EU Parliament Members Not At All Happy About ACTA

from the now-can-they-do-anything? dept

Tue, Oct 5th 2010 6:31pm — Mike Masnick

We already noted that it's expected that the latest ACTA draft text will finally be released this week (the first time since April that negotiators have decided it's worth letting us officially see the document), which they continue to insist they've been "transparent" about. We've already noted that the EU Parliament has rejected the secrecy around ACTA, but the EU Commission (which is negotiating the agreement) has more or less ignored them. Now, with reports coming out saying the agreement being close to done, EU Parliament members are speaking out against ACTA. They're demanding a copy of the document, and warning that they need to approve it before the agreement is official. And, they're specifically complaining about the impression negotiators are giving that this agreement does not need European Parliament approval. In the end, I still don't think this will derail the agreement, but it's really quite amazing the entitlement attitude of negotiators on this agreement, where they've clearly decided that they're only going to pay attention to people who already agree with them.

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Filed Under: acta, copyright, eu, eu parliament, parliament

13 Comments

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Shadow Six, 5 Oct 2010 @ 6:42pm

6:12/2
what difference does it make? they already pushed laws on their people that conforms. So, what? they can pretend like they're pro-culture, while having voted for the implementation... how typical.
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Anonymous Coward, 5 Oct 2010 @ 7:31pm

Power and Responsibility
Power and responsibility should always go around together.

Authority and responsibility must be equal -- else a balancing takes place as surely as current flows between points of unequal potential. To permit irresponsible authority is to sow disaster; to hold a man responsible for anything he does not control is to behave with blind idiocy. -- Robert A. Heinlen, "Starship Troopers"

The EU parliament appears to be being held responsible (by the voters) for things they do not control (the ACTA negotiators). They need to either exercise the power or put the responsibility with whoever does have the power.
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out_of_the_blue, 5 Oct 2010 @ 7:54pm

All theater. Don't buy into it.
EU Parliament makes noises to foster the notion of opposition so that public thinks action is being taken. I don't usually bother commenting on ACTA because it's on rails. Details *may* be up in air right now, but the trend is clear and certain. Fighting such here is pointless; it's far more important to identify who's behind it, and as always, that's The Rich. They've spent decades quietly putting comprehensive police state mechanisms in place, and are now about to close down major freedoms. -- "Legally", because that's the most effective way, traps victims into accepting loony tyranny.
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Jay (profile), 5 Oct 2010 @ 9:42pm

Re: All theater. Don't buy into it.
...

Look, once you start going into monetary discrimination, your argument loses punch. I think everyone knows that ACTA is used to benefit certain industries. We don't need a vague "They" as the conspirators who become boogie men in the middle of the night as they conspire to take our jobs and feed them to "Them-over-there"
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Alex (profile), 5 Oct 2010 @ 10:48pm

The European Parliament has rejected a treaty before
it rejected the SWIFT data treaty in February. this had to be revised before it was passed the second time in June.
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Catharina, 6 Oct 2010 @ 2:22am

Gallo Report
After the EP accepted the Gallo report there is not much hope left that they will reject ACTA: http://www.laquadrature.net/en/gallo-report-adopted-a-stab-in-the-back-of-citizens-freedoms
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R. Miles (profile), 6 Oct 2010 @ 3:35am

Here's an idea.
I was thinking of a way to end this ACTA issue once and for all:

DEAR ARTISTS AROUND THE WORLD:
How about standing up and speaking out against this fiasco?

Yeah...

That's what I thought.

This is what happens when people "vote with their wallet".
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masquisieras, 6 Oct 2010 @ 4:51am

The thing is that the rules has changed.
When ACTA began negotiation the EU Parlament could only delay if the Parlament said no 3 times the Commission could approve it anyway. Since then the rule has changed with the incorporation of new countries, now if the Parlament say no you have to go and renegotiate the accord.
I think that the change is recent enough that the EU negotiator are not having it in their mind while moving ACTA along.
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abc gum, 6 Oct 2010 @ 5:02am

Re: The thing is that the rules has changed.
Felicity Shagwell: Ah ha! You have to answer. He asked you three times.

Mustafa: No no no! The second question was 'Do I really have to ask you two more times?'. So that would be the first question in a new line of questioning, and wouldn't count in the other line of questioning.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0145660/quotes
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Alex (profile), 6 Oct 2010 @ 5:02am

@Catherine: But they supported Written Declaration 12, and overwhelmingly for transparency in March
http://keionline.org/node/801
So do not assume that the battle is lost just because MEPs voted for the Dark Side in the most recent vote. They do not vote consistently, it depends who's lobbying them most. For the Gallo report, they were heavily lobbied by Big IP, and the opposition didn't get organized until a few days before the vote. The lesson is to keep lobbying MEPs.
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Alex (profile), 6 Oct 2010 @ 5:02am

@Catherine: But they supported Written Declaration 12, and overwhelmingly for transparency in March
http://keionline.org/node/801
So do not assume that the battle is lost just because MEPs voted for the Dark Side in the most recent vote. They do not vote consistently, it depends who's lobbying them most. For the Gallo report, they were heavily lobbied by Big IP, and the opposition didn't get organized until a few days before the vote. The lesson is to keep lobbying MEPs.
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Richard (profile), 6 Oct 2010 @ 5:16am

Re: Gallo Report
The Gallo report is not binding on anyone or anything. It is a set of vague suggestions - some of which are actually quite good (or at least could be implemented in a good way).

It was bounced through at relatively short notice and some of those who voted for it may not have noticed the nasty bits.

ACTA is a different matter.
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Gary, 7 Oct 2010 @ 11:17am

Re: Draft text next week
Amazing, the EU commission is only letting you see the draft at all because of a vote from EU parliament asking for more transparency.

http://www.laquadrature.net/wiki/Written_Declaration_12/2010_signatories_list

If you want to keep up with what you are not being told about negotiations regarding IP and patents, then here are some links:
http://werebuild.eu/wiki/index.php?title=ACTA
http://action.ffii.org/acta/Analysis

It is bad enough getting through airports at the moment with a business laptop. Under this new scheme it seems that you can now be challenged to demonstrate that your computer is fully licensed, before you will be allowed to board a plane.

This is all about big business being overly intrusive, in the lives of ordinary citizens. If the EU allow this to go through, then they will certainly be making business travel more difficult.

Anything we do to slow down our digital businesses must surely play into the hands of China, Brazil and other booming economies with which we must compete.
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