[ga] [Fwd FTI to: [Ip-health] Last call: Stop secret treaty threatening generics (ACTA)]]

["Jeffrey A. Williams" <jwkckid1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

All,

  For your information and potential consideration.
FWIW, our members are against this ACTA as currently
outlined and so have singed this letter as of today.
I hope that Sara will make the necessary updates
to reflect such as soon as she is able to do so.

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [Ip-health] Last call: Stop secret treaty threatening generics
(ACTA)]
Date: Fri, 05 Sep 2008 11:55:45 -0400
From: Sarah Rimmington <srimmington@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: Ip-health@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

We now have 106 endorsements (65 organizations and 41 individuals) for
the sign-on letter re the Anti-Counterfeiting treaty, which may threaten
access to generic meds globally. The list is below the intro note and
draft letter, below. If you would like to endorse the letter, please
send me a note by Monday September 8, 2008 (or even very early Tuesday
morning, EST)!
Sarah

Dear Friends,

The United States, the European Union, Japan, South Korea, Canada,
Mexico, Australia and New Zealand are now negotiating a new treaty known
as the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA).

The text of what they are negotiating remains secret, but there's a lot
to be worried about. An over-reaching treaty in this field could
undermine access to low-cost generic medicines, require Internet Service
Providers (ISPs) to monitor all consumers' Internet communications, and
interfere with fair use of copyrighted materials, among many other
dangers.

Does the proposed ACTA contain provisions that would result in these
harmful effects?

There's no way to know, because the treaty text remains secret. There is
no legitimate rationale for such secrecy, which denies people around the
world an opportunity to comment on and influence the negotiations.

We are asking organizations and individuals from around the world to
sign on to a letter to ACTA negotiators, asking that they immediately
make public the draft text of the treaty. The text of the letter, with
initial signatories, is below.

If you would like to sign the letter, please send your name, affiliation
(if any), city/country and email address to Sarah Rimmington of
Essential Action at: <srimmington@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>. Please
specify if you are signing in your individual capacity or on behalf of
an organization. **Pleaase note: Our deadline for accepting signatures
is Wednesday, August 20, 2008.**

For open and accountable government,

Robert Weissman and Sarah Rimmington,
Essential Action

---

For more on ACTA, see:

<http://www.keionline.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=187>

<http://www.publicknowledge.org/issues/acta>

<https://secure.eff.org/site/Advocacy?JServSessionIdr009=m5722xgyi2.app2a&cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=383>

<http://ipjustice.org/wp/campaigns/acta/>

<http://www.michaelgeist.ca/tags/acta>

---

LETTER TO ANTI-COUNTERFEITING TRADE AGREEMENT NEGOTIATORS

Dear [Negotiator],

We are writing to urge the negotiators of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade
Agreement to agree to publish immediately the draft text of the
agreement, as well as pre-draft discussion papers (especially for
portions for which no draft text yet exists), before continuing further
discussions over the treaty. We ask also that you publish the agenda for
negotiating sessions and treaty-related meetings in advance of such
meetings, and publish a list of participants in the negotiations.

There is no legitimate rationale to keep the treaty text secret, and
manifold reasons for immediate publication.

The trade in products intended to deceive consumers as to who made them
poses important but complicated public policy issues. An overbroad or
poorly drafted international instrument on counterfeiting could have
very harmful consequences. Based on news reports and published material
from various business associations, we are deeply concerned about
matters such as whether the treaty will:

* Require Internet Service Providers to monitor all consumers' Internet
communications, terminate their customers' Internet connections based on
rights holders' repeat allegation of copyright infringement, and divulge
the identity of alleged copyright infringers possibly without judicial
process, threatening Internet users' due process and privacy rights; and
potentially make ISPs liable for their end users' alleged infringing
activity;

* Interfere with fair use of copyrighted materials;

* Criminalize peer-to-peer file sharing;

* Interfere with legitimate parallel trade in goods, including the
resale of brand-name pharmaceutical products;

* Impose liability on manufacturers of active pharmaceutical ingredients
(APIs), if those APIs are used to make counterfeits -- a liability
system that may make API manufacturers reluctant to sell to legal
generic drug makers, and thereby significantly damage the functioning of
the legal generic pharmaceutical industry;

* Improperly criminalize acts not done for commercial purpose and with
no public health consequences; and

* Improperly divert public resources into enforcement of private rights.

Because the text of the treaty and relevant discussion documents remain
secret, the public has no way of assessing whether and to what extent
these and related concerns are merited.

