Please circulate: South Korea and United States are preparing for the FTA negotiation. (You might have received an e-mail message that asks you to be a cosignatory of a written comment on COPYRIGHT issues. If not, that message is below. ) This first e-mail message is about another written comment on PUBLIC HEALTH related issues. Some of the issues are closely related with intellectual property. The document also includes non-IP issues.) Korean NGOs prepared a written comment (download at http://www.ipleft.or.kr/fta/20060324-CoalitionLetterofNGOs-publichealth.pdf) on public health issues that will be submitted to the USTR. Written comments are due by noon, March 24, 2006 via e-mail. IPLeft is seeking signatures from people and organizations in U.S on this comment. People and organizations that want to join this effort and put their names on the written comment, please reply to [log in to unmask] with their names and addresses (post address, Web site address or/and e-mail address) BY MIDNIGHT, MARCH 23, 2006. If you know people or organizations that might want to join as a cosignatory, please forward this e-mail message to them. Our major concern is that the South Korea-U.S. FTA will protect large pharmaceutical companies' interests (or 'investments') at the cost of eroding the base of public health system by heightening intellectual property protection, forcing to change pharmaceutical pricing policy and medical insurance policy, and so on. We ask you to keep up on with the future development of the South Korea-U.S. FTA negotiation and to be a part of this fight against it. Nam Hee-seob, Chairperson of Intellectual Property Left Jungbongwon Bd. 5F, 502, 1-13, Chungpa-dong 1ga,Yongsan-gu, Seoul, Korea (140-868) Website) http://www.ipleft.or.kr >Dear all, > >This is another comment on the copyright issues in the Korea-US FTA. > >Best, >PatchA > >---------- Forwarded message ---------- >From: IPLeft <[log in to unmask]> >Date: Tue, 21, Mar 2006 18:34:02 +0900 >Subject: [A2k] (Korea-US FTA) Seeking signatures on COPYRIGHT comment >To: [log in to unmask] > > > >South Korea and United States are preparing for the FTA negotiation. >On the negotiation agenda, intellectual property issues are given a >top priority. IPLeft and other NGOs prepared a written comment >(download at http://www.ipleft.or.kr/fta/20060324-CoalitionLetterofNGOs-copyright.pdf) >on copyright issues that will be submitted to the USTR. Written >comments are due by noon, March 24, 2006 via e-mail. IPLeft is seeking >signature from many individuals and organizations in U.S on this >comment. People and organizations that want to join this effort and >put their names on the written comment, please reply to >[log in to unmask] with their names and addresses (post address, Web >site address or/and e-mail address) BY MIDNIGHT, MARCH 23, 2006. If >you know people or organizations that might want to join as a >signatory, please forward this e-mail message to them. > >I ask you to keep up on with the future development of the South >Korea-U.S. FTA negotiation and to be a part of this fight against it. > >The following paragraphs are excerpted from the written comment: > >We strongly oppose the inclusion of the copyright clause in the >current FTA negotiation between Korea and the United States. > >Considering the FTA that the United States negotiated with Singapore, >Australia, and Chile, and what the United States has been demanding >from the Korean government thus far, we assume that the United States >will request copyright protection similar to or stronger than the >United States copyright laws such as the 1998 DMCA(Digital Millennium >Copyright Act). > >However, the DMCA and extending the copyright protection period in the >Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act (CTEA) have been under much >criticism because it obstructs fair use, science research, technology >advancement, and publishing. Furthermore, there are strong concerns >about how it impedes computer security research. Nonetheless, United >States has been imposing their own copyright laws on other countries >by adopting laws similar to the DMCA in the FTA. Among them, we cannot >allow the extension of the copyright protection period to 70 years or >setting the penalty for circumventing the technical measures for >protection at the broad level of the laws in the United States because >these clauses violate the fundamental principles of the copyright >laws. The United States must stop such demands on the Korean >government immediately. > >Nam Hee-seob, Chairperson of Intellectual Property Left >Jungbongwon Bd. 5F, 502, 1-13, >Chungpa-dong 1ga,Yongsan-gu, >Seoul, Korea (140-868) >Website) http://www.ipleft.or.kr Dept. of Media Studies, University of San Francisco. 2130 Fulton St. San Francisco, California 94117-1080. 415-422-5061 [log in to unmask]