Stopping Illegal File Sharing: ACTA - A Promising Solution

Abstract

The development of the internet has entailed new challenges for the protection of intellectual property rights. Especially copyright holders and the recording industry are confronted with serious problems due to the huge increase in illicit Peer-to-Peer (P2P) downloads. It is claimed that illegal downloading cost Europe´s creative industries 13.7 billion dollars in retail revenues in 2008. Several endeavours have been made in order to stop illicit file sharing. The Anti-Counterfeited Trade Agreement (ACTA) is the most current attempt to manage unauthorised P2P file sharing and its consequences. In April 2010, the ACTA participants finally released a draft text after the 10th round of negotiations in Wellington and thereby responded to the public demand for greater transparency in the ACTA negotiations. That marks a significant development which underlines the importance of public pressure. ACTA’s proposed internet chapter includes controversial provisions, which might infringe consumers’ civil rights and liberties. Thus, it remains questionable whether ACTA can reach the objectives that other international standards have not met – to form a satisfactory enforcement instrument to finally cope with illegal music downloads. The paper comes to the conclusion that a legal solution might not be the right approach to manage illicit file sharing. The challenge is rather to cooperate with Internet Service Providers and monetise Peer to Peer file sharing networks.