Leaked ACTA draft reveals ISP liability no longer in place

A new draft of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) leaked out yesterday, it contains details on the round of ACTA negotiations which took place last month in the US. Torrent Freak reports countries will no longer be required to impose secondary liability for infringements onto Internet service providers (ISPs), but other harsh measures to counter piracy are still in place.

The level of secrecy which surrounds ACTA, the developing international agreement that aims to target piracy and counterfeiting globally, is unprecedented. It took nearly two years for negotiators to release a heavily redacted draft to the public, but by that time citizens were already fairly well informed having gathered information from previously leaked documents.

...

Although dropping the ISP liability paragraphs could be seen as a step in the right direction, there are still various strict ‘anti-infringement’ measures in place. The countries that sign up to ACTA are being asked to provide relevant authorities with the power to order ISPs to hand over the identities of customers suspected of infringing copyright to rights holders on the presentation of a “sufficient claim of infringement”.