United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is undertaking to explain the apparent contradiction in the strong enforcement of intellectual property rights and efforts to ensure freedom of expression on the internet. And she said the State Department will keep saying it in the future.
Clinton made the remarks in a 25 October letter to Rep. Howard Berman, a California Democrat from Hollywood who has long been prominent on the House Judiciary and Foreign Affairs committees and is one of the strongest IP rights proponents in Congress.
She did not address a related question of a possible contradiction between government takedowns of allegedly infringing websites or monitoring of citizens.
[…] United States faces questions on ACTA, IP enforcement and free expression Intellectual Property Watch reports on a letter sent by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to a US Representative “undertaking to explain the apparent contradiction in the strong enforcement of intellectual property rights and efforts to ensure freedom of expression on the internet”, a contradiction that was highlighted by the UN’s Frank la Rue earlier this year. Meanwhile, the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development reports that the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), a US-led treaty that threatens to take intellectual property enforcement laws beyond WTO-established standards, is being questioned by US authorities, at the European Parliament, and at the WTO. A video produced by La Quadrature du Net that encourages European citizens to write to their elected representatives at the European Parliament protesting ACTA has been viewed more than 1m times. Clinton answers | ACTA questions | Video […]