Breaking news on Canadian law expert Michael Geist’s blog:
The New Zealand round of ACTA negotiations concluded earlier today with participants promising to release the draft text next week. This obviously represents a major new development that reflects the mounting global pressure for greater transparency that built in the weeks leading up to the negotiations.
This is positive news. Just came across it. Will have more to say over the weekend. Hopefully the publicACTA (Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement) conference last Saturday had some influence along the resulting support from thousands of people around the world who signed the publicACTA petition.
Congratulations to everyone involved. Transparency is a first and important step in ensuring that a treaty on preventing international counterfeiting for commercial use is negotiated in public and does not result in criminal prosecutions against private citizens who breach copyright for non-commercial purposes.
Fingers crossed
This is an important topic to keep a close eye on. NZ’s access and ability to use internationally generated IP is crucial if we are to become a rich country.
Interesting and related article on piracy: US government finally admits most piracy estimates are bogus