A lawyer specialising in ICT assured students yesterday that the controversial intellectual property rights treaty would not limit individuals’ rights, shut down websites or affect the way people use the internet in their everyday lives.
Antonio Ghio, a University lecturer, said that whoever downloaded a file protected by copyright laws was already infringing national law and the treaty, known in short as Acta, would not change that.
“It will not turn infringers into criminals but will strengthen legislation vis-a-vis whoever does this for economic gain,” he said.
Addressing a well-attended debate on campus, Dr Ghio described as “rubbish” myths that Acta would restrict freedom of expression or turn internet service providers into policemen.
He defended the “watered-down version of the original draft”, saying most of the provisions of Acta were already part of Maltese laws.
Acta made it to the headlines last week when news emerged that Malta joined 21 other European Union states as signatory to this proposed agreement.
It sparked heated debate that will escalate into an anti-Acta protest on Saturday.
The University debate was also addressed by Nationalist MEP Simon Busuttil and his Labour counterpart Edward Scicluna, who agreed on the negative effects of counterfeiting and piracy on industry but disagreed on the implications of the Acta agreement.
While Dr Busuttil stressed the importance of such an agreement, which strengthened the fight against this crime, Prof. Scicluna defended the “healthy dose of scepticism” with which the Socialists met the agreement.
One of the reasons he opposed it was because he did not want people rummaging through his luggage to see if he had any counterfeit products, which was one of the provisions of the agreement.
He appealed to students to see who the players behind it were.
“I am not in favour of economic crime but one has to balance the cost of interference with civil liberties,” he said.
Dr Busuttil said that he was in favour of the fight against counterfeit and piracy because thousands of people in Malta risked their jobs due to such products.
However, he said he was ready to vote against it “if the negatives outweighed the positives”.
The European Parliament will vote on Acta probably in June.
Dr Busuttil admitted the process leading to the signing of the treaty was “not 100 per cent transparent”. But the draft agreement has been in the public domain since the end of 2010, he said.