[LINK] Fwd: [ada-l] Aust- US Free Trade Agreement concluded

[Antony Barry]

Linkers

Well there goes the neighborhood.

Tony


Begin forwarded message:

> From: mlee at nla.gov.au
> Date: 9 February 2004 10:50:11 AM
> To: ada-l at nla.gov.au
> Subject: [ada-l] Aust- US Free Trade Agreement concluded
>
> Dear ADA Friends,
>
> As most of you will have heard, Australia- United States Free Trade 
> Agreement was concluded over the weekend 7-8th February.
>
> Please see link to fact sheets from DFAT released this morning.
> http://www.dfat.gov.au/trade/negotiations/us.html
>
> In respect of continued equitable access to copyrighted material and 
> the future of the public domain, it is troubling news indeed. The 
> broad outcomes of the negotiations will:
>
> ·	set standards of intellectual property protection beyond those 
> provided by multilateral agreements such as the WTO TRIPS agreement 
> and WIPO Treaties
> ·	 “harmonise” of Australian and US intellectual property laws
> ·	create an extended term of copyright protection
> ·	create an expedited process that allows for copyright owners, 
> Internet Service Providers and subscribers to deal with allegedly 
> infringing copyright material on the Internet
> ·	set agreed criminal standards for copyright infringement
>
>
> Australia and the United States have also agreed to work to further 
> “harmonise” laws and practices relating to other areas of intellectual 
> property such as patents, trademarks and designs.
>
> The obligations created by AUSFTA will set standards that Australian 
> copyright law and policy have to meet in the near future. An adjunct 
> in the document maintains that Australia will retain the flexibility 
> to implement the Agreement in a way that meets our domestic 
> circumstances, for example, providing a mechanism to introduce public 
> interest exceptions in relation to technological protection measures.
>
> The AUSFTA agreement will now go through an approval process in order 
> to come into force. In Australia the agreement will not be in effect 
> until the agreement has passed through Parliament, necessary amending 
> regulation has been passed and an agreed date for entry into force has 
> been determined.
>
> No further detail over the exact terms of the agreement are currently 
> available but more news will be distributed through this list as it 
> becomes available.
>
>
> Miranda Lee,  Executive Officer
> Australian Digital Alliance
> PO Box E202
> Kingston ACT 2604
> Tel: 02 6262 1273
> Fax: 02 6273 2545
>
>
>
>
>
phone : 02 6241 7659 | mailto:me at Tony-Barry.emu.id.au
mobile: 04 1242 0397 | http://tony-barry.emu.id.au