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EU Privacy Chief Says ACTA Violates European Law
An anonymous reader writes "Peter Hustinx, the European Data Protection Supervisor, has issued a 20-page opinion expressing concern about ACTA (PDF). Michael Geist's summary of the opinion notes that it concludes that the prospect of a three-strikes and you're out system may violate European privacy law, that the possibility of cross-border enforcement raises serious privacy issues, and that ACTA transparency is needed now."
One of the points he makes, which is a good one, is that data-sharing for enforcement purposes among countries that have different criminal punishments for copyright law is hard to justify. It also makes me wonder if--for example--I live in a country with fair use and a country with more stringent fair use policies wants to go after me for copyright infringement... well, you see the issues. Will the country with the most stringent policies suddenly be the equivalent of the patent troll district in Texas?
-- IANAL, this isn't legal advice, and definitely isn't legal advice for you. Also, Squee!
So after reading a bit of his "opinion" piece (written way more formally than any opinion piece I've read), it seems that without reading the full extent of ACTA he is dead set against it. Any aspect he has heard of (most likely through Doctorow or Geist) he makes a case for it being a violation of privacy. Without even reading all of it, he knows it's illegal. His title sounds like he should have been invited to these proceedings but I think I can decipher why he wasn't invited ...
... maybe privacy and international IP/copyright enforcement are inseparable. Not being an expert, I cannot say. I am fairly certain, however, that each country has to pass this into law once the countries agree on a basis. I will say that my representative and senators had better damn well represent the majority of the population and I hope that majority is with me on this. What the EDPS should do is continue to demand transparency but also get the citizens and all the members of the EU to promise not to pass this into legislation without transparency right now.
I agree with him but it sounds like he would be opposed to anything they could dream up. And maybe that's the way it should be
My work here is dung.
it concludes that the prospect of a three-strikes and you're out system may violate European privacy law
I reckon that y'all aint even playin baseball 'cross the pond, so three strikes seems plum-tuckered out.
In most (all?) countries, all laws are required to be available to the public to read. A secret law like this one is simply unenforceable by default.
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
the title should read "European Law violates ACTA"
subtitled "The law must be changed"
So is the retention of DNA of arrested individuals never charged with a crime in England. Nobody gives a shit about European law. Not even European politicians.
When Europe has the balls / jurisdiction to indict heads of state over the transgressions of member states, maybe we'll see some countries brought into line. Right now, however, expect at least England to sign up for this no matter what Europe say.
Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
ACTA is the attempt to eradicate free communication. The ultimate chilling effect. It's the return to government and industry controlled dissemination of propaganda. The establishment is fed up with grass-roots resistance to corporate control and is readying the big guns.
I have to disagree with you in this:
People have all sorts of different reasons for keeping legislation secret until it is proposed ranging from strategically hiding it from your opposition thereby reducing their reaction time to simply not having a solid foundation built yet. If you've got a shaky idea of what all the players want out of this deal, you shouldn't be publishing the initial draft of the documentation. This leads to confusion and gives opponents fodder. Let's say the countries that came to the table eventually reject the international three strikes rule but later have problems passing a better version of ACTA that actually tries to achieve a solution without invading privacy.
That's exacty what corrupts democracy from an open discussion of ideas towards a power game more akin to chess playing. Entertaining, but missing the point.
One of the pieces of US legislation I'm most envious of, as an European is FOIA (the time span should be considerably shorter, but over here, governments are free to keep things secret forever).
Keep politics and admin honest by making known as much as possible as early as possible.
It's all starting to remind me of "Max Headroom"--that circa 1980s TV show that featured a gigitize floating head in a world that was basically run by major corporations. The corporations had control of everything, including the media.
One interesting point of trivia regarding the show, which ran on ABC: the primary antagonist, Network 23, was a direct slam against one of ABC's primary rivals. Take the first letter of "Network" (N), and then the "23" actually represented the second and third letters of the alphabet (BC). Put it together and you see the alleged future villian: Network 23 == NBC!
I use irony whenever I can, but my shirts are still wrinkled...
3 Strikes and your out!
Um, thats out for that time at bat. Not out of the game.
So if I was the baseball commission, i'd sue over the improper use of the term.
Be seeing you...
Wasn't the minister of privacy supposed to spy on you?
But... the future refused to change.
I'm pretty sure it violates law in pretty well every continent where it's planned to be implemented.
... the US version of Michael Geist?
an official that finally realises that ACTA is f**king rediculous and should never ever happen. This sort of restores my faith in politicians.
he knows a few items like 3 strikes, mandatory isp policing and surveillance and sentencing, and these all conflict with fundamental laws, not only in eu, but also international. human rights declaration, geneva convention, free speech principles. and he speaks on those.
if you dont know enough about europe, these laws and rules are fundamental to everything in eu.
Read radical news here
*chuckle* The people making ACTA know very well how much resistance there is to their plans, and that's precisely WHY it's been kept secret. This guy isn't even near the top of the list of people in power (Senators and Representatives in the US) who have already demanded transparency and been ignored, so I'm not sure why this is news.
All the political powers not on the payrolls of the media industry are going to make a fuss about this, but they're in the minority, and obviously between Biden and Obama, between ACTA and the newly organized FBI police task force to back them up, this only gets worse from here.
Just FYI, and this isn't getting a lot of mainstream coverage yet, and probably won't for obvious reasons, an eyewitness to that plane crash at the austin building matter of factly stated to a TV reporter, standing there as the building is still burning, with neither understanding the implications, that the fire department and hazmat team were right there near the building before the plane hit. Just sort of hanging around. It's up on youtube now.
lameness filter fna fna fna fna fna
[FUCK BETA]
It may be civil now, but the proposed ACTA guidelines call for criminal enforcement with prison terms. think about it prison terms for downloading some crappy song. And if that's not bad/absurd enough, it takes all the burden off the media cartel and puts the cost squarely on our backs.
If you want your life to be different, live it differently.
It is being done as an executive trade agreement of some kind here in the US, or more accurately the CSA [Corporate States of America]. This has been going on since Bush II. Congressional approval not needed. Any attempt to amend it is expected to be greeted with an "It's all or nothing!" claim. Good luck fixing this fascist wet-dream. What the corporate sultans fail to realize is that it can eventually be used against them, but that is another story.
If you want your life to be different, live it differently.