CETA: fight against copyright violations no longer an issue


The Montreal daily La Presse has published secret documents about the negotiations on a trade agreement between Europe and Canada. According to a release of the EU Commission to the Council of Ministers in October both sides are thus largely in agreement in terms of copyright and copyright enforcement - be taken cross searchings of customs officials to "piracy".

From the paper shows that the criminal provisions to prosecute copyright infringement is no longer part of the planned "Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement" (CETA) are. After the European Parliament rejected the anti-piracy agreement ACTA, the text was changed. Overall, the requirements in the field of Intellectual Property Rights were mainly from Brussels. Canada's little desire in this area, such as, intensify the campaign against the filming of works on the big screen, are presented as pure "negotiation coins".

What arrangements should be for copyright protection is part of the agreement, from the file to indicate. In a public information leaflet  of the European Commission in August is read that an effective and modern copyright regime was essential for the protection of creative materials such as music or literary works. Such trade agreements with South Korea about demand, among other things, control systems for digital rights management (DRM) and associated therewith, such as digital watermarking technology to protect legally. At the same time the concept of "commercial scale" of violations is rather broad.

There is still no agreement on the protection of patents and geographical indications. The latter are not unknown in Canada, at least not for wine and spirits. Ottawa has now also accepted to consider protected geographical indications for all food and an open list to be considered. Brussels has already forged ahead with a proposal , which includes, among other Black Forest ham, Nuremberg sausages or Gorgonzola.

In the patent system, it is, according to a progress report of the Commission's November mainly to the pharmaceutical industry. Other open issues are general rules for access to finance, procurement, transportation, or the auto market. The protection of traditional cultural property and employment rights are still being discussed. EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht emphasized last week that there had been "significant progress" but some important sites are to plow. In the near future he would take it again with Canadian Trade Minister Ed Fast

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