EU ACTA Chief Resigns

Another politician with half a brain? by ToiletBomber · 2012-01-26 20:09 · Score: 5, Funny

I think my faith in humanity might yet be vindicated.

Re:Another politician with half a brain? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-26 20:12 · Score: 5, Funny

Apparently you've missed the Republican Presidential race.
Re:Another politician with half a brain? by SeaFox · 2012-01-26 20:35 · Score: 3, Insightful

Looks like a classic case of "Push the red button and then then run into hiding to avoid the angry mob".
Re:Another politician with half a brain? by petman · 2012-01-26 20:39 · Score: 5, Insightful

He got ACTA signed in Europe.

That's not how I understand it. I think you got misled by the misleading title of TFA/TFS. He's not the 'EU ACTA Chief'. He was the European Parliament's rapporteur on ACTA. His job was to investigate the issue and produce a report on it.

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Re:Another politician with half a brain? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-26 20:44 · Score: 5, Insightful

I think my faith in humanity might yet be vindicated.
Not so fast.
He got ACTA signed in Europe. He did the job he was paid for, only now can he say whatever he likes.
He did no such thing. Signing is the responsibility of the respective member countries, specifically their ministers. In "EU-speak" the Council. The next step is to get ACTA ratified in a) the EU parliament and b) the national parliaments, without which ACTA is just a piece of paper with no impact whatsoever except for wasting a lot of time.
What this man did was (at first glance) admirable. Had he done this after the ratification in EUParl had gone through, not so much, but that vote is not until in a few months, and is going to be a highly influenced by this kind of high-profile action.
Still, that doesn't mean you shouldn't call your MEP to make them aware of this action, and the importance of saying no to ACTA
Re:Another politician with half a brain? by ArsenneLupin · 2012-01-26 20:59 · Score: 4, Funny

Looks like a classic case of "Push the red button and then then run into hiding to avoid the angry mob".
Vada a bordo, cazzo!
Re:Another politician with half a brain? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-26 22:54 · Score: 5, Informative

Get a clue before spurting nonsense. The vote in the parliament is still not done, if the vote fails (which he wants to make sure with his dramatic exit), the all the signing by the member states isn't worth the paper the treaty is printed on
Re:Another politician with half a brain? by TapeCutter · 2012-01-26 23:42 · Score: 5, Insightful

He's a little fucking late, don't you think?
Nope, handing over the report and quitting at the same time is perfect timing, especially if you want to draw attention to why you are quitting. Finishing what he started shows he's a professional, had he quit half way through they would have simply replaced him with someone more malleable.

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Re:Another politician with half a brain? by rtb61 · 2012-01-27 00:17 · Score: 5, Insightful

Also he is now free to tell all and sundry, as often and as loudly as possible exactly why he quite. He is basically in the best position to deliver a swift kick in the goolies to ACTA in Europe.

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Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
Re:Another politician with half a brain? by cpu6502 · 2012-01-27 01:28 · Score: 3, Interesting

Exactly.
This "ACTA Chief" sounds like a coward If he is displeased with the process, and he's the one in charge, then he should be using his position to make the ACTA a formal treaty to be passed b y the People's representatives in Parliament. To scurry away shows an supreme lack of fortitude and irresponsibility.

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Re:Another politician with half a brain? by cpu6502 · 2012-01-27 01:45 · Score: 5, Interesting

âI want to denounce in the strongest possible manner the entire process that led to the signature of this agreement: no inclusion of civil society organisations, a lack of transparency from the start of the negotiations, repeated postponing of the signature of the text without an explanation being ever given, exclusion of the EU Parliamentâ(TM)s demands that were expressed on several occasions in our assembly..... This agreement might have major consequences on citizensâ(TM) lives, and still, everything is being done to prevent the European Parliament from having its say in this matter.â
Wow.
Do Europeans still have the right to own guns? If I read that my government was bypassing my elected representatives to pass ACTA, I'd be visiting the local target shooting store to polish my skills. Passage of laws without representation is just 1 step short of tyranny.
"No legislation without representation."

