Hello Kim, Geoff asked me to prepare the following summaries of ACTA and OPEN with the understanding that it only represents some preliminary research to support the ongoing community discussion. You can find the research here:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Legal/ACTA http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Legal/OPEN_Act I encourage the community to update or correct these pages as they see fit. In my personal opinion, the Wikipedia articles are not completely up to date on ACTA ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Counterfeiting_Trade_Agreement), so the community may also wish to improve those articles as we learn new information. ACTA is complicated because it is a treaty, not national law. It may or may not be implemented the same way in every country, and its impact will depend on a country's existing national law. My initial research was primarily focused on U.S. law, but many of the problems in ACTA will apply elsewhere. In the spirit of collaboration, your input and improvement is encouraged! Here are some highlights: * ACTA is already signed by many countries, but a country can withdraw with 180 days notice. * The anti-circumvention provisions are similar to the DMCA, but possibly worse. * The final text of ACTA is not as bad as the previous drafts. Importantly, my research does not represent an official legal opinion from the Wikimedia Foundation. It may contain errors and may be incomplete. You should know that the legal department can only represent the Wikimedia Foundation on legal matters, so this is not official legal advice to the community. Stephen LaPorte Legal Intern Office of the General Council Wikimedia Foundation _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l