s previously advertised information sessions will apparently continue.

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DFAT is holding “information sessions” on the published ACTA text:

• on 12 November in Canberra
• on 18 November in Sydney
• on 24 November in Melbourne.

For the email link to RSVP and further details, including a pdf of the Consolidated Text, go here.

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Terry Hart embarks on a fairly detailed comparison of (what was known about the draft) ACTA and US copyright law to see how much would need to change “ACTA: Thought for FUD” in 4 parts

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

One might well be very sceptical about something being negotiated “in private”. Nonetheless, if you get past the reliance on proposed art. 1.2 as “not requiring new laws”, it is definitely worth a read. If nothing else, you will come away very much better informed.

Lid dip: Ben Sheffner

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DFAT (the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade) will be holding “whole of government” consultations on the draft ACTA text on 11 June 2010 in Canberra, commencing at 10.00a.m.

If you’re a stakeholder wanting to be consulted, register by COB 9 June.

For the contact “co-ordinates”, here.

For the draft ACTA text and other interesting ACTA-tidbits, here.

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DFAT ‘welcomes‘ the release of the draft ACTA text:

http://www.dfat.gov.au/trade/acta/index.html

Draft text (pdf)

(Post updated to tidy up the links on 29/4)

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Michael Geist has a link to the leaked EU comments on the chapter for third party liability on the internet – being drafted by the USA.

The Guardian has weighed into the debate.

Kim Weatherall has emerged from her self-imposed seclusion to comment here, here and here.

DFAT’s must recent summary and overview of key elements. Anondyne USTR statement.

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Selected microblog posts from the past week:

• RT @VogeleLaw: Found: Mary Beth Peter’s testimony (via @cathygellis – thanks!) http://bit.ly/Cijau #gbs_hearing [US Copyright Register opposes Google Book Settlement]
• Google Book in the EU? http://ff.im/-7OYfA
• RT @MegLG: A Billion Dollar Test of the DMCA Safe Harbors in Viacom v YouTube http://ow.ly/om66 via Cyberlaw Cases

• RT @michaelgeist: Microsoft wins stay of injunction on Word. Case arises from patent claim by Toronto’s i4i.http://bit.ly/oDmLU
• IP Think Tank Blog looks at i4i v Microsofthttp://ff.im/-7zfKp
• AAR on UWA v Gray – Universities and their employees: who owns developed IP? http://ff.im/-7RmgI
• Hannahland: Ph D candidate on UWA v Gray http://ff.im/-7WcoR

• RT @filemot: Useful note on Bose case and reckless US trademark intent to use statements by foreignershttp://tr.im/yb7L

• Even the Australian doesn’t believe the Govt’s attempt to filter the web (RT @nicsuzor) http://ff.im/-7zg5v

• RT @IPThinkTank: ACTA 5th negotiation roundhttp://short.to/pqtt
• SPICY IP: WTO rules in favour of Brazil, allows for cross retaliation against U.S. IPRs http://ff.im/-7KvwX

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The USTR has released a 6 page (pdf) outline of issues being dealt with under the proposed ACTA.

Link via Intellectual Property Watch.

The IP Dragon has links to a 48 page document with rather more information.

More tea leaf sifting here.

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The “gang” secretly negotiating ACTA (the Anti-Counterfeitng Treaty) is starting to attract increasingly organised opposition:

*  ”100 groups” (ranging from the EFF in the USA to the Australian National University to …) have signed a “letter” challenging much of what is (assumed) to be going on behind closed doors

* China, supported by Brazil and India, amongst others, has launched a campaign to force ACTA back into WIPO

Of course, one might speculate that the developing countries or the “South” (in a non-US civil war sense) might feel they have better voting prospects in WIPO than, say, a treaty which is being negotiated without them by, apparently,  Australia, Canada, European Union, Japan, Jordan, Korea, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, Switzerland, United States, and the United Arab Emirates.  Then again, one might wonder if that will dissuade the gang of 13 (if one may count the EU as “one”) from rushing headlong onwards?

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