Bulgaria's signing of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) on January 26 in Tokyo has generated a backlash from the public and opposition parties that appears to have taken Bulgaria's Government by surprise.

Protest rallies against the international treaty, which many online freedom groups and lawyers say opens the door for strict policing of online space, are planned for February 11 in major Bulgarian cities. The date has been chosen to coincide with similar protests in other European countries.

Bulgaria was one of 22 European Union states to sign the agreement in Tokyo, joining eight countries that signed the treaty in October 11, among them the US, Canada, Australia and Japan. The EU is a separate signatory to the treaty, independent of its member states, and was involved in the drafting of the treaty through the European Commission.

In Bulgaria, Economy Minister Traicho Traikov has attempted to cool down spirits by saying on several occasions that the signing was just a formality.

"I am personally skeptical that ACTA will change anything, especially in Bulgaria's case, which has always been at the forefront of legislative changes [to protect intellectual property]," Traikov said on January 31.

A day later, he said that Bulgaria's signature under the treaty was conditional and the country's reservations on the treaty can be discussed during the ratification process.

ACTA did not introduce new legislative requirements for EU member states, which set high standards of copyright protection that will now extend to other signatories of the trade agreement, Traikov said. In that sense, ACTA would protect Bulgarian companies, such as the furniture and dairy industries or personal hygiene and rose oil producers who have complained to the ministry that their intellectual property is not being protected abroad, he said.

Most opposition parties opposed the bill, but a request to hear Traikov during Question Time in Parliament was rejected with the votes of the ruling party GERB, although Traikov and Culture Minister Vezhdi Rashidov would be asked to attend hearings of the economic affairs and culture committees, respectively.

What is ACTA?
The trade agreement has been negotiated since October 2007, initially by the US, EU, Japan and Switzerland, which were joined at a later stage by Australia, South Korea, New Zealand, Mexico, Jordan, Morocco, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates and Canada.

From the very start, it was meant to deal with more than just counterfeit physical goods and extend to cover online distribution and information technology. It was negotiated outside international forums such as the World Trade Organisation (WTO) or the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), with talks shrouded in secrecy at the request of the US trade representative office, which asked participants to sign confidentiality agreements preventing the disclosure of any information about ACTA.

Nevertheless, several versions of the agreement were leaked over the years, resulting in pressure to remove some of the most restrictive provisions, such as the "three strikes" internet service disconnection provision.

ACTA's final version stopped short of drastic provisions like those in the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA) that were up for consideration by the US congress, but have since been shelved under intense pressure from the technology industry and the general public. For example, it does not envision taking down websites on the mere allegation of copyright infringement, as SOPA did.

Like SOPA and PIPA, ACTA imposes a more restrictive framework of copyright enforcement, but as an international treaty, it supersedes national legislation, meaning that signatory parties, the US included, would have to first withdraw from ACTA before pursuing less restrictive national laws.

Enforcement of ACTA is envisioned to be co-ordinated by an ACTA committee operating outside existing organisations like WIPO or WTO, although it would lack direct law enforcement capabilities.

Backlash
One of the main criticisms against ACTA is that it uses vague wording in creating a de facto international standard, based on the existing US legislation, of enforcing intellectual property rights across the world.

Among its more controversial provisions are those that can be interpreted to order internet service providers (ISPs) to police their users or be liable for illegal file-sharing, as well as giving copyright holders the right to demand traffic logs from ISPs to identify alleged offenders. It also adopts the music and film industries' definition of damages, equating every instance of file-sharing with a lost sale.

Albeit participation in ACTA is voluntary, the US could use the treaty to extend its own restrictive enforcement framework over developing nations using its powerful Special 301 annual report by the trade representative office, which lists countries that the US believes has insufficient copyright protections, with ensuing trade restrictions.

The European Commission, which was involved in the drafting of the treaty, says that the trade agreement is flexible and "contains the necessary safeguards to allow its parties to strike an appropriate balance between all rights and interests involved."

The Commission also dismissed the criticism that the treaty was negotiated in secret, a claim that was directly contradicted by European Parliament's rapporteur on ACTA, Kader Arif.

Arif resigned his position as rapporteur on January 26, saying that he wanted to "denounce in the strongest manner the process that led to the signing of this agreement: no association of civil society [and] lack of transparency from the beginning".

"This agreement might have major consequences on citizens' lives, and still, everything is being done to prevent the European Parliament from having its say in this matter. That is why today, as I release this report for which I was in charge, I want to send a strong signal and alert the public opinion about this unacceptable situation. I will not take part in this masquerade," he said.

The European Council adopted ACTA in December 2011 at a meeting of its fisheries and agriculture council. To become EU law, ACTA has to be approved by European Parliament, which is expected to vote on the issue some time in June, according to media reports.