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Re:Another politician with half a brain? by thereitis · 2012-01-27 02:08 · Score: 5, Insightful

If you've ever been a manager, you'd know that being "in charge" of something doesn't always mean "in charge" the way you think it should. Obviously, there are larger forces at work here and rather than battle them himself and lose, he's letting the world know what's going on. I think that's a smarter plan. There's some very powerful people behind this legislation. I'd hate to be on the receiving end of whatever tactics they might employ.
Re:Another politician with half a brain? by Boscrossos · 2012-01-27 02:26 · Score: 4, Informative

EU decision making can be daunting, but I'm a Belgian, so it don't scare me. Essentially, in the EU, a law has to be ratified by both the Council and the Parliament of the EU. The Council is made up of the relevant ministers from the member state governments. The Parliament is directly elected by the citizens of the member states in the European elections. There is also the European Commission, who, in a very badly summarized nutshell, propose laws, define strategies, etc., but do not, themselves, have a vote on what gets passed or not (though they do have a lot of power in some cases). As mentioned, the Council has given ACTA the OK, but the Parliament has not. Every issue to be discussed in the EP is discussed in one or more relevant Committees, and analyzed in a report by one MEP, the rapporteur. It's this guy who actually quit, after he had handed in his report. So no, he didn't help ACTA in any way, and has given a strong signal that he at least opposes it.

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Re:Another politician with half a brain? by David+Chappell · 2012-01-27 03:07 · Score: 3, Insightful

Exactly.
This "ACTA Chief" sounds like a coward If he is displeased with the process, and he's the one in charge, then he should be using his position to make the ACTA a formal treaty to be passed b y the People's representatives in Parliament. To scurry away shows an supreme lack of fortitude and irresponsibility.
He is "using his position", just not in the way that you expect. Giving up a well-paying job because you believe that what your superiors require you to do is unethical is a dramatic way to draw attention to the problem. The alternative, to take their money while trying to undermine their goals is problematic at best. He would have had to mute his criticism and would probably soon have had to resign in disgrace.
This way is much better. First of all, it makes a news story. Second, he can now speak frankly about the ACTA and his opinion will be considered important because he is "the former ACTA chief who resigned in protest".

Call me picky but... by Corporate+T00l · 2012-01-26 20:12 · Score: 5, Informative

"News sites" hosted on port 82 set off some alarm bells. That being said, this piece has been picked up by other news sites with more direct citations. Techdirt (http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120126/11014317553/european-parliament-official-charge-acta-quits-denounces-masquerade-behind-acta.shtml) and The Register (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/01/27/eu_signs_acta/) both have articles that are worth reading.

Re:Call me picky but... by Rockoon · 2012-01-26 21:12 · Score: 3, Interesting

What is so suspicious about using port 82?
Because its not 80. Why isnt this alleged news site (that is either down or is slashdotted right now) not using the standard http port?

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Re:Call me picky but... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-26 21:18 · Score: 5, Informative

Mr Kader Arif gave some insight here [numerama.com]:
(french) http://www.numerama.com/magazine/21424-acta-demissionnaire-kader-arif-denonce-une-mascarade.html
(google tr) http://translate.google.fr/translate?sl=fr&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=fr&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.numerama.com%2Fmagazine%2F21424-acta-demissionnaire-kader-arif-denonce-une-mascarade.html&act=url
"I want to denounce as the greatest of all the process that led to the signing of this agreement: no association of civil society, lack of transparency from the beginning of negotiations, successive postponements of the signing of the text without no explanation was given, setting aside the claims of the European Parliament, however, expressed in several resolutions of this assembly, "he complains.
The MEP also confirms what we reported on the schedule to the charge imposed for parliamentary committees to express their views on the content of the agreement. "As the reporter on this text, I also faced unprecedented maneuvers of the right of Parliament to impose an accelerated schedule to pass the agreement as soon as possible before the public is alerted, denying that the European Parliament's right of expression and the tools at its disposal to carry the legitimate demands of citizens. "
For Kader Arif, "everyone knows, the ACTA has greement problem, whether its impact on civil liberties, responsibilities it imposes on providers of Internet access, impact on the manufacture of generic drugs and the lack of protection it offers to our geographical indications ".
"This agreement can have major consequences on the lives of our citizens, and yet everything is done for the European Parliament has no say. So today, in submitting this report in my charge, I wants to send a strong signal and alert the public about this unacceptable situation. I will not participate in this charade. "
Re:Call me picky but... by geogob · 2012-01-26 21:19 · Score: 4, Informative

