Publication of the current draft of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement...

“three-strikes” regimes against Internet piracy, there’s no final agreement on whether and how it will treat digital copyright, they said. German Minister of Justice Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger welcomed the publication, saying that’s “the only way to prevent unfounded speculation and concerns.” Addressing the concerns from ACTA critics about Internet cutoffs for repeat infringers, she told us: “It is highly important to note that there are no plans for Internet cutoffs in ACTA. Such cutoffs would be an absolutely wrong approach to fight copyright violations.” The head negotiator for Switzerland, Juerg Herren of the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property, said: “While there is not final agreement about what kind of infringements should be covered, the negotiating parties acknowledged that infringements of rights in the digital world are a huge challenge that the parties want to address.” A request to limit ACTA’s scope had also been made recently by the European Parliament, which has to agree on the final text. While the document is far from final, Kimberlee Weatherall of the Australian Centre for Intellectual Property said there are no statutory damages and injunctions against intermediaries to prevent infringement “even where the intermediary or ISP isn’t itself liable.” Electronic Frontier Foundation International Director Gwen Hinze said the EU’s proposal for criminal liability for “inciting, aiding and abetting” infringement “looks like an attempt to significantly increase the scope of secondary liability through the back door."