EU signs ACTA - A Black Day for Freedom of the Internet: Update-EP votes ACTA down

[C. Flower]

A black day for the internet and for civil rights, with the EU signing ACTA.

Thousands of young people have been demonstrating in Poland.

Under the guise of protecting "Intellectual Property" this treaty is potentially devastating and could bring an end to the golden era of the open and free internet.

After the suppression of Press TV in the UK and Ireland this week, it's another nail in the freedom to share political information and ideas.

Better get learning the morse code and semaphore.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Co...rade_Agreement

http://www.thejournal.ie/ireland-and...36764-Jan2012/

http://www.google.ie/#sclient=psy-ab...FJGJhQeF2sXWBA

ACTA still would have to be approved by the EU Parliament before it becomes law.

Michele Neylon of Carlow-based internet hosting company Blacknight said the treaty could force internet hosts to deal directly with orders issued by copyright holders, instead of being able to ensure that such orders were handed down by a court.
“If we’ve been given a court order, fine – there’s no discussion, a judge has made a decision – but that’s not what happens, you don’t get your day in court.”
Neylon said it was a matter of “basic economics” that companies like his could not run up significant legal fees, ensuring that court procedures were followed, when those legal fees vastly exceeded the money it received to host sites in the first place.
He added that the current Irish legal situation, where there is no formal definition of ‘fair use’, meant even the likes of personal blogs could be subject to takedown orders if they included a company’s logo without permission, for example.

[fluffybiscuits]

In essence if we post newspaper articles here or even quote from that, then we could be sued. Its big brother clamping down on what is said and trying to close discussion if it does not go its way. I would expect this in perhaps Russia (whom are infamous for lack of press freedom) but noit here in the EU. Irish legislation because its not codified means that its wide open to interpretation, open definitions and ambigious SI's are going to create a law where they can come after us for little or nothing. Your work is going to be cut out CF if this law is passed, changing forum rules etc.

[Sidewinder]

I would expect this in perhaps Russia (whom are infamous for lack of press freedom) but noit here in the EU.

I started to get suspicious of the authoritarian, anti-democratic and anti-worker impulses of the Eurocrats around the time of the Lisbon Agenda which was published in 2000. The next year 2001 was the first Nice referendum, and I started to get deeply suspicious.

In the course of those 18 or so months I went from neutral-tending-to-positive on the whole EU thing to extremely worried and absolutely opposed.

Nothing I've seen since, especially the last 4 years or so of the Global Financial Crisis, has lessened my concerns about the EU one little bit. There is no possible way this whole thing can end well when you have delusional anti-human lying lunatics in charge.

My advice would be to get out while you still can. The EU is not going to be a very nice place to live, not very nice at all, for the next few decades....authoritarian repressive police states always collapse in the end, but they have a habit of making the lives of their citizens hell for decades first.

[fluffybiscuits]

I started to get suspicious of the authoritarian, anti-democratic and anti-worker impulses of the Eurocrats around the time of the Lisbon Agenda which was published in 2000. The next year 2001 was the first Nice referendum, and I started to get deeply suspicious.

In the course of those 18 or so months I went from neutral-tending-to-positive on the whole EU thing to extremely worried and absolutely opposed.

Nothing I've seen since, especially the last 4 years or so of the Global Financial Crisis, has lessened my concerns about the EU one little bit. There is no possible way this whole thing can end well when you have delusional anti-human lying lunatics in charge.

My advice would be to get out while you still can. The EU is not going to be a very nice place to live, not very nice at all, for the next few decades....authoritarian repressive police states always collapse in the end, but they have a habit of making the lives of their citizens hell for decades first.

Im going to stay here and do my level best to undermine any law I view as being an attack on humanity, its freedom and its structure. Im extremely pro European, I would like nothing better than a United States of Europe but not one using bully boy tactics. As others have proven on this board, equipped with the right knowlede you can tear the institutions apart if you work hard enough. There is a very Orwellian element to the current crisis at the moment and will be furthermore but this will only push people I hope closer. We dont know what we have till its gone (maybe Im naive!)....

[cdgalwegian]

Do we need to be paranoid about the scope of ACTA?

