It is not too late. ACTA goes beyond US law, the US will not ratify ACTA. The Mexican Senate urged the government not to sign ACTA. India, Brazil and China have turned against ACTA. The EU can and should reject ACTA, and seek a balanced solution in WTO and WIPO.
Otherwise, it is the EU itself that will suffer under ACTA, while its competitors will not. ACTA's measures are meant to paralyze people. ACTA's intrusive character harms health and freedom of expression. ACTA will have a chilling effect on innovation, Internet service providers, mass digitization projects, startup companies and diffusion of green technology.
We will give two examples of a global pricing problem that ACTA will not solve but aggravate. We will show ACTA's measures are draconian and go beyond current EU law. ACTA will hamper essential freedom to act and innovate in the knowledge society.
From TRIPS to ACTA
A few years after the European Community ratified the 1994 WTO TRIPS agreement, the AIDS epidemic took many lives in Africa. In sub-Saharan Africa alone more than 17 million people have died. After treatment became available, pharmaceutical companies sold AIDS medicine in Africa for prices higher than in the US. They only served a small number of patients, the others died. Mandela's intervention, and international outcry, ultimately led to the Doha Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health.
Despite the Doha Declaration, the access to medicine problem still exists. Pulitzer Prize winner Tina Rosenberg wrote on the NY Times Opinionator blog: "The new strategy is to treat people in Egypt, Paraguay, Turkmenistan or China — middle-income countries, all — as if they or their governments could pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars a year each for AIDS drugs. This low-volume high-profit strategy might make business sense. But in terms of the war against AIDS, it means surrender."
It is impossible to maximize both profits and access to medicine. To not commit a crime against humanity, access to medicines has to come first. Health groups and academics have pointed out ACTA will undermine access to generic medicines, see below.
Draconian measures do not help against media piracy
High prices for media goods, low incomes, and cheap digital technologies are the main ingredients of global media piracy. Relative to local incomes in Brazil, Russia, or South Africa, the price of a CD, DVD, or copy of Microsoft Office is five to ten times higher than in the United States or Europe, the Media Piracy in Emerging Economies report shows. There is no distribution of legal CDs and DVDs outside the capitals. Some 90% of the people in emerging economies can only turn to illegal media copies. Stronger enforcement can not solve the piracy problem, which is basically a global pricing problem, a sign of market failure.
We all know pictures of big piles of illegal CDs to be destroyed by a bulldozer. We may think: finally country X takes action against piracy. The real story behind these pictures is that these illegal copies are the only way 90% of the people in emerging economies can enjoy software, music and movies. The costs in social welfare of harsh measures are enormous.