EU Continues To Give Bogus Reasons For Keeping ACTA Secret
from the transparency-please dept
One of the most disgusting displays of an industry crafting laws to benefit their industry in backrooms is the secret negotiations over the ACTA treaty. This is the international agreement on copyright that's basically been written by entertainment industry insiders, and will effectively force governments around the world to change copyright laws in favor of the entertainment industry. Yet, the actual negotiations are being held in secret. When confronted about it, various government negotiators have basically said it has to be secret because that's the way things are done. A few months ago, in defending the secrecy, one of the negotiators noted that it was being kept secret because negotiators had agreed to keep it secret. That's not a defense; that's a cop out.Plenty of organizations around the world are pushing for more transparency and (*gasp!*) the actual inclusion of others who would be impacted by ACTA, but they're not finding it easy. Slashdot points us a press release from The Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure. FFII had filed a request to the EU Council to release some of the secret documents related to the ACTA negotiation, and the EU Council flat-out refused to do so. It would appear that when the government seeks to put in place an industry's preferred legislation, it doesn't like being called out on it.
However, the more that individuals and organizations around the world speak up and demand that the details behind ACTA be made public, hopefully the more politicians will realize that they can't sell out society's overall best interest in favor of a few industries who are abusing the treaty process for their own interests.
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Filed Under: acta, copyright, eu, intellectual property, international trade, treaties
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Politicians
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Anarchy!
Anarchy!
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whatever
They can't hold on forever... this economic slump will hopefully cause them a lot of grief and lose them a lot of money. I hope the entire industry goes bankrupt.
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Do they get to read it before they vote ?
Somehow I don't think it can be binding upon the public when it is so contrived. Certainly it will nopt be received well.
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Re:
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The pirates will win
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ACTA is so much more
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acta
this isn't kanaas anymore toto; they aren't plastic people anymore.
it's an all-electronic world.. culture, elections,
and reg captured industries.
get your monoploies while they're hot!
pat
qutoas and smuggling are the new growth industries.
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those were good years, we could use an "re-enactment".
Remember, if you lack bread, eat cake.
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