Mexican Senate Votes To Drop Out of ACTA

An anonymous reader writes "The Mexican Senate has voted unanimously to drop out of ACTA negotiations, saying that the process has been way too secretive, left out many stakeholders and appears to deny access to knowledge and information. Of course, it's not clear if this 'non-binding resolution' actually means much, as the negotiators are not under the Senate's control. At the very least, though, it appears the Mexican Senate is going to fight to keep the country from agreeing to ACTA."

Comments

Not at all

[cappp]

That's not what the resolution says at all.

First .- The Senate agreed to form a Plural Working Group to follow up the negotiations for the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, known as ACT (for its initials in English Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement) in order to assist in the transparency of the multilateral negotiations and ensure that the provisions of this Agreement are in accordance with the guarantees and fundamental rights that our Constitution provides for Federal

Second .- The Senate agreed to hold, through the Working Group Plural provided in resolving previous public forums and consultations with officials, academics, experts and interested parties in order to build a position on it, and its case, to form an agenda and an alternate route to the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), in order to prepare and submit bills related to the Internet, the industrial property rights and copyrights, as well as freedom of expression and the right to privacy. Third .- While setting up a position by the Senate on Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), requesting the owner of the Federal Executive, Mr. Felipe Calderón Hinojosa , stop the process of negotiations for our country to sign the international convention.

This says nothing about dropping out at all. It is asking for negotiations to be paused while they set up internal discussion and review groups. The tone of the entire thing supports the general need for something like ACTA but is against the secrecy of the negotiations. The healine there is misleading.

Re:Not at all

[MBGMorden]

I'm with you on this one. I'm not sure if the AC you're going back and forth with is a native English speaker or not (or if they are, if they use a different dialect), but "drop out" indicates a finality. "Postpone" or "suspend" are far less harsh words to use if the intention is to later resume negotiations.

Saying "we're droping out" doesn't mean "well be back later". It's more like "Fuck ya'll, peace out!".

So...

[Barrinmw]

Another "backwards" country cares more about the freedoms of its people than the United States.

Re:So...

[Anonymous Coward]

Why do I always feel like the Imperial March should play any time our ambassadors arrive to negotiate some new onerous "IP law" treaty with a wide-eyed, third world country?

Wow.

[ignavus]

Unanimous ... I bet the US senate would be closer to unanimous in the other direction.

Smaller countries know when they are being taken to the cleaners.

might be bad to drop out :-(

[r00t]

The negotiating countries will need to sign this treaty from the start, but at least they get a chance to water it down.

Other countries get dragged into signing it later, with no chance to change anything. Ever notice how the USA makes DMCA-like laws a requirement of any trade-related treaty?

Re:might be bad to drop out :-(

[houstonbofh]

Like Mexico cares. Their biggest trade item is illegal anyway. (Weed and labor) And the backlash is building elsewhere.

Re:might be bad to drop out :-(

[Anonymous Coward]

Your comment is inaccurate and the main reason the rest of the world thinks Americans are uninformed and arrogant. Mexico is the 12th largest economy in the world and headed for the top 5 - counting the EU as one entity of course. The 1950's stereotypes no longer apply, it is not "the west, the commies and the 3d world" any more.

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Mexico#Remittances

Remittances, or contributions sent by Mexicans living abroad, mostly in the United States, to their families at home in Mexico, are a substantial and growing part of the Mexican economy; they comprised $18 billion in 2005.[27] In 2004, they became the tenth largest source of foreign income after oil, industrial exports, manufactured goods, electronics, heavy industry, automobiles, construction, food, and banking & financial services

The full article on the economy of Mexico is quite interesting, and can be an eye opener.

Made In America

[Citizen of Earth]

I can't understand why any country other than America would even care about draconian copyright enforcement. Given that America is a huge media maker and most of the world are consumers of this media with a small amount they produce themselves, their citizens achieve a higher quality if life with existing copyright enforcement. ACTA really only benefits the US. All the other countries should figure this out.

Re:Made In America

[Mr. Pibb]

I can understand how there may be some Mexican Senators who have their fingers in the Piracy pie. *Any* Mexican street market is guaranteed to have at least one "clon" stand, with the larger markets having 20-25% of their stalls selling warez of all kinds: CD/MP3/DVD/PS2/XBOX, as well as counterfeit clothing and handbags.

A widely believed rumor is that the stands are tied to organized crime. Another rumor is that the Senators are corrupt. It doesn't take a Latin conspiracy theorist to connect the dots.

