In related news, rumours that a new global treaty might sneak three-strikes into law through the back door seem to be unfounded. As we reported back in November, ministers from various countries are currently involved in drafting an Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, and there was word that that treaty would oblige signatories to introduce a three-strikes style system for combating online piracy law into their own copyright systems

But Canadian academic and all round expert on these sorts of things Michael Geist has posted on his blog what seems to be the relevant section from a secret draft of the treaty, and there is no mention of three-strikes. Rather the agreement would oblige signatories to apply an approach similar to current US copyright law with regards online piracy.

For Geist's home country, Canada, the treaty might force the government there to tighten up their copyright laws, and in doing so that would overcome various issues raised by American copyright owners regarding the tendency of Canadian courts to find in the favour of file-sharers.

But for the UK, while it might ingrain a system for copyright owners issuing take-down notices to the likes of YouTube into law, and formalise the protections enjoyed by ISPs who inadvertently provide the infrastructure for copyright infringement, it probably wouldn't mean any noticeable difference to the way things work now. Certainly, in its current form, it wouldn't force the UK or anywhere else to introduce three-strikes (not that the current UK government needs forcing on such things, of course).