The whole idea of a "news site" is to be openly accessible. A website on a non-standard port is still openly accessible, but only to those who know the site is accessibly through this port. This knowledge may either be direct or indirect (like through a link like here).
Basically, its a news site only accessible to the general public through linking. This points a lot to "targeted news", which also tend to point into the direction of "false news" and/or "propaganda". Now, I'm not implying this is the case here. In fact, there are many other possible explanation, one of them being the one I just provided. As the previous post said, it "sets off some alarm bells", but it doesn't necessarily mean something foul is going on. It's just weird.
As for your open, trollishy questions, I'll say this. Many illegal activities that are performed on the web, regardless of their nature, do so on sites accessible only through nonstandard ports, like port 82, to hide the said activities from general view. Only those within intimate knowledge of the activities know the ports and can thus access those sites.
Re:Call me picky but... by jareth-0205 · 2012-01-26 23:30 · Score: 4, Informative

So basically, you're saying "It's different, therefore I find it scary and view it with suspicion."
Yeah, great. That mindset has served mankind very well over the years.
Jeez... we're not talking a moral choice here, we're talking about a technical standard. And if you do something different from the standard and nobody can think of a good reason... but they *can* think of a number of nefarious reasons... that's a pretty good basis for suspicion.
Re:Call me picky but... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-27 01:42 · Score: 5, Funny

Only on slashdot can a discussion on a non-default HTTP port turn into one about survival of mankind :D

It's not the first time by phantomfive · 2012-01-26 20:13 · Score: 4, Insightful

It's not the first time the government of the EU has made decisions that hurt the people, using tricks to get them past the populace. And it won't be the last. We can expect a lot of bad stuff coming up, with the economic crisis.

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"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."

Re:It's not the first time by alci63 · 2012-01-26 21:12 · Score: 3, Insightful

Making decisions without taking the people into account is becoming quite common these days in EU. Crisis is the best justification they found. When Papaandreou said he will make a referendum, he was dismissed. An ex-banker is now leading the country. In Italy, it was decided (not by the people) the government should be changed. An ex-banker is now leading the country. See this http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/37700.html ... So the fact that governments are making EU level decisions without consulting the only elected instance at the EU level (the parlament) is quite concerning.
Re:It's not the first time by Teun · 2012-01-26 21:57 · Score: 4, Informative

In Italy it was decided and approved in and by the elected parliament they needed a different government than the one led by Berlusconi.
Of course the rest of Europe put a lot of pressure on the Italians to get this change of government but it was and still is still 100% in the power of the parliament to agree with the new governments policies or ultimately send it home.
The Greek situation is from a democratic point of view not much different, parliament can send their government packing at any moment it no longer agrees with the policies proposed.
Since last year the EU has become closer to the electorate now the EU parliament can veto policies put forward by the commission. These EU commission policies don't fall from the sky, they are the result of lengthy deliberations between the governments of the member states who also have to answer to their parliaments at home.
So when you, like me, are not happy with the signing of the ACTA agreement you should also contact your local politicians, not just the MEP's.

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"The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."

Re:I can understand why by symbolset · 2012-01-26 20:19 · Score: 5, Insightful

All that is required for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing. - Various attributions.

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How do we protest this? by Zandamesh · 2012-01-26 20:23 · Score: 5, Interesting

What we need is a simple webpage with links to complete tutorials of how to protest this for each country, where people can edit the tutorials, like, a wikipedia for protests. I don't know how to create such a website quickly, but I'm sure some guys on Slashdot could whip out something like this in a couple of hours.

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Re:How do we protest this? by JaredOfEuropa · 2012-01-26 20:39 · Score: 5, Informative

Once again the French come through:How to act against ACTA.

