EU Negotiators Insist That ACTA Will Move Forward And There's Nothing To Worry About
from the uh-huh... dept
With the EU Parliament overwhelmingly voting against ACTA, you might wonder how the EU negotiators would react. Apparently, the answer is by brushing it off and going right back to negotiations. The EU's main negotiator, Luc Devigne, was involved in an event where he defended himself and ACTA saying that all of the complaints are misrepresenting what's in the agreement, and insisting that the EU has "nothing to hide." Um, is that why the documents are all top secret? He says that he'll request the release of the documents, but we've been hearing that for a while now -- and the recent (leaked, of course) agenda for the next meeting in New Zealand shows just a tiny bit of time devoted to discussing transparency. Furthermore, it appears that, like the US negotiators on this topic, Devigne was being disingenuous with his statements -- and that's giving him the benefit of the doubt that he wasn't being outright dishonest.The talking points from ACTA negotiators seem clear. When accused of being secretive, deny it and insist that you're being open. If really pushed on the matter, blame mysterious, nameless "others" for keeping the documents secret. Then, when specific items in the text are brought up, insist that these are being misrepresented, and if only you could see the real text (which you can't, because it's a secret) you'd know that it was all blown out of proportion. Then, finally, insist that ACTA won't change any laws. Of course, if that were the case, there would be no need for ACTA at all. The negotiators insist that it's all about "enforcement," but that's (again) being disingenuous. Many of the items in the drafts are created in a way that would lock countries in to certain paths. While they might not definitively prescribe things like "three strikes," the draft makes it clear that three strikes is the only real option to avoid liability. Even for countries that won't have to change their laws, these rules will prevent them from fixing the many problems found in today's copyright laws. Also, what's amusing is we've now heard from the US, Canada and the EU insisting that ACTA won't change their laws. But the US insisted ACTA was needed to force other countries to change their laws. Which countries? The US negotiators have suggested Canada, but Canada has said it won't change its laws for ACTA. So what's the point?
This whole thing is incredibly sneaky. Despite disapproval of many politicians, negotiators seem willing to just keep moving forward with this, and covering themselves by insisting that it won't actually change laws. That way they don't even need approval from politicians. But... when those politicians actually try to reform or fix broken copyright laws, you can bet that those who supported ACTA will be the first to stand up screaming that they can't make those changes because they'll "violate international agreements!" even though those agreements were put in place in secrecy in a back room, written by industry lobbyists and designed solely to limit how countries could fix their copyright laws.
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Filed Under: acta, eu, luc devigne
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this is really painful to watch ...
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Full draft of ACTA text (dated jan 18) has been leaked
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Re: Full draft of ACTA text (dated jan 18) has been leaked
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Wow, that's good to know. Apparently we've been worrying about nothing all this time. I guess I'll go and take my opiate with the rest of the masses.
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Did I do it right?
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Re:
If it was an attempt at trolling you end could try ending your comment with "Live from under a bridge"
It it was an attempt at humor ... well it just wasnt ... Big Ole Grin
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Close, but you forgot to mention that it will not change any laws.
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You have not lived up to any other agreement or Ruling by NAFTA, WTO, WCO or most any other international agreement.
Yes that is sarcasm (sort of :) )
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I am not too worried about that because I will be watching pigs soaring in the breeze from my window.
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I almost want to stop reading about it... but cant.
So frustrating, wish i could meet one of these "negotiators" to vent a bit.
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same tactics used to pass ObamaCare
It is obvious the most people do not want this pass and realize that they are better off without this passed; however, it's clear they only care about being the puppets of Big Media to enact a fascist global regime to punish people for violating inane and insane restrictions on non-existent "intellectual property".
Elections have consequences. A majority of idiots have voted Obama into power, and despite what people thought of his hip, techno-age persona, he's just as clueless about "intellectual property" issues as most any other politician.
Enjoy your pie.
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Re: same tactics used to pass ObamaCare
You just need a forum to vent your anger about an unrelated subject. I suggest you go elsewhere for that.
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"Not to worry"
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The EU members of the ACTA committee need to start getting prosecuted and sentenced to jail for ignoring EU parliament decisions.
This is an outright legal war with the general public. And they're going to cry victory until it becomes the truth. And once that passes, they'll have a stick with which they can slam their critics into lifetime internet jail.
Under ACTA everyone infringes and everyone can be reached. Share music? Infringement! Share movies? Infringement! Review a movie on your blog? Infringement! Post lyrics to songs? Infringement! Link to news by the AP? Infringement! Post pictures that happen to have a logo or a product on them? Infringement! Mention the Winter Olympics? Infringement!
This is, indeed, the final boss of the internet.
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Stopping ACTA
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Re: Stopping ACTA
I'm hoping for "yes" here.
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Nothing to worry about...
ACTA will not make it... especially when there are leaks of the document you don't want the people to see; it makes you look shady!!
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ACTA
Seattle? Too public? Doha? Sufficiently isolated, but now they know what we're doing just by opening computers. What's left but total secrecy, except you have no credibility left and all holes leak to...This is all nothing new for the US, but why on earth does the EU follow it into these nether regions? Dignity? Could we have some please? EU? Hello? Parliament (thank gods for them) calling.
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AND ACTA as such would be unconstitutional in CANADA
SO you get up to 5.4 years max for not being able to afford a fine per infringement as fines can run consecutive.
LIFE in prison for a full album of music?
Enter Section 12 of canada's Charter of rights and freedoms:
CRUEL and UNUSUAL PUNISHMENT,
WHICH goes into depth on a section of it that talks about punishments being harsher then other more violent crimes and thus are illegal.
THATS right the CONSERVATIVE gov't is negotiating a treaty that IS and shall be against the LAW in Canada to enforce.
BILL C61 IF YOU go get a copy was also an attempt at making ACTA possible , the prob with it also was the fact anti circumvention got you that 20000 $ fine and acta would have given you anohter 20000$ plus a 500$ download fine, and open you to civil lawsuits on top of all this. 12-15 years potential prison time fo ra single music tune is TREASONOUS to the people of canada. OUTRIGHT EVIL.
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It is obvious the most people do not want this pass and realize that they are better off without this passed; however, it's clear they only care about being the puppets of Big Media to enact a fascist global regime to punish people for violating inane and insane restrictions on non-existent "intellectual property".
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