Equally, because the treaty text and relevant discussion documents
remain secret, treaty negotiators are denied the insights and
perspectives that public interest organizations and individuals could
offer. Public review of the texts and a meaningful ability to comment
would, among other benefits, help prevent unanticipated pernicious
problems arising from the treaty. Such unforeseen outcomes are not
unlikely, given the complexity of the issues involved.

The lack of transparency in negotiations of an agreement that will
affect the fundamental rights of citizens of the world is fundamentally
undemocratic. It is made worse by the public perception that lobbyists
from the music, film, software, video games, luxury goods and
pharmaceutical industries have had ready access to the ACTA text and
pre-text discussion documents through long-standing communication
channels.

The G8's recent Declaration on the World Economy implored negotiators to
include ACTA negotiations this year. The speed of the negotiations makes
it imperative that relevant text and documents be made available to the
citizens of the world immediately.

We look forward to your response, and to working with you toward
resolution of our concerns.

Sincerely,

[List in Formation]

**Organizations**

Act Up East Bay
Oakland, CA, USA

Act Up Paris
Paris, France

African Underprivileged Children's Foundation (AUCF)
Lagos, Nigeria

AIDS Access Foundation
Thailand

American Medical Student Association
Reston, VA, USA

ASEED Europe
Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Australian Digital Alliance
Kingston, Australia

Australian National University
Canberra, Australia

Australian Privacy Foundation
Sydney, Australia

Bharatiya Krishakn Samaj
New Delhi, India

The Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network
Toronto, Canada

The Canadian Internet Policy & Public Interest
Clinic (CIPPIC)
University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law

The Canadian Library Association
Ottawa, Canada

Center for Democracy and Technology
Washington, DC

Center for Digital Democracy
Washington, DC

The Center for Women's Culture & Theory
Korea

Christian Media Network
Korea

CHOICE (Australian Consumers Association)
Marrickville, Australia

Consumentenbond
The Hague, Netherlands

Consumer Action
San Francisco, CA, USA

Consumer Federation of America
Washington, DC, USA

Consumers Union. Publisher of Consumer Reports
Yonkers, NY, USA

Consumers Union of Japan (ihon Shohisha Renmei)
Tokyo, Japan

La Corporacion Opcion por el Derecho a Ser y el Deber de Hacer, NIT
Bogotá, Colombia

Corporate Europe Observatory
Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Cultural Action
Korea

Electronic Frontier Foundation
San Francisco, CA, USA

Electronic Frontiers Australia
Adelaide, Australia

The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC)
Washington, DC, USA

Essential Action
Washington, DC, USA

European AIDS Treatment Group (EATG)
Brussels, Belgium

Foreign Policy in Focus
Institute for Policy Studies
Washington, DC

Foundation For Consumers (FFC)
Thailand

Foundation for Media Alternatives
Philippines

Free Press
Washington, DC, USA

Global Trade Watch
Washington, DC USA

Gram Bharati Samiti Society for Rural Development
Amber, India

Gyeonggi NGO Network
Korea

Health Action International (HAI) ? Asia Pacific
Colombo, Sri Lanka

Health Action International (HAI) ? Europe
Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Health Action International (HAI) ? Global
Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Health Action International ? Latin America & Caribbean
Lima, Perú

Health GAP (Global Access Project)
Philadelphia, PA, USA

Information & Culture Nuri for the Disabled
Korea

International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA)
The Hague, Netherlands

IP Justice
San Francisco, CA, USA

IPLeft
Seoul, Korea

Knowledge Ecology International (KEI)
Washington, DC, USA

Korean Progressive Network Jinbonet
Seoul, Korea

Labour, Health and Human Rights Development Centre
Lagos, Nigeria

Lawyers Collective HIV/AIDS Unit
India

Media Access Project
Washington, DC, USA

La Mesa de ONGs Con Trabajo en VIH/SIDA
Bogotá, Colombia

National Consumer Council (NCC)
London, UK

People's Coalition for Media Reform
Seoul, Korea

Positive Malaysian Treatment Access & Advocacy Group (MTAAG+).
Malaysia

Privacy Activism
USA

Privacy Rights Clearinghouse
San Diego, CA, USA

Public Knowledge
Washington, DC, USA

Social movement to combat private media ownership and enhance public
media
Korea

Swisslinux.org
Mayens-de-Chamoson, Switzerland

The Transparency and Accountability Network
New York, NY, USA

Third World Network
Malaysia

Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM)
Berkeley, CA, USA

U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG)
Washington, DC, USA


**Individuals**

Jamie Acosta
Miami, FL, USA

Jennifer Bruenger
Reference Librarian & Education Program Coordinator
Linda Hall Library of Science, Engineering & Technology
Mission, KS, USA

Sae-Rom Chae
University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine
Chicago, IL, USA

