Poisonous articles on IPR in Korea-US FTA

After many close-door meetings and negtiations and months of waiting, the full text of Korea-US free trade agreement (FTA) was

openned last Friday: http://www.mofat.go.kr/mofat/fta/eng/eng_list.htm

 

"But it has many poisonous articles in there. We are especially worried about the intellectual property rights (IPR) chapter," says PatchA of APC-member in Seoul, Jinbonet. The confirmation letters on IPR comprehend very

dangerous elements that were not included in the former US FTA.

 

For example, both governments agreed on the

objective of shutting down the internet sites that permit

unauthorized reproduction, distribution, or transmission of

copyright works.

This means that it would basically mandate the Korean government to shut down even peer-to-peer (P2P) services and webhard service. "I think most of the internet sites, including portals,

UCC/UGC,  blog sites and the like could now be shut down by the government," details PatchA.

Furthermore, the new FTA text includes strong enforcement activities on book

printing on university campuses.

 

 

Jinbonet invites you to read material that was put up on the anti-FTA campaign website: http://nofta-ip.jinbo.net. "We welcome your critical

opinions or statements with regards to this IPR chapter of the Korea-US FTA," PatchA insists. "We will post them our struggle website".

 

Korean Alliance Against the Korea-U.S. FTA and social

organisations will hold a press conference about the problems brought about by the IPR

chapter of the Korea-US FTA on Monday May 28th 2007.