Copyright Undercover: ACTA & the Web
Written by Cory Doctorow
2/17/2010

As the seventh round of secret negotiations on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) concluded last month in Guadalajara, Mexico, the radio silence on the negotiations was near-total. Like the Kremlinologists of the Soviet Union, we're left trying to interpret the clues that leaked out from beneath the closed door.

Here's what we know: The idea that major copyright treaties should be negotiated in secret is losing traction around the world. Legislators from all the ACTA negotiating countries are demanding that this process be opened up to the press, activist groups, and the public.

In response, trade reps are making the bizarre claim that none of the treaty language will result in major changes to their countries' laws, only the other countries will have to change. (Since all these countries have irreconcilably different copyright systems, someone is lying. My money is on all of them.)

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