What is ACTA?
• ACTA ensures people everywhere can continue to share non-pirated material and information on the web
• ACTA does not restrict freedom of the internet. ACTA will not censor or shut down websites.
• ACTA ensures that organised crime can be pursued when intellectual property is stolen - harming innovation, fair competition and destroying your jobs
• ACTA is not about how we use the internet in our everyday lives.
• ACTA allows people to continue using their social networks such as Twitter and Facebook just as they have in the past – no change.
• Computers, iPads or iPhones will not be checked or monitored – ACTA is not Big Brother.
Why is ACTA not SOPA?
• SOPA is a US draft law that would change US legislation. ACTA does not require any EU law changes. Anything you can do legally today is still legal after the ratification of ACTA.
• ACTA does not foresee cutting off internet access to anyone.
So why does the EU support ACTA?
• Because ACTA ensures the EU's already high standard of protection for intellectual property goes global - protecting jobs in Europe. Because Europe is losing €8 billion annually through counterfeit goods flooding our market.

http://ec.europa.eu/trade/creating-o...ounterfeiting/
Yet Anonymous has ‘declared war’ on the U.S. because of it- [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roMf2RmRzFc&feature=related"]Anonymous - An Official Message (ACTA) - YouTube[/ame] An exploration of the principles involved, liberties encroached upon, and an appeal to stop ACTA: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_bERAf5KAg&feature=related"]ANTI-ACTA - What can you do? - YouTube[/ame] It is the secrecy of its formulations, on top of the potentiality of abuse, which is very worrying: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/0...ous-about-acta

If there’s one thing that encapsulates what’s wrong with the way government functions today, ACTA is it. You wouldn’t know it from the name, but the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement is a plurilateral agreement designed to broaden and extend existing intellectual property (IP) enforcement laws to the Internet. While it was only negotiated between a few countries,1 it has global consequences. First because it will create new rules for the Internet, and second, because its standards will be applied to other countries through the U.S.’s annual Special 301 process. Negotiated in secret, ACTA bypassed checks and balances of existing international IP norm-setting bodies, without any meaningful input from national parliaments, policymakers, or their citizens. Worse still, the agreement creates a new global institution, an "ACTA Committee" to oversee its implementation and interpretation that will be made up of unelected members with no legal obligation to be transparent in their proceedings. Both in substance and in process, ACTA embodies an outdated top-down, arbitrary approach to government that is out of step with modern notions of participatory democracy.
The EU and 22 of its 27 member states signed ACTA yesterday in Tokyo. This news is neither momentous nor surprising. This is but the latest step in more than three years of non-transparent negotiations. In December, the Council of the European Union—one of the European Union’s two legislative bodies, composed of executives from the 27 EU member states—adopted ACTA during a completely unrelated meeting on agriculture and fisheries.

Any paranoia seems justified to me. Perhaps, though, it is ‘merely’ a case of using a sledgehammer to crack a nut: the protection of intellectual property. In that case, it reeks of powerful lobbying, where corporate interests are again showing how money talks, and can thus trump civil liberties, aided and abetted by our 'representatives'.

[C. Flower]

http://thecostofknowledge.com/

The CLR has a post by Tomboktu on the new movement among scientists to "Occupy Elsevier" who have a monopoly-like stranglehold on a lot of academic publishing.

There is a boycott, as they are "bundling" their journals and only letting libraries buy all or nothing.

"Occupy Knowledge" and "Occupy Information" seem to be among the most important occupations to be battled over this year.

[fluffybiscuits]

Very underhand tactics with the way it was passed. It effectively means that the 22 nations signed up can now do what they want to police the internet. Quoting from an article could be seen to be even an infringment on the IP of a news organisation or author of a post. Anonymous have excellent updates on their blog including news of the Polish parliament whose members objected to their government signing the act. More information available on on Anonymous's blog

http://anonops.blogspot.com/

[bokonon]

Are you watching, Sean Sherlock?

Slovenia's ambassador apologizes to her children and her nation for signing ACTA, calls for mass demonstrations in Ljubljana tomorrow
..
I signed ACTA out of civic carelessness, because I did not pay enough attention. Quite simply, I did not clearly connect the agreement I had been instructed to sign with the agreement that, according to my own civic conviction, limits and withholds the freedom of engagement on the largest and most significant network in human history, and thus limits particularly the future of our children. I allowed myself a period of civic complacency, for a short time I unplugged myself from media reports from Slovenia, I took a break from Avaaz and its inflation of petitions, quite simply I allowed myself a rest. In my defence, I want to add that I very much needed this rest and that I am still having trouble gaining enough energy for the upcoming dragon year. At the same time, I am tackling a workload that increased, not lessened, with the advent of the current year. All in line with a motto that has become familiar to us all, likely not only diplomats: less for more. Less money and fewer people for more work. And then you overlook the significance of what you are signing. And you wake up the following morning with the weight of the unbearable lightness of some signature.

First I apologised to my children. Then I tried to reply to those acquaintances and strangers who expressed their surprise and horror. Because there are more and more of them, I am responding to them publicly. I want to apologise because I carried out my official duty, but not my civic duty. I don’t know how many options I had with regard to not signing, but I could have tried. I did not. I missed an opportunity to fight for the right of conscientious objection on the part of us bureaucrats.
...
http://boingboing.net/2012/02/03/slo...r-apologi.html

[C. Flower]

Are you watching, Sean Sherlock?

A fine letter.

