Trade Agreement Cats and the Digital Technology Mouse

Document Type

Book Section

Publication Date

12-2013

ISBN

978-0-415-82996-0

Abstract

In the past three decades, the copyright industries and their supportive governments have aggressively pushed for introducing high intellectual property standards into trade agreements. This book chapter examines the uneasy case of using these agreements to provide copyright protection in the digital environment. It begins by discussing two widely discussed multilateral solutions: the TRIPS Agreement and the 1996 WIPO Internet Treaties. The chapter then explores the industries' increasing push for solutions outside multilateral fora. Non-multilateral solutions that have been advanced thus far range from the establishment of bilateral or regional trade agreements to the recent negotiation of plurilateral 'country club' agreements, including the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) and the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP). This chapter concludes by identifying eight issues that domestic policymakers and international negotiators should seriously consider.

First Page

185

Last Page

210

Num Pages

26

Series

Routledge Research in International Economic Law Series

Series Title

Science and Technology in International Economic Law: Balancing Competing Interests

Publisher

Routledge

Place

New York, NY

Editor

Bryan Mercurio & Kuei-Jung Ni

Link to Full Text

Share

COinS