Slashdot Mirror
European Commission Paints Itself Into ACTA Corner
Halo1 writes "Last week, the European Commission published a rebuttal to an extensive and strongly condemning opinion document about ACTA by prominent European academics. Ante Wessels from the FFII went through the Commission's reply and discovered that after correcting the mistakes they made, they actually confirm the opinion they were trying to refute. The Commission primarily appears to suffer from a lack of reading comprehension, amnesia regarding what it said earlier, and not being fully aware of its competences."
May 1, 2011
By Ante
In January 2011, prominent European academics issued an âoeOpinion of European Academics on Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreementâ (ACTA). The academics invite the European institutions, in particular the European Parliament, and the national legislators and governments to withhold consent of ACTA, âoeâ¦as long as significant deviations from the EU acquis or serious concerns on fundamental rights, data protection, and a fair balance of interests are not properly addressedâ.
In April 2011, the European Commissionâ(TM)s services put on-line comments to the European Academicsâ(TM) Opinion on ACTA. The Commission denies ACTA is incompatible with EU law.
The Commission fails to make its point in a convincing way. The Commission shows a lack of basic reading skills, does not address points raised by the academics and fails to reason in a logical way. Regarding the border measures, the Commission actually agrees with the academics. The Parliament should ask the European Court of Justice an opinion on ACTA.
It is too much work to address all the flaws in the Commissionâ(TM)s notes. I will give some examples.
ACTAâ(TM)s damages are higher than EU lawâ(TM)s damages
The academics wrote: âoeSome of the factors mentioned at the end of the provision are not provided for in art. 13.1 Directive 2004/48. These factors should not be adopted in European law since they are not appropriate to measure the damage. âoeThe value of the infringed good or service, measured by the market price, [or] the suggested retail priceâ, as indicated in art. 9.1 ACTA, does not reflect the economic loss suffered by the right holder.â
The Commission states: âoeThere is no conflict between article 9 of ACTA and article 13 of Directive 2004/48/EC. Both provisions refer to ways in which courts can come to the determination of fair damages for the injured party.â
Damages in EU law are based on economic loss suffered by the right holder. The academics show that ACTA goes beyond that. The Commission just calls them both âoefairâ, and sees no difference. This is like saying: âoebig cars and small cars are both nice cars, so there is no difference.â But with cars and with damages, it is not only important both are cars or damages, the size is relevant as well. ACTA exceeds the level of damages in EU law. The Commission does not address the size aspect raised by the academics.
Bringing different things under the same category does not make them the same. Fines and death penalty are both deterrent, they are not the same.
Going beyond economic loss suffered by the right holder is not âoefairâ. It disproportionally hurts for instance startup companies in conflict with major patent holders. The Commission and ACTA advocate seeing damages based on retail price as âoefairâ. Unbalanced enforcement measures may heighten market entrance risks for innovators. Startup companies are often confronted with patent minefields. Even a mere allegation of infringement may easily lead to market exclusion. Startup companies often do not have enough resources to litigate. ACTA is biased against startup companies, the heightened damages hurt innovation.
The Commission states: âoeThe examples given in article 9.1 of ACTA and highlighted by the authors of the Opinion are not mandatory for the ACTA Parties (cf. the provision says âoemay includeâ).â
But this âoemayâ in article 9.1, is permissive towards the rights holders, it refers to âoeany legitimate measure of value the right holder submitsâ. Article 9.1 is not permissive towards the ACTA parti
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No wondering whether they were bullied like spanish government to that end by the whores in u.s.. i wonder if that will came out in wikileaks cables too, like it happened for spain.
Read radical news here
One can only "paint oneself into a corner" if there are any likely consequences for whatever it is that one has just done. Given that supporting or not supporting ACTA is pretty much entirely a matter of which master you are serving, the EC could have just had an intern hammer out a couple of pages of Lorum Ipsum, change the font to Zapf Dingbats, and print it up. As it is, they kindly went to the trouble of regurgitating nonsense that bears a substantial resemblance to a natural-language argument. Polite; but hardly necessary.
Interesting speech on your link, but that can be assumed to be the case anywhere. America is becoming desperate because its entertainment industry is all it has left.
Useless summary gives no summary of whatever ACTA is, or what the controversy is about... Thanks, editors!
