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EU Parliment To Vote On ACTA Soon; Take Action Now
sTeF writes "Laquadrature du Net releases 3 videos on ACTA: Every citizen can help defeat ACTA by spreading this video across the Internet, urging their fellow citizens to mobilize, and contacting their elected representatives. ACTA is a threat to Internet users' fundamental freedoms and to EU Internet companies' competitiveness and free competition. The European Parliament will soon decide whether to give its consent to ACTA, or to reject it once and for all."
"Reject it once and for all"?
I find your naivety charming but have no need for your newsletter.
That video generates more questions in my brain than it answers. "ACTA is bad, nnkay?" it says, which is not enough. The extremely one-side view on ACTA the video provides sickens me. It doesn't even tell me who "The Negotiators" are. I can't say "No" to ACTA based on this video alone.
-- Cheers!
Without the video link. https://www.eff.org/issues/acta
Sigs are bad for you...
Why should I bother my representative (Christian Engström) with this?
In these times of economic turmoil it is the perfect moment to pass controversial but silenced legislation like ACTA. Main stream press, who could maybe represent this information in a non-ridiculous, non-propagandist manner unlike this website are just not going care. Still, after years of tech-news fuss I do not know what is ACTA, why do some people so vehemently oppose it, and why should I care.
Please stop making a fuss about ACTA if you can not objectively tell us what is it going to do and why should we even oppose it.
Goverments are service businesses.
If I don't like the service of one business I put my money somewhere else.
My education and knowledge of languages allows me to do so (yeah... that sounded like I am an ass... but that is just my way to adapt to parliamential dictatures.. if you don't like it go protest somehwhere in Europe... lol).
The problem with legislation is that, even if you defeat one, it can simply be reintroduced again and again until it is passed. There is no provision for forbidding anything to ever become a law (for a reason, otherwise we'd never be able to undo bad decisions). I hate ACTA as much as the next guy, and I really don't want to see it in use, but if the politicians have decided that some form of law like this will be in place, there's no stemming the tide simply by expressing our displeasure for it. Do you honestly think that politicians listen to the people who elect them? That's not how it works. We listen to the politicians, and elect the one we believe best represents our interests. It's (almost) always a one-way street.
Move sig!
Stop watching, listening to and talking about their "content". Then there is no chance of you "infringing".
Take some photos on a walk and start blogging instead. Learn a new hobby. Adopt a dog.
Does UK English really, honestly pronounce "patents" as "pay-tense," as heard in TFV?
Just wondering, because over here where I can't do a damned thing about ACTA, we say "pah-tents."
Kid-proof tablet..
I hope you're joking. :)
Cause ACTA is not EU specific. In fact, EU might be one of the last chances to stop ACTA.
USA, Japan, Australia, Canada, North Korea, New Zealand and Singapore already signed ACTA.
Mexico and Switzerland didn't want to sign the text. EU couldn't sign the text because this case never happend (who will sign the text in the name of the 27 member States?)
On the other hand, UK has been one of the worst State in the EU on this topic (filesharing, making isp become private police, etc.). Blair was a crazy puppy found of Bush. We though I might change with Cameron. Well, it didn't.
We though I might change with Cameron. Well, it didn't.
Speak for yourself, but while I hoped it would change with Blair, but I have no delusions about Cameron.
Just to be clear, I'm not a UK citizen. So by "we" I didn't mean "we, fully informed UK citizen", but more "we, foreigners that don't know anything", were glad Blair was out, and hopped it will be better with the next one. But I had no clue how bad (or even who) Cameron was.
Has ACTA been ratified yet?
USA, Japan, Australia, Canada, North Korea, New Zealand and Singapore already signed ACTA.
Mexico and Switzerland didn't want to sign the text. EU couldn't sign the text because this case never happend (who will sign the text in the name of the 27 member States?).
That's why we need to ACT as soon as possible.
...one live in a country that is soon to become a member of the EU but still isn't and therefore has no "elected representative"? Besides feeling screwed, I mean.
