International treaty forces 34 democracies to change copyright laws

October 21, 2003

GristyMcFisty used our news submit to tell us that a report from civil liberties organisation IP Justice
claims that
a proposed treaty, known as the FTTA
treaty, will affect 34 democracies in the Western world. If
the treaty is passed it will mean wide-ranging changes to domestic
laws including intellectual property rights:

The organisation said that a draft chapter
in the FTTA treaty greatly expands criminal procedures and penalties
against IP infringements in North America and the west.

A clause of the treaty will mean that non commercial infringers of peer
to peer files will be sent to prison. The IP Justice report says that
unless "the second clause to article 4.1 is deleted from the FTAA treaty,
Internet music swapping will be a felony throughout the Western Hemisphere
in 2005".

The treaty will also prevent people from bypassing technical
restrictions on CDs and DVDs, in a way similar to the US Digital
Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

The draft treaty, says IP Justice, also has new conditions for fair use
and personal use which, the organisation claims, will stop consumers from
backing up their media collections.

The treaty will also make democracies change their copyright laws to
force the term to extend to 70 years after an author dies. This extends
the US copyright scheme to the 33 other democracies.

According to Robin Gross, the organisation's executive director, "The
FTAA Treaty's IP chapter reads like a 'wish list' for RIAA, MPAA and
Microsoft lobbyists".

The treaty is due to go into effect by December 2005. The white paper
on IP is here.

For more information on the proposed treaty please visit ipjustice.org/FTAA. On this website you
can sign a petition against the FTAA treaty and learn about other actions
you can take to remove the IP chapter from the treaty.

Source: The Register