Douwe Korff, professor of international law at London Metropolitan University and a leading authority on data protection, said on Tuesday that the international anti-counterfeiting trade agreement (ACTA) is "badly-drafted, breaches many fundamental rights and lawmakers should throw it out and start from scratch."
A controversial trade agreement targeting counterfeiters and copyright infringers is scheduled to be signed this Saturday in Tokyo, the Office of the US Trade Representative has announced.
European parliamentarians in the legal affairs committee have once again cast doubt on the efficacy of the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), but stopped short of declaring it illegal.
Internet service providers and major entertainment companies and industry associations in the US have come to an agreement that allows file-sharing copyright infringers up to six “strikes” before facing any penalty. This is considerably greater latitude than the “three strikes” previously pushed by the music and movie lobbies and now enshrined in New Zealand’s Copyright (Infringing File-Sharing) Act.
The ACTA treaty has come in for fresh criticism after the European Commission failed to address concerns about the its legality.