In addition, if you're a member or supporter of any national party in Europe, lean on your party's committee members as well. Often they have a large influence on their EU counterparts, and don't forget that your own governments still have to ratify the treaty.

Sadly, it looks like in many countries ACTA will sail through the ratification process: at that point most ruling parties will already have given it their implicit endorsement, and they might look silly nacking out now. Rebelious coalition members might vote in favour as well, out of political expedience. If the EU parliament does not kill this, I guess it'll be too late.

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I'm proud of Mr Arif by Trapezium+Artist · 2012-01-26 20:24 · Score: 5, Insightful

What can I say? I'm very pleased that Kader Arif had the guts to make his disgust with the ACTA process known so publicly. His actions deserve to be widely recognised outside the tech community as well as within; we should ensure that "regular" media outlets cover this part of the story.

Will his stand bring down the entire shameful edifice that is ACTA? No. Is it an important part of the battle that is being fought and must continue to be fought? Yes.

Re:I'm proud of Mr Arif by Rakarra · 2012-01-26 22:31 · Score: 3, Insightful

OK, but what is he going to do next? If he feels so strongly about this, why did he not remain in his position and use that power more constructively? This isn't likely to be put in front of the E.U. parliament before June so who is this going to notice this 'falling on my sword act' apart from those who already oppose this, i.e. Slashdotters and the like.
Sometimes you are put into a token position where you have no real power, where no one has to answer to you and you can enact no policies. Not uncommon in, say, a sham investigation. In that case his only power is to resign in the most public and shaming manner possible.
Re:I'm proud of Mr Arif by Capitaine · 2012-01-26 22:33 · Score: 5, Interesting

Just checked out the 3 major French (Le Monde, Liberation, Le Figaro) and German (Frankfurter Algemein, Süddeutscher Zeitung, Die Welt) newspaper website. No trace of the ACTA. Nothing more in economical newspapers. Your words are safe.

Re:Fundamental disconnect: by JavaBear · 2012-01-26 20:40 · Score: 4, Interesting

"might"?

There is nothing "might" about it. It will have devastating effect on a lot of law-abiding users, and probably very little on the less law-abiding users, if not outright help the "pirates" in the long run.
But it will criminalize the majority of the internet users.

Re:Why can't more politicians do this? by petman · 2012-01-26 20:42 · Score: 3, Interesting

How did he screw everyone?

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Re:Fundamental disconnect: by petman · 2012-01-26 20:46 · Score: 5, Insightful

Since ACTA is yet to be passed by the parliaments, then "might" is the right word.

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Dropbox drops it like it's hot.

Re:I can understand why by Arancaytar · 2012-01-26 20:59 · Score: 4, Insightful

Fortunately, for evil to lose not much more is required than for good men to do something.

awww sh*t! by gciochina · 2012-01-26 21:04 · Score: 3, Insightful

I'm from Romania and I think I can say that I've been actively involved in "down with SOPA/PIPA" movement... and, for now, looks like we've won a battle on these two. However, i'm getting really worried about the whole ACTA stuff, because I don't think that we'll ever manage to get that much support for an anti-ACTA movement. Right now, at least two of the guys (Romanians) we've got in the EU parliament are certified retards and i'm pretty sure that they'll never consider the full implications of their vote on this one. The most disturbing thing is that the majority of the population hasn't even heard of ACTA, SOPA, PIPA... let alone ever heard of what they stand for and how will these change their lives. Without a huge move like the one made by Reddit/ Wikipedia/ Google & Co/ etc we'll never be able to stop it. Right now, the only thing i can think of is FML :(.

Probably was the best course of action by BeforeCoffee · 2012-01-26 21:06 · Score: 4, Interesting

It's probably best for himself and his family that he made a big show of his dissent like this. There's probably some angry, big moneyed cockroaches that are scurrying after the light was shone on their big bureaucratic power grab.

These fat media/government cockroaches are appearing more and more desperate, no?

It's just a matter of time till the lazy-ass 1337 network hackers get their collective acts together and start shunting their god-given right to free traffic off onto a pure P2P, encrypted, usually-connected, fido-net style worldwide wireless network grid a la "media net" from The Diamond Age by Neil Stephenson.

