Open and Shut?: Michael Geist on The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA)

"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...."