Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement

• Control over the movement of counterfeit materials at the border, search of personal belongings for any infringements of copyright
• Responsibility of providers for hosting and transmitting traffic containing counterfeit materials
• Providers will be required to disclose information about their subscribers to copyright owners upon request.
• Prevent anyone, including free software, that can be used to view DRM-protected materials or to overcome defenses, even if it can be used for other purposes. Ban on marketing and hosting related projects.
• Permission to conduct searches in order to search for counterfeit materials even in cases where there are no grounds for suspicion
• Criminal liability for copyright infringement in countries where there is no such liability
• Criminalization of aid, complicity and incitement to violation of intellectual property rights
• Imposing responsibility for DRM overcoming or software development that can be used to overcome DRM and other technical protection tools, even if it can be used for other purposes.
• To institute criminal proceedings for copyright infringement, the application or consent of the owner of intellectual property rights should not be necessary. Competent authorities should initiate such cases on their own initiative.
• Withdrawal and liquidation without delay of any items with fake trademarks without compensation to the owner. The removal of trademarks is not a sufficient reason to return the goods to the owner or sell the goods in another way.

No, username, this is not the plot concept of a new futuristic film script. This is worse. This is almost a reality.


On December 3, the final version of the ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement) was published - an international agreement proposed to strengthen the fight against copyright infringement. According to the statements of representatives of the European Union, a few weeks are left before the final signing.

The initiators of the agreement were the United States, the European Union, Japan, Canada, Australia, Switzerland, South Korea, New Zealand, Mexico, Singapore and Morocco, but according to official reports, it is expected that Brazil, Russia and China will also join the agreement.

Among other things, the agreement provides for the points mentioned above.
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In addition, the following points are provided:

• Mutual recognition of patents by all participating countries
• Withdrawal and liquidation without delay of any materials and equipment, the main use of which is the production of goods that violate the laws on intellectual property
• Each participating country is obliged to promote the importance of protecting intellectual property among the public, including in educational institutions.

Also, the steering committee will have the right to issue supplements to ACTA, developed with the participation of content producers, who will have the force of law, but will not require ratification in the participating countries and will not undergo legal examination.

The development of the agreement was carried out in strict secrecy for several years, even the representatives of the European Parliament could not get the draft agreement until the final version was approved. Requests by public organizations for the publication of preliminary versions of the agreement were rejected with reference to considerations of secrecy and US national security, although some information leaks were posted on Wikileaks.

At the same time, copyright protection organizations such as the RIAA, IIPA, BSA, MPAA and MPA have been closely involved in the development. In addition, a preliminary text of the agreement was also available to a number of private companies, such as Sony Pictures, Time Warner and Verizon under a non-disclosure agreement.

The final text of the agreement in PDF format can be downloaded here.

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