- Knowledge Ecology International - https://www.keionline.org -

White House says ACTA text a State Secret. EU parliament says time for more transparency

On January 31, 2009, KEI submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to USTR for copies of seven documents containing much of the negotiating text of the proposed Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). Today the White House office the United States Trade Representative denied the request, claiming the documents are “information that is properly classified in the interest of national security pursuant to Executive Order 12958.” [1]

Here is a PDF copy of the letter denying the FOIA:
https://www.keionline.org/misc-docs/3/ustr_foia_denial.pdf [2]

In a post that provide more context, I wrote about the denial today in the HuffingtonPost, here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-love/obama-administration-rule_b_174450.html [3]

There is also a very good Declan McCullagh CNET Story on the FOIA denial here [4].

In a related development, the European Parliament is demanding transparency of the ACTA documents. See, for example, the Ars Technica report: European Parliament to EU: Turn over ACTA docs! [5].

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