(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar)

A new international trade agreement, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), which is now under discussion might strengthen criminal sanctions against BitTorrent tracker sites for exploiting copyright material online.

The tracker sites state they do not profit from Internet users sharing music, movies and software, saying that the server and bandwidth costs are supported by donations and advertising revenues. However, rights holder organisations claim that BitTorrent administrators exploit copyright material online and make a nice profit out of it.

A discussion paper that has been leaked online by Sunshine Media, the company that runs the Wikileaks.org website, is under circulation now among the US, EU, Canada, Japan, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, and Switzerland, on the proposed ACTA. The paper includes "the types of provisions that could be included in the agreement" and suggests "criminal sanctions to be applied to (Intellectual Property Rights) infringements on a commercial scale (where there are) significant willful infringements without motivation for financial gain to such an extent as to prejudicially affect the copyright owner (e.g. internet piracy)".

The discussion paper states "deterrent-level" penalties should be applied by the Governments against criminal copyright infringement, and it also proposes powers to seize and destroy equipment. The ACTA proposal in the case of simple filesharers accused of civil infringement is the possibility of the rights holder of asking compensations "including measures to overcome the problem of rights holders not being able to get sufficient compensation due to difficulty in assessing the full extent of the damage".

ISPs might face new sanctions as the ACTA will force them to hand over personal information pertaining to "claimed infringement" or "alleged infringers". ACTA might also attempt to introduce "remedies against circumvention of technological protection measures used by copyright owners and the trafficking of circumvention devices".

What the discussion paper also proposes is that ACTA create its own governing body to be overseen by a committee made up of representatives from member nations. According to a European Commission official, formal negotiations on ACTA are expected to start this week in Geneva.

NGOs, such as IP Justice, heavily criticised the new negotiations: "After the multilateral treaty's scope and priorities are negotiated by the few countries invited to participate in the early discussions, ACTA's text will be 'locked' and other countries who are later 'invited' to sign on to the pact will not be able to re-negotiate its one-sided terms."

Meanwhile, in UK, the Police has arrested six people for allegedly sharing music files via the defunct BitTorrent tracker OiNK.cd. Apparently the 6 persons were detained in "in relation to uploading pre-release music". OiNK.cd was shutdown seven months ago in a Police raid at the Middlesbrough home of its administrator.

International copyright talks seek BitTorrent-killer laws (27.05.2008)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/05/27/acta_leak/

Copyright deal could toughen rules governing info on iPods, computers (26.05.2008)
http://www.canada.com/topics/technology/science/story.html?id=ae997868...

BitTorrent tracker Mininova faces legal action (19.05.2008)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/05/19/mininova_faces_legal_action/

Embattled ACTA Negotiations Next Week In Geneva; US Sees Signing This Year(30.05.2008)
http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/index.php?p=1071

UK cops arrest six alleged BitTorrent music uploaders (2.06.2008)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/02/onk_further_arrests/