No surprise here... they are always trying to find the magic words support something to dupe the public.
You CAN FOOL MOST of the people MOST of the TIME! I live in the US and the only choice is a demtard or a repuke due to mass stupidity. They both are corrupt to the core but people keep voting them in anyways. Proof you can fool most of the people most of the time! It seems that the only game in town is which politician can lie the biggest and get away with it!
fucking troll, do not click there
Jehovah be praised, Oracle was not selected
Troll link, do not click, or if you do, put your hand in front of the screen so you don't have to see it. That's a security measure they can't defeat.
Whatever arguments you make, whatever reason you have, will not convince anybody who has their mind shut.
It'll just confirm the bias already.
The Commission primarily appears to suffer from a lack of reading comprehension, amnesia regarding what it said earlier, and not being fully aware of its competences.
No, they suffer from wanting to justify something they're not actually able to justify.
But we see politicians in the same straits every day in the news. "Nothing to see here, folks."
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
It is for these reasons that the Commission has stated on a number of occasions that
ACTA is indeed fully in line with the relevant EU acquis. It will neither require changes
2 to that acquis, nor lead to different interpretations or implementation of existing EU
legislation.
The Commission primarily appears to suffer from a lack of reading comprehension, amnesia regarding what it said earlier, and not being fully aware of its competences.
In other words, they'd fit right in here on Slashdot.
#DeleteChrome
Politicians are incompetent for the leadership positions they hold, news at 11.
Competences? What competences? This is the European Commission we're talking about, right?
I hate the undemocratic EC, and the way that they are not elected by the people they are supposed to serve.
There should have been a provision in the Lisbon Referendum to allow EU citizens to vote in their commissioner.
Painted into a corner? What, like people expect government to actually keep its word anyway? It's impossible for a politician to "paint himself into a corner", he'll just wiggle and squirm his way out of it. If the European Commission decides to let itself be bound by this "fact", it's because it's what they wanted to do in the first place.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
My hand doesn't cover my 50" screen you insensitive clod!
It seems http://slashdot.org/~slashser2 and http://slashdot.org/~commash are the same person, given both accounts posted the same link today. Unfortunately I assume he will continue making accounts and trolling with nothing slashdot can really do.
My webcomic
A troll's filthy stash of lulz. Where regular men's fap folders are full of porn, a troll's is full of mementos of their victims...what a disturbing insight into a warped mind.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
It would save a lot of time and effort if accounts would start at -1 for posting shortened URLs.
My dick will, you pansy!
You're only pissed off because your grandfather's Polish vacation ended with him being hanged for crimes against humanity.
What we're seeing is a generation of a self-proclaimed "elite" that has gotten hold of leadership positions by nothing more than nice words, mingling with others uttering nice words. They lack any skills in anything substantial. The only thing they're capable of apart from talking nice words is to write everything down to no avail: we experience unbounded growth in administrative and bureaucratic procedures, in any area of public and commercial live. We can observe this not only in this matter, ACTA, but in any contemporary subject. Consider some random examples: Euro crisis - they've done a lot (of talking) but fail to take any measures that would actually solve the problem; the social and health care systems in most industrial nations - again lots of talking, no measures to solve; the handling of the US financial crisis - same story, only thing that has come out of it are more rules, regulations and bureaucratic procedures, which is the opposite of what is required (that is, simply split the investment banks from the private banking side, problem solved). Looking for more exampkes? Open your newspaper of choice, watch TV, and listen to those who call themselves leaders. You will in the abounding majority of cases hear nothing but nice words and lots of "must have" statemens for more and new regulations and bureacracy. Red tape everywhere will soon turn the Earth to becone the secobd "red planet" in our solar system...
He needs to cover more than one pixel at a time you ass bandit.
You insensitive clod, his grandfather died at Auschwitz. He fell from the turret and broke his neck.
Geeks are so full of shit that "beating the crap out of them" takes a whole new meaning.
We're talking about GOVERNMENT idiots here are we? What's the big deal? Even though they have no clue, they can still stick it to us -- and you know where.
Wessels from the FFII went through the Commission's reply
The fact checking around here is just atrocious. Where to begin? First of all, they're nuclear wessels, which is an important distinction I think, and second, they're from the Star Trek, not the Final Fantasy 2.
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
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