Law Professors Urge Obama To Fix ACTA

A group of law professors are urging President Barack Obama not to publicly endorse a proposed trade agreement aimed at increasing international cooperation in the fight to curb piracy and counterfeiting.

In a letter set to be sent to Obama Oct 28, the professors take issue with the lack of public involvement in the crafting of the agreement and are asking the White House to ensure that the most recent, and possibly final text, is subject to "a meaningful participation process that can influence the shape of the agreement going forward." The draft letter takes President Obama to task for not living up to his campaign promise of bringing a "new truthfulness and transparency to our public policy and law."

The office of the U.S. Trade Representative has not held a single public hearing on the text, the letter notes. The professors also accuse USTR of preventing the release of the text during earlier rounds of negotiations. The first formal release of the text came last spring. "This degree of secrecy is unacceptable, unwise, and directly undercuts your oft-repeated promises of openness and transparency," according to the letter signed so far by two dozen academics including those well known for their technology and digital law expertise such as Harvard University law professor Lawrence Lessig and Pamela Samuelson, a law professor at the University of California at Berkeley.