From: PatchA (patcha AT jinbo.net)

Dear all,

Finally, the full text of Korea US FTA was released last Friday. (http://www.mofat.go.kr/mofat/fta/eng/eng_list.htm)

It has many poisonous articles. We are very worried about the IPR chapter and the confirmation letters of IPR have very dangerous things which the former US FTA didn't have.

For examples, both governments agree on the objective of shutting down the internet sites that permit unauthorized reproduction, distribution, or transmission of copyright works. Korean government are shutting down even P2P service and webhard service.

I think most of the internet sites including portal, UCC/UGC, blog sites etc. can be shut down by the government.

And it also includes strong enforcement activities on book printing
on university campuses.

If this Korea US FTA is passed, then the US will request other countries to include these things in the following FTA. So it needs to have international solidarity activities to stop this kind of US FTA.

Please check below and we welcome of your criticizing opinions or statement to this IP chapter of Korea US FTA. We will post it to our struggle website (http://nofta-ip.jinbo.net)

And please forward it to other people world-wide.

Korean Alliance Against the Korea-U.S. FTA and social organizations
will have a press conference about the problem of IPR chapter of
Korea US FTA on Monday(May 28th).

In soldarity,
patcha

============================
Kim Jeong Woo (PatchA)
Korean Progressive Network 'Jinbonet'
Tel) +82-2-701-7687
Fax) +82-2-701-7112
Web) http://www.jinbo.net
Email) i AT patcha.jinbo.net / patcha AT patcha.jinbo.net
============================

(more below)

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[James Love] Several NGOs had asked for a meeting with the Library of Congress (LOC) and the USPTO to discuss the status of negotiations at WIPO on a new treaty on Broadcasting, that includes a proposal for treaty provisions covering webcasting -- something that is not part of law in the US, Europe or elsewhere (except possibility in a limited way in Finland).

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http://www.cptech.org/wipo/15sep05letter2usptoloc.html: CPTech renews its request that the USPTO or the Library of Congress (LOC) invite formal public comment on the proposal to create a new International Treaty obligation establishing a novel intellectual property regime for webcasting, through the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

The treaty language proposed for a "webcasting"right would create a new layer of property rights, lasting at least 50 years, for materials that are transmitted by web servers over the Internet and other networks. Unlike copyright, the new webcaster right is not based upon a creative contribution. Any material, including material in the public domain, or licensed for public dissemination under a creative commons type license, would be burdened with this new layer of rights, which accompany any "public transmission" of any combination or representations of sounds and or images. [ft 1]

Concrete proposal for a way forward in the filesharing wars: Commons Music | revolution :: evolution :: freedom - Voluntary Collective Licensing of Music File Sharing [del.icio.us copyfight feed]