Australians and the global IP protest

Concern is growing in Australia about attempts by various governments to introduce stronger intellectual property (IP) right enforcement standards.

In a major vote on Wednesday night, the European parliament rejected the new Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), says Professor Christoph Antons - a Chief Investigator from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation (CCI) at Deakin University.

The vote follows street demonstrations earlier in the year and the formation of Pirate Parties strongly opposed to ACTA and advocating for internet freedom and reform of intellectual property laws.

ACTA is an international treaty that aims to establish new standards of IP enforcement across the world. Prof Antons explains: “That includes stronger civil and criminal enforcement as well as border measures and enforcement of IP rights in the digital environment.

“However, critics have been concerned about the ambiguity of terms and the potential impact on third parties. They perceive a lack of balance in the treaty and think that it favours rights holders, for example, by allowing them substantial input to determine the amount of damages to be paid by infringers.

“The higher standards have provoked strong reactions and protests - especially by the internet community that is concerned over the possible impact on internet privacy and internet service providers,” he said.

“The tenor of the protests is not generally against intellectual property rights, but against the way they are currently being applied, with many protesters arguing that the balance in the system has been lost.

“It is interesting to note that the strongest protests are not coming from developing countries, but from internet users, consumers and associations in developed nations.

“The various national Pirate Parties, for example, including Pirate Party Australia, usually advocate strong reductions in the length of copyright protection, a reform of the patent system and the exclusion of certain subject matter from patentability.”

Prof Antons says some Pirate Parties are finding their way into the political arena, with the German Pirate Party now being represented in four German states and obtaining 7.8% of votes in North Rhine-Westphalia - the nation’s most populous state - in the most recent state election.

The developments in Europe have influenced debate in Australia, he says. Last week, the House of Representatives’ Joint Standing Committee on Treaties recommended further clarifications of terms of the agreement and not to ratify it until receiving an assessment of the economic and social benefits and costs for Australia, and until receiving a report from the Australian Law Reform Commission inquiring into copyright and the digital economy.

The Joint Standing Committee also recommended that Australia should have regard to events relating to ACTA in other jurisdictions, like the European Union and the United States of America. It noted that the international reaction, “without exception, comes from countries which the committee considers would have the same interests as Australia”.

After several committees in the EU parliament rejected the agreement in the past month, the European parliament came to the same conclusion in its vote last night.

“Now that the EU parliament has rejected ACTA, the further prospects for the treaty are less good. It may still get ratified in the remaining countries that signed it, but the departure of Europe will send a negative message to developing countries, which are less likely to join the agreement or accept similar standards in other agreements,” said Prof Antons.

“They could say ‘if consumers in European high tech economies do not accept these measures, why should we?’ This would be a backlash against one of ACTA’s original aims, which is the establishment of new international enforcement standards that could be exported to developing nations.”