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EFA Paper on Free Trade Agreement

Electronic Frontiers Australia has written a position paper on the Intellectual Property provisions of the proposed Free Trade Agreeement. I broadly agree with what they say.

Here’s a quote from the summary:

EFA is opposed to Australia signing or implementing the provisions of Chapter 17 of the FTA. In particular, EFA is concerned that:

• consideration of Chapter 17 should be approached from the perspective of promoting innovation and the public domain, rather than protecting existing business models and punishing infringers
• Chapter 17 expansions are likely to impede rather than promote free trade and innovation
• there is no justification for extending copyright protection to 70 years
• criminal law has only a limited role in intellectual property law and should not be expanded
• proposed circumvention device bans are overly strict and have more potential to be used as weapons against competition and innovation than for it
• proposed rights management information provisions would unduly extend the power position of copyright holders and impinge upon consumers’ rights to deal with legitimately purchased goods
• presumptions towards subsistence and ownership of copyright are unnecessary and weight proceedings too far in favour of those claiming rights as opposed to those defending them
• provisions relating to damages would result in unrealistic determinations and increase the power of copyright holders
• take-down notice provisions are unfairly weighted in favour of those making allegations
• ISPs should not be force to divulge personal information about customers except after judicial order
• FTA would commit to allowing any and all ‘technologies’ to be patented, regardless of whether a need for patentability is demonstrated

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