Keep the internet alive!
I said ratified, not signed.
You know, that thing in the constitution about treaties requiring a 2/3rs majority?
Shoo.
There, I did my duty as a EU citizen.
You do realise that other people can't read your mind? If your question was specifically about the US Congress (and here I'm making an intelligent guess, because you still haven't made it explicit), you should have said so in the first place.
The purpose of treaties like this is to bypass such requirements as amending constitutions and getting a democratic majority. This way, a very few individuals of merit (bribed) can create and institute regulations that supersede national constitutions without bothering you or your elected representative with details until the enforcement phase. It also allows elected representatives to claim plausible deniability when the political fallout hits and since you do not know who the original negotiators were, no one is held accountable.
"Be particularly skeptical when presented with evidence confirming what you already believe." -
This is slashdot.
I'm entitled to presume a basic level of understanding about the constitution.
You mean the US constitution.
What about the people that are not from USA?
I guess you don't care about them. But that would prevent 5 useless comments (including mine) if you were clear in the first post.
Maybe, but you're a fool to assume that in a conversation primarily about the EU, and in a reply to a post which names 9 countries, everyone knows that you're talking about the US.
I don't think so. But the point is that everything is done so that ACTA can't be undone.
Once ACTA has been signed, there's no way back. All countries agreed to transpose it in their local legislation.
So if it fails to do so, they'll try again. And again, and again. And if it fails, they may be weakened when talking to other countries.
That's also a mean of pressure: "See X didn't vote for ACTA, but we signed it. So (s)he's making us look stupid, (s)he's threatening our cooperation with other countries".
That's (also) why we have to stop ACTA now. The sooner, the better.
I'm very surprised that you didn't pick up that he meant the USA. Obviously, since a treaty has to be ratified with 2/3 majority, it is under the US system. Or are you saying that an American must be internationally sensitive to the rest of us, and go out of their way to acknowledge that they do understand that something exists outside the USA and is important etc etc?
On the same token, you either know nothing about international laws, or you just refuse to acknowledge that someone is asking with a presumption of the USA. Or is it that the country you are from really just isn't important enough to have an automatic assumption happen by a large proportion of the worlds population?
We are allegedly a group of smart people. There is a default presumption of intelligence and knowledge here. So before you become flippant, and start American bashing, remember that a lot of people here are just laughing at your ignorance.
Incidently, I'm not an American, and have lived in most places in the world. I just find it amazing how it's so common for people to be bashing the USA, and yet in the same token, be assuming that their country somehow is more significant. If you don't like it, move to a country that's a Superpower. China's another option if you don't like the USA. We'll be able to make significant presumptions of their laws as the topics of conversation as well shortly.
Science advances one funeral at a time- Max Planck
Does anyone know if ther's a chance that thing will pass?
The E.P. seems to have a pretty good track record with regard to striking down this kind of special interest, anti consumer legislation. This, and previous statements from it's committee's leads me to think the ACTA has no chance of passing a vote.
If I thought there was a chance of this somehow passing under the radar, I'd write my "local" MEP http://www.europarl.europa.eu/members/expert/groupAndCountry/view.do?group=2965&country=DK&partNumber=1&language=EN&id=96703. I highly doubt that it'll be nescessary though - as she's in:
1) Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection and
2) Delegation for relations with the countries of Southeast Asia and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)
- I'm sure she's very aware of the ACTA.
Run with the lemmings, and you'll get your feet wet.
That is what the EU president is for, an unelected (by the people of EU) figurehead that can be used to bypass the democratic states.
The time to "defeat" it was before it was signed by anybody, while it was still under secret discussions. If it could'nt be defeated then, it's not going to be defeated now.
I think the ACTA infringes on my copyrights. Time for everybody to issue a DMCA takedown notice to any site promoting it. That is a civilized way of dealing with it. I am sure many people out there are past that point. Something tells me it's going to be an interesting 2012.
