Mexican Senate Calls On President To Reject ACTA

Thu, Jul 28th 2011 10:07pm — Mike Masnick

We recently wrote about efforts in the Mexican Congress to get that country to refuse to sign onto ACTA. Geraldine Juarez, who wrote that last post for us, alerts us to the news that after a few weeks of discussions with various parties -- including hearing directly from citizens (rather than just the industry), the Senate has officially asked the President to reject ACTA. That link is in Spanish, but Juarez kindly translated the statement for us. The highlighted parts are by me, calling out some of the key points:

Since the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) would be contrary to various individual guarantees contained in the Constitution, Senators of the working group that monitor the process of the negotiations of such agreement, the Senate considers relevant to urge the Federal Executive power not to sign the agreement.

A statement released by the PRI senator Eloy Cantu Segovia, who heads the group and where the reasons for not signing the treaty were discussed, says that ACTA would violate the principle of presumption of innocence in our country. This - which is explained in the text - is because of the ambiguity of some provisions of the commercial project (the agreement) that would be contrary to the security and certainty of Mexicans.

Also, specifically, the process of negotiating this agreement violated the Law on Approval of Treaties on Economic Matters, as its provisions were not implemented in a timely and sufficient way for the agencies involved in the negotiations. This generated opacity and impediment to the Senate to provide adequate follow-up to this negotiation, highlighted in the text. Similarly, the Senators in this group argue that the implementation of ACTA would be a limitation to the "universalization of Internet access desirable in Mexican society." Instead, it would widen the digital divide and lessen the possibility that the country is inserted into the so-called information and knowledge society, they said.

They warned that the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement could lead to a censorship of Internet content and therefore a restriction on freedom in its operation and neutrality that the internet should have. They also noted that (ACTA) would put at risk the development of "legitimate commerce, digital creativity and legitimate cultural diffusion" of Mexicans.

In this regard, they stressed that one of the issues discussed was the possibility that "under the justifiable argument" of the protection of intellectual property rights, it could create rules that restrict freedom and neutrality of the Internet. However, they also stated that intellectual property rights are the best mechanism to encourage research, innovation, technological development, creativity and culture, so the Internet is a new scenario for the protection of these rights.

Therefore, we believe, it requires a specific legal framework for the protection of intellectual property must be made carefully, "so you have the necessary efficiency without generating a regression , or limitations on the reach of internet services in general and the right to their access. "

The statement said that after making several public hearings and meetings with the authorities responsible for these issues, the diverse group "enriched the information and knowledge on the subject with the views and comments of various participants." That - highlights - allowed a comprehensive view of the contents of ACTA, its purposes and possible effects of its application.

The document was submitted to the Political Coordination Board.

It's become quite clear at this point that Mexico is no fan of ACTA. It's unclear if this will eventually matter, but for now it's nice to see a large group of politicians stand up against not just the ridiculously secretive ACTA process, but also the end results as well

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Filed Under: acta, mexico

16 Comments

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Derek Kerton (profile), 28 Jul 2011 @ 10:58pm

Banana Republic
It's nice that we can rely on a national government that actually gets informed about the issue of ACTA and decided in favor of the people, not the US media giants and copyright maximalists.

Too bad that it had to be in Mexico, and not in our strange republic.
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The eejit (profile), 28 Jul 2011 @ 11:19pm

Re: Banana Republic
And remember, that if even the catels think your law is shit (from a bad law perspective, rathyer than an affecting their business perspective), then you know there's a problem.
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Yogi, 28 Jul 2011 @ 11:19pm

Sad
It's sad that it is Mexico that has a public, intelligent discussion of ACTA, and not the "Leader of the free world".

Not much of a leader anymore, and certainly not free.

But then, as the RIAA/MPAA keeps telling us, free is bad...
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Ed (profile), 28 Jul 2011 @ 11:26pm

Go Mexico
if they actually do reject this atrocious "treaty" and as is likely it does get passed here in the US then we may very well see carloads of Americans trying to cross the border INTO Mexico!
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David Muir (profile), 29 Jul 2011 @ 1:16am

Re: Go Mexico
http://img836.imageshack.us/img836/2551/bordersign.png
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PaulT (profile), 29 Jul 2011 @ 2:42am

"It's sad that it is Mexico that has a public, intelligent discussion of ACTA, and not the "Leader of the free world"."

One country is owned by the corporations pushing ACTA, the other isn't...
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Prisoner 201, 29 Jul 2011 @ 3:16am

I guess Mexico is going to get tossed off the internet then?

I mean, if you are against ACTA, you obviously have something rogue going on.

The children!
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John Doe, 29 Jul 2011 @ 4:00am

Say wha?
Let me get this straight, the Mexican government is actually worried about obeying their rule of law and abiding by their constitution? And our government, the first to be founded on the idea of freedom, has long since done everything they can to undo the constitution. Wow, just wow.
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abc gum, 29 Jul 2011 @ 5:01am

Re: Say wha?
"the first to be founded on the idea of freedom"

Are you sure about that?
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John Doe, 29 Jul 2011 @ 5:36am

Re: Re: Say wha?
It might be an over simplification, but yes, the US is the first government of its kind where it is rule by the people though to look at it today it would be hard to tell that.

For example, when George Washington decided not to run for re-election, the leaders of other nations were astonished that he would walk away from it and return to farming. He and the other founding fathers envisioned that being president was for a limited time and then you would return to your life. They did not envision the career politicians we have today.
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Anonymous Coward, 29 Jul 2011 @ 6:13am

Re:
"One country is owned by the corporations pushing ACTA, the other isn't... Yet"

FTFY ^^
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Eileen (profile), 29 Jul 2011 @ 6:15am

Re: Re: Re: Say wha?
Which is why I think when we finally get a re-do on this whole thing, there should be an ironclad "vow of poverty" rule for going into elected government. You are allowed assets equal to the average American and a similar income/year, the rest gets donated to charity. While lots of people would still be perpetual "guests" of the moneyed interests, it would be a lot more obvious who's paying for them.
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Legolas2112 (profile), 29 Jul 2011 @ 6:57am

The Kitten, the Dog, and the Copyright
Mexico is much more of a free society than the US. Where I received this nasty notice after trying to share a dumb but funny video clip of a kitten terrorizing a pit bull. I'm rather surprised that the FB account is still working this morning... After I sent them an Email telling them EXACTLY what I thought of their action... (Sailors and mules would blush at the invective!)
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Gwiz (profile), 29 Jul 2011 @ 8:46am

Re:
I mean, if you are against ACTA, you obviously have something rogue going on.

In related news the entire top level domain of Mexico (.mx) has been declared a rogue entity by the entertainment industry and will be seized by ICE soon.
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gorehound (profile), 29 Jul 2011 @ 9:02am

If you really want to get rid of ACTA or being spied upon by our government the best option is for some real change.And the only way we will in fact change the system is to vote for candidates who do not belong to either the reps or dems party.the two parties have created this mess and vote in these laws but this is a democracy (supposedly) so let us vote out all these old fogies and get some cool people in there who will stand up and do the right thing.
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abc gum, 30 Jul 2011 @ 7:28am

Re: Re: Re: Say wha?
"the US is the first government of its kind where it is rule by the people"

I'm no historian and the US is not a democracy - so I doubt the US was first in this regard.

"Democracy has its formal origins in Ancient Greece,[20][21] but democratic practices are evident in earlier societies including Mesopotamia, Phoenicia and India"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy
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