How could an EU-Canada Trade Agreement change copyright law?

An alert has been issued over the possible inclusion of copyright enforcment measures - and in particular, of criminal sanctions - in a new EU- Canada Trade Agreement (CETA). It is understood that the proposed criminal measures could be similar to those in the Anti-counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA).

The EU- Canada Trade Agreement (CETA) is one of series of free trade agreements being negotiated by the European Union. That copyright measures are in the EU- Canada Trade Agreement has been known for some time. Indeed, the Commission has been presenting this fact since 2010.

What has not been known is the exact nature of the measures under negotiation. Now, the French citizens advocacy group, La Quadrature du Net, reveals that ACTA-like provisions could be on the table.

According to La Quadrature du Net, there was a workshop on the EU- Canada Trade Agreement on 10 October. Speaking at the workshop, the EU lead negotiator is reported to have confirmed the existence of criminal copyright sanctions in a current draft of the agreement.

He added that the criminal provisions in CETA were not being negotiated by the European Commission, but instead they were being handled by the Member States. This would seem to reflect the procedure during the ACTA negotiations.

It is not known whether any other ACTA-like measures are under discussion.

It's also not clear what the real significance is. A Free Trade Agreement would usually be ratified by the EU and the Member States, and its provisions effectively become law. Where that entails rights to import/export specific goods, that is one thing. Imposing criminal sanctions under copyright law, is quite another.

Is is possible for a trade agreement with a third-party country to include measures that requre changes to the criminal code? La Quadrature du Net thinks it does, and has accused the EU of trying to bring in ACTA measures by the CETA backdoor.

But on the scale of international copyright politics, the EU- Canada Trade Agreement is really quite small. So maybe not the back-door. More like the cat-flap.

This is an original article from Iptegrity.com. If you refer to it or to its content, you should cite my name as the author, and provide a link back to iptegrity.com. Media and Academics - please cite as Monica Horten, EU-Canada Trade Agreement - copyright enforcement via the cat-flap? , in www.iptegrity.com, 11 October 2012 . Commercial users - please contact me.