Sylvia Caras
Santa Cruz, CA, USA

Jeff Chester
Executive Director
Center for Digital Democracy
Washington, DC USA

Don Christie
President
New Zealand Open Source Society

Mark R. Costa
Clay, NY, USA

Chris Curry
MD/PhD Candidate
Loyola University Chicago
Forest Park, IL, USA

Anke Dahrendorf (LL.M.)
Junior Researcher, International and European Law
University of Maastricht
Maastricht, The Netherlands

Professor Peter Evans
Department of Sociology
University of California, Berkeley, USA

John Dillon
Program Coordinator
KAIROS: Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives
Toronto, Canada

Thomas Alured Faunce
Assoc. Professor, College of Law
Assoc. Professor, Medical School, College of Medicine and Health
Sciences
Australian National University
Canberra, Australia

Professor Brian Fitzgerald
Professor of Intellectual Property and Innovation
Law Faculty
Queensland University of Technology
Brisbane, Australia

Sean Flynn,
Associate Director
Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property
American University Washington College of Law
Washington DC, USA

Maurice J. Freedman
Past President, American Library Association
Mount Kisco, Ny, USA

Michael Geist
Canada Research Chair in Internet and e-commerce Law
University of Ottawa
Ottawa, Canada

Jonathan Walter Giehl
Ocala, Florida, USA

Mark W. Heffington, M.D.
Cashiers, NC, USA

Matthew Herder
Visiting Professor of Law
Loyola University Chicago
Chicago,IL,  USA

Ellen ?t Hoen , LLM
Campaign for Essential Medicines
Medecins sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders)
Geneva, Switzerland

Dr. KR John
Dept. of Community Health
Christian Medical College
Vellore, India

Alison Katz
Member
People?s Health Movement and Centre Europe Tiers Monde
Geneva, Switzerland

Adam M Kost
Student
University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine
Chicago, IL, USA

Nicholas J. Lusiani
International Network for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
ESCR-Net / Red-DESC / Réseau-DESC
New York, NY, USA

Hamish MacEwan
Open ICT Consultant
Wellington, New Zealand

Eduardo Mayorga
ALAFAR
Quito, Ecuador

Ibraheem Naeem
Medical student
Lahore, Pakistan

Dr. Pat Neuwelt
Public Health Physician and Professor
Mt Albert, Auckland, New Zealand

Ahti Otala
Espoo, Finland

Frank Ottey
Media, PA, USA

Kevin Outterson
Associate Professor of Law & Director of the Health Law Program
Boston University School of Law

A. Sankar
Executive Director
EMPOWER
Tuticorin, India

Dr Canan Sargin, MD
UNICEF
Ankara, Turkey

Professor Susan K. Sell
George Washington University
Washington, DC USA

Aaron Shaw
Berkman Center for Internet and Society
Harvard University
Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

Dr. Mira Shiva, M.D.
People's Health Initiative, India

Dr. Vandana Shiva
Navdanya, India

Wilma Teran
Pharmaceutical Biochemist, Public Health
Platform on Access to Medicines and Intellectual Property
La Paz, Bolivia

Mike Waghorne
Esquibien, France

Professor Kimberlee Weatherall
TC Beirne School of Law
The University of Queensland
Brisbane, Australia

Patricia Whelehan, Ph.D
Professor, Anthropology
State University of New York-Potsdam
Potsdam, NY, USA



---

(Attachment to Sign-on Letter):

OPENNESS IN TRADE AND OTHER MULTILATERAL NEGOTIATIONS

Negotiating texts are commonly made public in multilateral trade
negotiation, although some trade negotiations are characterized by
secrecy.

Examples of negotiations where texts are or were made public include:

* The current Doha Round negotiations at the World Trade Organization;

http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/dda_e/dda_e.htm

* The Free Trade Area of the Americas;

http://www.ftaa-alca.org/FTAADraft03/Index_e.asp

* The Multilateral Agreement on Investment (although initial texts were
not made public)

http://www.oecd.org/document/35/0,3343,en_2649_33783766_1894819_1_1_1_1,00.html

* Draft text at the World Health Organization, where resolutions are
published in advance of consideration and treaty or treaty-like
negotiations are handled openly, including this example of follow-on
negotiations for the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control:

http://www.who.int/gb/fctc/

* The World Intellectual Property Organization, including this example
of a draft Treaty on the Protection of Broadcasting Organizations:

http://www.wipo.int/meetings/en/doc_details.jsp?doc_id=57213




--
Sarah Rimmington
Attorney
Essential Action, Access to Medicines Project
Washington, DC
Tel: (202) 387-8030
Cell: (202) 422-2687
www.essentialaction.org/access/

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