Scared Monkeys Discussion Forum

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. digital rights advocates and a computer industry trade group on Wednesday criticized the newly released draft text of an international agreement to toughen penalties for copyright theft.

"Substantively, we remain concerned that this proposal lacks the balance that we find in U.S. copyright law, while attempting to export a regulatory regime that favors big media companies at the expense of consumers and innovators," Gigi Sohn, president of Public Knowledge, a digital rights group, said in a statement.

"As we feared, ACTA will worsen the trend of international courts penalizing U.S. companies for products and services that are perfectly legal here," said Ed Black, president of the Computer and Communications Industry Association.
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"This agreement exports the strong penalties found in U.S. copyright law without also exporting those essential protections like fair use that provide much-needed balance. An agreement that says, 'Please punish our tech companies' will not be good for U.S. trade," Black said.

"ACTA will by no means lead to a limitation of civil liberties or to 'harassment' of consumers," the EU executive branch said.

It also said no party to the proposed deal had suggested that governments should introduce a compulsory "three strikes" rule to fight copyright infringement and Internet piracy.

Digital rights groups have been worried that ACTA could lead to some users being banned from the Internet.