UK:
http://www.writetothem.com/
UK:
http://www.europarl.org.uk/section/your-meps/your-meps
Rest of Europe:
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/members/public/geoSearch.do;jsessionid=EAF5D554A71EBE16A5E8A71092CD2DB9.node2
Waterfox - a Firefox fork with legacy extension support, security updates and better privacy by default.
It's not a question of which country is more significant: it's a question of which country is in the scope of a conversation, and making it clear when you change the topic of the conversation.
Even if we do succeed to convince them not to vote for this shit, it's high time for a public network accessible by anyone for free. A true peer network. The technology is there. What's missing is a public (non-government, fully democratic) body that agrees on open standards, tech ( network structure, access, protocols, etc.) to create a network that mostly (of course the optimal would be completely) bypasses anything that can be controlled by government (ISPs, DNS servers, etc.) . These should be optimally applicable by anybody (even those who are not tech savvy) aka. the general population.
Just a thought...
The US has decided it does not need to ratify this treaty, since it is covered by DMCA (though it now makes it a treaty-breach to repeal DMCA). This loop-hole has made ACTA bypass congress.
Does any of this actually matter? Last I heard the European Parliament was just a toothless talking shop, cynically set up by the unelected EU bosses for the express purpose of convincing gullible Europeans that they live in a directly elected democracy, which they clearly do not. No, I have not read or understood the latest EU rulings as, like the British politicians who looked at the original treaties, I simply do not have endless years with nothing else to do than try to make sense of the hugely complex and obfuscated bureaucratic mumbo-jumbo that has been deliberately formulated so as to prevent the European people from realising just how much power the unelected EU bosses actually have over them - just like ACTA really.
It seems to me that the only solution to this hideously unjust and destructive copyright extortion is mass worldwide civil disobedience. If everyone who receives a threatening letter from the MAFIAA or one of its fawning acolytes just throws it in the bin I suspect the whole corrupt, creaking edifice will collapse like a pack of cards, blown down by the inexorable winds of change. Even the EU bosses cannot imprison everyone - how will they get to lunch with no-one to polish and drive their top-of-the-range black Mercedes? And how will the American economy prosper if all the people are made bankrupt by ludicrous fines for listening to an infantile pop song?
"Intellectual Property" is surely something of an oxymoron anyway, is it not? It seems to me that intelligent artists are finding many ways to benefit from the Digital Age and the ease with which it enables them to connect with their audiences, to their often considerable profit. And I don't think many will mourn the inevitable loss of the grasping, parasitic middlemen. As Canute wryly demonstrated to his fawning courtiers, we mortals cannot stop the changing tide from washing us away if we fail to adapt to it.
You're damn right. They haven't even tried to tack this on to the tail end of a Child Protection bill yet.
Why the hell would a government that isn't democratic feel the need to do such a thing ? This will pass, because the commisionaires (not a reference, actual title) of the EU have high-paying side-"jobs" in big companies. And for no other reason.
The EU doesn't even pretend that the passing of this law has any democratic component (the passing "or non-passing" will be done by the aptly-named commission, irrespective of parliament's decision, which is merely advisory). It is not requested by any specific European political party, it is just the initiative of one of the commission.
And when a dictator hands a piece of paper to be rubber-stamped at a powerless "parliament", why is there any doubt what will happen ? The Duma never once refused Stalin, and the "parliament" will not refuse Barosso.
This legislation was initiated straight from the offices of the head "ex-"(?)socialist/communist currently occupying the top post in the EU. This is the ONLY position in the EU government that has sovereignty (can decide to make -and break- laws of it's own accord). He "proposed" this law, and has done so for many other laws, implementing some of them regardless of the parliament's opposition, others without even asking parliament. Not that there is much opposition from parliament at all.
And when our little ex-communist decides to implement anti-workers policies, and there was some token opposition from parliament, he went ahead anyway.
Other than dissolution of the EU, there is no way to stop this.