There will soon be a big new beast in the IP jungle. And while the creature
comes with the seemingly innocuous acronym of ACTA, cyber activists and
copyright mavens fear that it will pave the way for a Global DMCA (Digital
Millennium Copyright Act) that will significantly impact on ordinary people's
privacy, and erode civil liberties. Moreover, they warn, the secrecy surrounding
the ACTA negotiations raises important questions about representative democracy,
and demonstrates the extent to which the developed world remains determined to
dominate and control the developing world. For the research community, says
University of Ottawa's Michael Geist, ACTA will make Open Access (OA) even more
urgent. However, he cautions, if ACTA succeeds in propagating the bruising
statutory damages rules used in US copyright infringement cases it could
threaten the institutional repository movement.
More here:
http://ow.ly/1fAnA
Received on Mon Mar 08 2010 - 16:47:08 GMT