Re:Made In America

[mcgrew]

Sony Pictures: Japan
Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd: Britain
Lord of teh Rings: New Zealand.
Rush: Canada
ACDC: Australia
Universal Pictures: France
Jackie Chan: Hong Kong

IP economy vs. Freedom

[oldhack]

I just think IP economy is incompatible with freedom in general. I know you guys can follow thru.

Re:IP economy vs. Freedom

[gmuslera]

There are different kinds of "IP rights". The ones that say essentially that you can't think or imagine something are definately against freedom. One thing is verbatim copies of your work, no creative process involved, and another thinking in the same or even reaching the same conclusions.

Re:IP economy vs. Freedom

[mcvos]

I completely disagree. Suppose your livelihood depended on creating intellectual property;

Suppose your livelihood depended on creating hot air. It's not the law's job to enable business models, its job is to enable a healthy society. And at the moment, a lot of IP laws don't seem to do much good to society.

There are already ridiculous amounts of money and lawyers involved in IP at the moment. We're creating more content than ever before. More than we can ever hope to consume. Why do we need a new treaty to make IP even more powerful? We need some balance.

Now let's say your hot new video game gets distributed in a way that results in heavy losses for your employer. Now let's take this one step further - your bonus/raise/benefits have all been drastically reduced due to heavy damages. Then what are you going to do?

Try something that works, rather than go whining to the government for more draconian laws.

ACTA and software patents

[ciaran_o_riordan]

Here's the problems caused for software patents:

• http://en.swpat.org/wiki/ACTA_and_software_patents

I've seen people claiming that ACTA will require countries to allow software patenting, but that's not correct at all. On the contrary, the latest leaked draft (25 August) explicitly says that there will be no substantive requirements on scope:

ARTICLE 1.3: RELATION TO STANDARDS CONCERNING THE AVAILABILITY AND SCOPE OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS

1. This Agreement shall be without prejudice to provisions governing the availability, acquisition, scope, and maintenance of intellectual property rights contained in a Party's law.

2. This Agreement does not create any obligation on a Party to apply measures where a right in intellectual property is not protected under the laws and regulations of that Party.

• Let's avoid the term "Intellectual property"
• Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement overview

Single Nation Treaty?

[Bob9113]

Heh, at this rate, it won't be long before the United States is the only country left. Then the RIAA, MPAA, and the henchmen Obama appointed to the DoJ can write whatever they want and sign us on as the sole participating nation. Signing a treaty without another nation involved has to fall somewhere in the executive branch scale between extraordinary rendition and summary execution, so it's totally legit!

Re:Single Nation Treaty?

[mykos]

Lol...I'm not a lawyer or anything, but it doesn't seem like there's anything standing in the way of them doing just that. We could have a whole mess of laws written by "treaties" between zero outside parties, or calling an agreement with the **AA a "treaty". Stranger things have happened...we've had presidents using "executive orders" to get things done that lawmakers would never originate or approve of.

Nice sideshow alright, but ACTA marches on

[ciaran_o_riordan]

> Smaller countries know when they are being taken to the cleaners.

Yeh, but the only institutions that complain are ones with no power.

The European Parliament, the European Privacy Commission, and the Mexican Senate aren't in charge of the ACTA negotiations for their countries. They can stomp off and their citizens can feel proud that the elected officials are looking after their interests, but ACTA goes ahead. Funny, huh?

I didn't understand how society let TRIPS go ahead in 1994. I guessed it was snuck in while citizens weren't looking at the global level, and it would thus never happen again. Now my generation is letting it happen, and we're watching it unfold, and it's unfolding...

http://en.swpat.org/wiki/Anti-Counterfeiting_Trade_Agreement_overview

Re:Nice sideshow alright, but ACTA marches on

[tongting]

The future's so bright I gotta wear shades, not. "Democratic" societies are sort of a joke. The masses are easily distracted with a combination of glittering objects and FUD while they are increasingly put under the boot of the powerful.

Re:Mexico has much bigger things to deal with

[dbet]

I would argue every nation has bigger things to deal with, but that's just me.

Re:How does this happen?

[josech]

The negotiations are not under the Senate control, but the final approval is. ACTA must be approved by the mexican Senate in order to be legally adopted.

And yes. The lobbyist and factual powers in Mexico are very powerful an evil, just as anywhere else.

Go Mexico!

[Arancaytar]

Mexico may have been turned into a lethal hellhole by the drug cartels, but you have to credit their government with more integrity than most of the developed world, as far as that treaty is concerned. I hope the EU makes good on its promise and follows suit.