The Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) has been a controversial proposal negotiated by a collection of countries outside of normal World Trade Organisation or World Intellectual Property Organisation structures.
A 'summary of key elements' under current discussion has been published by negotiators, who include the European Commission, the US, Mexico, Japan, Korea and others.
Critics of the process claim that rights holding industries have had more access to negotiations than citizens who elect the governments to negotiate on their behalf.
"This paper, jointly issued by the ACTA negotiating partners, is intended to clarify the objectives of the proposed Agreement It provides a detailed description of the elements suggested by the parties under the different headings and highlights the main issues that may constitute the body of the Agreement," said a European Commission statement on the published paper.
Rights holder trade bodies have welcomed the proposals, though say that protections for business have been watered down. Critics of the process still claim that the outlined plans are too weighted in favour of businesses but welcomed some concessions to the rights of users of material.
