The Gray Blog

An alleged excerpt of the secretive Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) has been disseminated as a PDF on a Google file share site.  The PDF is allegedly the proposed language for Article 2.17 of the act providing for internet and digital transmission restrictions.  The file is titled  “Enforcement procedures in the digital environment” and is divided into 7 numbered paragraphs and subsections.

The key provisions revealed in the document include:

• a duty to technology firms to shut down infringement where they have “actual knowledge” that such is taking place;
• a trademark takedown procedures similar to the current copyright takedown procedures;
• an expansion of the DMCA’s injunction against breaking digital locks;
• civil and criminal remedies to be supplemental and cumulative to other remedies;
• a provision for forcing ISPs to implement procedures to monitor for infringements and to address violations. (a footnote suggests that terminating user accounts for repeat infringers)

If genuine, this excerpt discloses many of the concerns with the Act that Internet advocates have been condemning.  For example, the duty to shut down infringement on actual knowledge that infringements may be occurring has previously been suggested in legal arguments.  Critics have characterized the argument as equivalent to requiring a Xerox to stop selling copiers to Kinkos because it has actual knowledge that infringements take place at Kinko’s outlets.  Likewise the termination of accounts are criticized because an entire family’s account is cancelled because of acts which may have been committed by third parties or by a child.  Furthermore, denial of service would arise without legal process and without a specific guaranteed appeal process.

There has been no confirmation that the document is genuine.