EU Negotiators Insist That ACTA Will Move Forward And There's Nothing To Worry About

from the uh-huh... dept

Tue, Mar 23rd 2010 12:24pm — Mike Masnick

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.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: acta, eu, luc devigne

23 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Hephaestus (profile), 23 Mar 2010 @ 12:46pm

this is really painful to watch ...
dont they understand how hard this is going to comeback to bite them? Everything they have done to date has lead to public outcry but no grass roots response. This will put them in the headlights of the entire internet. I dont think the response or result will be what they expect.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Guillaume, 23 Mar 2010 @ 12:47pm

Full draft of ACTA text (dated jan 18) has been leaked
La quadrature du Net has released a full leak of the ACTA text dated jan. 18 on their web site. Here it is : http://www.laquadrature.net/en/0118-version-of-acta-consolidated-text-leaks Good luck for parties in saying things are being taken out of context now, and not to worry about what is written, it's all in plain sight, and for everyone to analyze, without NDA. Guillaume
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Hephaestus (profile), 23 Mar 2010 @ 12:52pm

Re: Full draft of ACTA text (dated jan 18) has been leaked
Thanks !!! Greatly appreciated
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Ima Fish (profile), 23 Mar 2010 @ 12:53pm

"And There's Nothing To Worry About"

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.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 23 Mar 2010 @ 12:58pm

GAWD people. You are overreacting. It's a COUNTERFEITING agreement. It has nothing to do with Copyrights and Trademarks.

Did I do it right?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Hephaestus (profile), 23 Mar 2010 @ 1:09pm

Re:
If that was sarcasm you should include ¡¡¡ at the end ... ;)

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
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 23 Mar 2010 @ 1:15pm

Re: Re:
It was an attempt at trying to sound like the IP maximalists like TAM.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Ima Fish (profile), 23 Mar 2010 @ 1:15pm

Re:
"Did I do it right?"

Close, but you forgot to mention that it will not change any laws.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Johnny Canada, 23 Mar 2010 @ 1:19pm

If you live in the U.S. you have nothing to worry about with ACTA.

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 :) )
[ link to this | view in thread ]
jfgilbert (profile), 23 Mar 2010 @ 1:22pm

"But... when those politicians actually try to reform or fix broken copyright laws..."
I am not too worried about that because I will be watching pigs soaring in the breeze from my window.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 23 Mar 2010 @ 2:41pm

Re: Re: Re:
You forgot to call us all thieves.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
www.eZee.se (profile), 23 Mar 2010 @ 3:35pm

Everytime i read about this **** I get soooooo ****ing angry...
I almost want to stop reading about it... but cant.

So frustrating, wish i could meet one of these "negotiators" to vent a bit.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Yankee Infidel, 23 Mar 2010 @ 5:30pm

same tactics used to pass ObamaCare
This is really no different than how the Democrat leaders in the US Congress ignored their constituents and forced the ObamaCare bill through both houses. Then again, there will never be enough people to stand up and force the hand of these unelected officials to cease and desist negotiations on ACTA.

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.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
abc gum, 23 Mar 2010 @ 5:45pm

Re: same tactics used to pass ObamaCare
No its not the same and you know it, obviously.

You just need a forum to vent your anger about an unrelated subject. I suggest you go elsewhere for that.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Victor, 23 Mar 2010 @ 6:41pm

"Not to worry"
When the government says "not to worry" is the time to worry
[ link to this | view in thread ]
MrSonPopo, 23 Mar 2010 @ 11:22pm

They're not going to listen. They're just going to keep pretending that people who are unhappy with ACTA do not exist or are insane.

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.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Vadim, 24 Mar 2010 @ 1:55am

Stopping ACTA
I Wonder if there is a way to try to petition EU Court of justice to force transparency and consumers group/public participation in ACTA negotiotions
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Hammer, 24 Mar 2010 @ 2:21am

Re: Stopping ACTA
I think we're beyond "forcing transparency". Those plotters have already been ordered to be transparent and have blatantly ignored that order. I think the question now is "Can we petition EU court of Justice to nail their hides?".

I'm hoping for "yes" here.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Joel (profile), 24 Mar 2010 @ 9:59am

Nothing to worry about...
If it was nothing to worry about then why would you be telling me not to worry??

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!!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
bikey, 24 Mar 2010 @ 2:18pm

ACTA
All that shiftiness wasn't enough - WIPO? To third worldy; WTO? It stopped working for the US as soon the other countries understood what was going on (and thank you Brazil for taking charge of the mechanism); bilaterals? Let's see how they hold up.
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.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
NUCLEAR intellectual property, 25 Mar 2010 @ 1:52am

AND ACTA as such would be unconstitutional in CANADA
the part where they make non commercial infringement the same as commercial means a 20000$ fine per infringement and also ADD on top of that jail time.

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.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Hammer, 25 Mar 2010 @ 2:19am

Is there any organization bound on prosecuting the ACTA negotiators? I *REALLY* want to know.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
yuregininsesi, 24 Jun 2010 @ 4:26pm

This is really no different than how the Democrat leaders in the US Congress ignored their constituents and forced the ObamaCare bill through both houses. Then again, there will never be enough people to stand up and force the hand of these unelected officials to cease and desist negotiations on ACTA.

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".
[ link to this | view in thread ]