A group of 70+ law professors has signed a letter to President Obama demanding a host of changes to the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) which has just been negotiated by the US. The letter alleges that Congress must be consulted on ACTA, that some of the rosy statements about the agreement not affecting US law have been false, and that no meaningful transparency has been in evidence.

Despite pledges of transparency, the ACTA text has been negotiated for years, but "the first official release of a draft text took place only in April, 2010. And following that release the USTR has not held a single public on-the-record meeting to invite comments on the text," says the letter. "Worse, in every subsequent meeting of the negotiating parties, the US has blocked the public release of updated text. The US often has acted alone in banning the distribution of the revised text, contrary to the strong majority view of other negotiating partners to promote public inspection and comment."

The professors want the US to back off on the treaty, open it to substantive public comment, and hold another negotiating round to incorporate the comments into US policy.

But the most damning statements concern ACTA's acceptance. The government has been treating ACTA like an "executive agreement" that doesn't need Congressional approval. "We believe that this course may be unlawful, and it is certainly unwise," says the letter.

That's because executive agreements can only be used to cover policy where the president can make unilateral decisions. According to the Constitution, though, intellectual property is up to the legislature.

Executive agreements also can't change existing US law. Though the government has repeated its claim that ACTA won't affect US law, the professors say that "these assertions are simply false. Nearly 100 international intellectual property experts from six continents gathered in Washington, DC in June, 2010 to analyze the potential public interest impacts of the officially released text. Those experts—joined by over 650 other experts and organizations—found that 'the terms of the publicly released draft of ACTA threaten numerous public interests, including every concern specifically disclaimed by negotiators.'"