Techno File: Threat over secrecy

The parliament has voted by an overwhelming majority to adopt a resolution demanding that the commission limit the scope of the proposed treaty and inform it of its contents immediately.

The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) is a deal being negotiated by governments around the world outside of the confines of existing trade bodies such as the World Trade Organisation. The commission is negotiating on behalf of the EU's 27 member states.

Secrecy has surrounded the two-year negotiations from the start and critics allege that figures from copyright-reliant industries such as music and film have been allowed to see more of the proposals than the citizens of the governments involved.

The parliament has adopted by 663 votes to 13 a resolution which insists the commission share with it the details of the plans and underlines the fact the commission cannot negotiate anything not already covered by EU law.

Anger at block plan

PLANS to introduce a law to force internet service providers (ISPs) to block access to websites accused of hosting copyright-infringing content have been condemned by ISPs, publishers, consumer groups, user rights groups and academics.

Executives from BT, Virgin Media, Orange, Google, Talk Talk, Facebook and Consumer Focus have written to a newspaper outlining their grave objections to the proposed law and their view that while the law's aim may be laudable, it "would have unintended consequences that far outweigh any benefits".

A proposal from Conservative peer Lord Howard of Rising and Liberal Democrat peer Lord Clement Jones proposed amending the Digital Economy Bill. That change replaced ministers' much-opposed powers to amend copyright legislation without full parliamentary scrutiny with court powers to force ISPs to block websites accused of hosting copyright-infringing material.

The House of Lords voted to accept the amendment to the bill, which will be the subject of one more Lords debate before passing to the House of Commons.

"This amendment not only significantly changes the injunctions procedure in the UK but will lead to an increase in internet service providers blocking websites accused of illegally hosting copyrighted material without cases even reaching a judge," the letter said.

Surveillance shift

WESTERN industrial countries are becoming more willing to spy on their citizens, according to an analysis of snooping that says that the UK is sixth in a world ranking for electronic state surveillance.

Privacy technology company CryptoHippie has produced its second annual report on surveillance trends which indicates countries that previously showed restraint in their monitoring of individuals have lost some of that self-control.

"When we produced our first Electronic Police State report, the top ten nations were of two types: those that had the will to spy on every citizen, but lacked ability (and] those who had the ability, but were restrained in will," it said in its 2010 report.

"This is changing: the able have become willing and their traditional restraints have failed. The United States, with the UK and France close behind, have now caught up with Russia and are gaining on China, North Korea and Belarus."

"The UK is aggressively building the world of 1984 in the name of stopping 'anti-social' activities. Their populace seems unable or unwilling to restrain the government," it said.

EUROPEAN Union ministers have told EU governing bodies to revive plans to create a pan-EU law criminalising intellectual property infringement, and to make more use of a new body to co-operate on the enforcement of intellectual property rights.

They have also asked the European Commission to create new laws if co-operation does not work.

The Competitiveness Council, part of the EU Council of Ministers, has published a resolution on the enforcement of intellectual property rights. It says the European Commission should consider reviving a previously-proposed and much-amended directive that sought to harmonise criminal sanctions for IP infringement across Europe.

The planned directive was first proposed in 2005 but faced opposition and heavy amendments. The directive stalled after a critical report by the European Parliament's economic and social committee in 2007.