That’s what Michael Geist, an Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement expert at the University of Ottawa, concluded Wednesday after the United States released the proposal’s latest draft. (.pdf)

“If you’re a Wired U.S. reader, from an internet perspective, this really doesn’t change much of anything,” Geist said in a telephone interview.

At one point, the United States was demanding the nine negotiating nations and the European Union adopt rules similar to the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which gives internet service providers immunity from copyright violations if they take down content at the request of a rights holder. In Canada, where Geist teaches, there is no such take down requirement.

Another part of the DMCA makes it illegal to traffic in tools to circumvent Digital Rights Management. Language in the text does not make this a mandatory, global requirement.

Another scuttled provision, which is not part of the DMCA, would have required ISPs to discontinue internet access to repeat copyright offenders. The watered down version requires “cooperation between ISPs and content owners.

“There are no new strict legal requirements for telcos,” he said.

And the United States’ quest for a global anti-camcording law is also out the window.

Negotiating entities include Australia, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore and Switzerland the United States and the European Union. At one point, the Obama administration called the draft’s text a “national security” issue. The European Union was one of the staunchest opponents of the United States’ internet proposals.

Here are some other Wednesday takes on the latest draft from La Quadrature Du Net, Public Knowledge and Knowledge Ecology.

Photo top: k.l. macke/Flickr
Photo bottom: vinzv/Flickr

See Also:

• ACTA Backs Away From 3 Strikes
• ACTA Draft: No Internet for Copyright Scofflaws
• Europe Worries U.S. Bowing to ‘Industry’ in ACTA Talks
• Report: U.S. Fears Public Scrutiny Would Scuttle IP Treaty Talks
• Here’s That Leaked Copyright Treaty Document
• Copyright Treaty Is Policy Laundering at Its Finest

Authors: David Kravets

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