USTR Releases Openness Plan, While Celebrating That It's In The Pocket Of Industry Lobbyists

from the see?-people-like-us! dept

We were confused a few weeks ago when the USTR started promoting letters from lobbyists in support of ACTA. After all, of course the lobbyists want ACTA. They're the ones who wrote much of it in the first place. In the meantime, thousands have been writing the USTR to express their concerns about ACTA... but the USTR doesn't bother mentioning them at all. It's as if the USTR is flat-out admitting that it's controlled by the lobbyists.

So it should come as no surprise that the USTR is gleefully hyping up two more letters from lobbying groups in favor of ACTA. But why won't it put forth the letters against ACTA or worried about the process? And, of course, as Jamie Love points out, isn't it weird that these lobbyists are proudly supporting an agreement when, technically, they're not even supposed to know what's in the agreement?

What's even stranger is that all of this comes on the same day that the USTR has released its plan on being more open. How about, for a start, you open up ACTA, stop hiding behind lobbyists, and allow for a real open discussion involving the real stakeholders? Or is that too much to ask? Well, included in the openness plan is the following:
During the building of this plan, recommendations centered around two issues: the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) negotiations and all other trade-related meetings. There was a desire to make all advisory committee, negotiating, and policy development meetings, and texts available to the public in "real time."
And yet, rather than any sort of real time release of information, we get the USTR still hiding the documents behind a bogus claim of "national security" and then showing off the fact that it's in the pocket of lobbyists who aren't even supposed to know what's in the document.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: acta, lobbyists, ustr


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • identicon
    vyvyan, 8 Apr 2010 @ 7:19pm

    I see DEB chapter deux!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    NAMELESS.ONE, 8 Apr 2010 @ 8:19pm

    as i have said

    THE economy of the usa is tanking they are aiming all there balls and baskets into IP
    WHY? cause then they can suck out cash form every economy in the world and not care what happens to those countries

    THIS is why its national security ROFL, cause its the biggest scam ever DONE on mankind perpetuated by joe biden and hollywood. ALL at the behest of our rights, freedoms and YES our wallets.

    Entr conspiracies. Obama is from Chicago so was al capone, he and his buds founded hollywood and they wanted control of the white house and until now never got it.

    YEA a bunch a crooks are and ahve been running hte USA since reagan and until that changes and its gonna take a lot, well good luck cause once people see ACTA and the parts you ommited form the so called leaked documents they are gonna hit the fan world wide.

    THATS the part no one can deny that parts leaked might only be 90% of things. A nice video form the EU eluded to that very same issue ....make ya wonder even more.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 8 Apr 2010 @ 9:48pm

    But they are being open, the documents leaked, didn't they?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Hephaestus (profile), 9 Apr 2010 @ 6:51am

    This is amusing ...

    "employing nearly 18 million workers, accounting for more than $5 trillion of the gross domestic product, and comprising more than 40 percent of all exports."

    The 18 million workers I can believe, after I have had a couple beers. The $5 Trillion and 40% of all exports not so much. Where do they get these numbers from?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Joel (profile), 9 Apr 2010 @ 6:53am

    No, I don't see.

    The USTR is a joke...I can't wait to see the outcome of all that stupidity; they must have the world's most "intelligent people" sitting on their hands and typing with their tongues to come up with this load of Garbagè.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    NAMELESS.ONE, 9 Apr 2010 @ 9:40am

    @ 3 no they havent leaked 100%

    as a video in ht eEU eluded to there are notes and addons that are not in the leaked documents or might not be there and that those additions could be very very troubling to the end product of the treaty

    read what i say TAMoid

    lets just say there are more to come if they dont out them fully...

    link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.