Thursday, April 26, 2012

Bring in the Nerds: Secrecy, National Security and the Creation of International Intellectual Property Law

Levine, David S., "Bring in the Nerds: Secrecy, National Security and the Creation of International Intellectual Property Law." (April 6, 2012). Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal, Vol. 30, No. 2, 2012.

From abstract: "The negotiations of the international Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement and Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement has elevated intellectual property piracy to the level of national security concerns for purposes of the Freedom of Information Act and have therefore been conducted largely in secret. However, the level of actual secrecy has been tiered, with corporate interests enjoying far more access to negotiation information than the general public. At the same time, similar intellectual property issues have been negotiated in the relative transparency of Congress’ debate over the pending Stop Online Piracy Act/PROTECT IP Act, allowing for much greater public involvement. With national security concerns as the backdrop, the focus of this article is the use of national security arguments to prevent the public from accessing information about the creation of international intellectual property law and proposed ways to address the information failures existing in international intellectual property lawmaking and international lawmaking more generally." Read more