[C. Flower]

Romanian Prime Minister doesn't know why he signed ACTA - and has since resigned - but other States are not signing.

http://paper.li/mrcbehan/1326407990

Here's a bizarre one. With Poland putting ACTA ratification on hold, and Slovenia apparently regretting its signature, now we've got Romania's Prime Minister, Emil Boc, admitting that he doesn't understand why the country signed ACTA. It appears that opposing politicians are criticizing the government and promising that they will suspend enforcement under ACTA until there are actual public hearings held on the matter. It really is quite amazing that the folks in the entertainment industry, who thought they could ram this through are now discovering how much they've awakened internet users across the globe ever since they shot for the moon with SOPA. ACTA has been on the table for years, and only a few of us "copyright geeks" were paying attention to it. But SOPA really made it clear to huge populations of people just how the entertainment industry seeks to restrict the internet through copyright law... and they're simply not going to take that any more. Update: And... um... just like that, he's no longer Prime Minister, offering up his resignation today.

[C. Flower]

There have been two demonstrations in Dublin against ACTA - about 300 last week on the first one.

Yesterday there were thousands out in over 20 countries.

http://rt.com/news/acta-protests-rallies-europe-089/

[C. Flower]

http://euobserver.com/871/115346

A growing number of MEPS are opposing ACTA, and the Commission has now referred it to the European Court.

In the face of mounting public and political pressure, the European Commission on Wednesday asked the Union's highest court to clarify whether the controversial anti-piracy treaty (ACTA) is in line with EU law.

Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht, who led the EU’s negotiating team on the treaty, said he wants the court to “cut through a fog of uncertainty” by assessing whether ACTA was “incompatible - in any way - with freedom of expression and information or data protection and the right to property in case of intellectual property. “

But he also reiterated his support for the treaty, saying that it would “protect jobs that are currently lost because counterfeited and pirated goods worth €200 billion are floating around on the world markets.”

He re-asserted that ACTA would not affect Internet freedom - one of the main charges put by critics. “It will not change anything in the European Union, but will matter for the European Union," he said.

Expressing his frustration at the arguments put forward by internet campaigners, De Gucht said that the debate “must be based upon facts and not upon the misinformation or rumours that has dominated social media sites and blogs in recent weeks.”

De Gucht’s announcement was accompanied by a statement from Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding saying that she was “against all attempts to block Internet websites”. But Reding added: “The ACTA agreement does not provide for new rules compared to today's legal situation in Europe”.

[C. Flower]

Croes really does seem to be high on something.... not Chanel No. 5.

But on the face of it, is sounds like good news.

"ACTA is dead"

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05...ta_dead_kroes/

[C. Flower]

Better news on ACTA -

Update via Paul Murphy MEP.

http://www.unitedleftalliance.org/ac...a-campaigners/

The International Trade Committee in the European Parliament voted today on the controversial Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement and rejected it with a clear majority of 19 votes against and 12 in favour.

The political groups that voted against ACTA were the European United Left/ Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) Group and the Green Group, both of which had opposed ACTA from the outset, the ALDE group (Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe), the Europe of Freedom and Democracy Group (EFD) and the group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S+D).

The majority of the European People’s Party (EPP) and the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) supported ACTA.


Protest against ACTA at the Dail

“The agreement will now be voted on in the plenary session of the European Parliament in July. If there is a major mobilisation again of people, with protests, petitions and the continuation of the bombardment of MEPs with emails, ACTA can be defeated and an important blow struck against the big business agenda of the European Commission.”, says Paul Murphy.

The Commissioner for International Trade, Karl De Gucht an outspoken defender of neo-liberalism, addressed the International Trade Committee on the eve of the vote in an attempt to convince the members of the Committee to at least postpone its vote until the European Court of Justice has given a verdict on ACTA. The European Commission – under pressure from the mass movements against ACTA – had referred ACTA to the European Court of Justice for it to decide whether ACTA is compatible with European Law. This strategy that was mainly aimed at gaining time, postponing the vote and demobilising the anti-ACTA movement.

His speech was entitled “making the right choice”. However, the Commissioner also made it very clear that in case the Members of Parliament do not make the ‘right’ choice, the Commission will address the issue of defending intellectual property rights in a different way.

He outlined the following strategy for the European Commission:

” If you decide for a negative vote before the European Court rules, let me tell you that the Commission will nonetheless continue to pursue the current procedure before the Court, as we are entitled to do. A negative vote will not stop the proceedings before the Court of Justice.

If the Court questions the conformity of the agreement with the Treaties we will assess at that stage how this can be addressed.”

[musashi]

Every book I read is pdf, I use MS Office to write letters, CVs, presentations (I even use Excel to do my accounting) I download 95% of the movies I watch and 100% of the music I listen to. And all of it is free thanks to the Internet. In effect the connectivity of the Internet has enriched my life and impoverished Microsoft/Sony et al.
And you know what, I'm ok, I am OK.

Acta/Sopa will not stop me.