"The media net was designed from the ground up to provide privacy and security, so that people could use it to transfer money. That’s one reason the nation-states collapsed – as soon as the media grid was up and running, financial transactions could no longer be monitored by governments."

'Monitored' is post-central-government era term that means the same as 'controlled'. In our lifetimes, there will be no centralized corporate/governmental infrastructure worth controlling. And the most delicious part: their goofy special protections for DRM in the 90's will be their undoing.

Computer networks, exchange and value, ideation and realization - these have all become interlinked concepts. The hub is the network.

Guess what, cockroaches? The democracy genie is outta the bottle, and it has been for 15 years. These desperate, piddly attempts of yours to stuff it back in the bottle won't work for long. (And if the people would just WAKE UP, they won't work at all!)

Re:Probably was the best course of action by CRCulver · 2012-01-26 21:17 · Score: 5, Insightful

Guess what, cockroaches? The democracy genie is outta the bottle, and it has been for 15 years. These desperate, piddly attempts of yours to stuff it back in the bottle won't work for long.

It's funny for me to read this not two minutes after I finished Roger Hutchinson's book High Sixites, a sweeping view of 1960s youth culture. The final pages are an interview with the artist Jeff Nuttall held in 1991, at the end of the Thatcher era. Nuttall poignantly recalls that he thought at the time that his generation had triumphed, that conservative forces should just step out of the way since they had already plainly lost. And then came two decades (and more) that did away with all that they had accomplished, and with their hope itself.
For our own generation, the genie may well go back in the bottle...
Re:Probably was the best course of action by Rakarra · 2012-01-26 22:34 · Score: 3, Insightful

Some 'hippies' from that era are now Big Business themselves, directly making deal with government leaders.
The pot smokers of that 60s eventually had kids, but those parents come up with all sorts of BS reasons for why it was ok for them to smoke, but not their kids. Those same hypocrites will also change their business ways now that they actually have some money in the game.
Re:Probably was the best course of action by MatthiasF · 2012-01-26 23:53 · Score: 3, Interesting

Every generation grows up thinking it invented revolution, rebellion, drug-use, sex, and a new world.

Every generation becomes a teenager and picks something the government is doing, thinks it's wrong and protests.

But every generation grows up and eventually realizes they were really dumb when they were younger after they learn every generation before them did the same thing and it made no difference.

Re:I can understand why by dmbasso · 2012-01-26 21:42 · Score: 5, Informative

I did something, I signed this petition. I hope it helps.

http://www.avaaz.org/en/eu_save_the_internet/?fp

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Re:I can understand why by evilviper · 2012-01-26 22:16 · Score: 5, Funny

Evil will always triumph, because good Is dumb - Dark Helmet

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Re:I can understand why by kinarduk · 2012-01-26 22:22 · Score: 5, Informative

I also did something, I wrote to the MEP's in my area, outlining my position and asking their opinion. They need to know this is important. My local government web site had a link to my MEP's. http://www.thurrock.gov.uk/democracy/content.php?page=mps#c03

Re:I can understand why by SuricouRaven · 2012-01-26 22:25 · Score: 4, Insightful

Depends which side has more money. Evil is profitable.

Re:Fundamental disconnect: by analyst-cz · 2012-01-26 22:34 · Score: 3, Interesting

It is still underestimated by EU governments, that repression can be successful (victorious) in long run only if it is supported at least by the "silent majority" of public. This is not, or at least will not, be the case of ACTA, if ever tried to be really enforced. There REALLY SHOULD be some official government security advisor, that can put together several bits proved by the true human history:
1) "Bread and games" concept and fall of the Roman empire once it (for any good reason) was unwilling or unable to support it anymore. (No way I say it was the only one reason, off course, but still the significant one.)
2) It is generally reproved by historians as well as the humanity to cut the hand for stealing the bread during medieval. It can easily be the same about jailing people because they looked at the film or played the game after several hundred years.
3) Total number of victims in consequence of the Red October Revolution (which was just misuse of general public discontent by selfish political movements) was bigger then the WWII victims count. (And still it failed in long run once it itself turned towards the repressions.)
Such a revolution could hardly occur (or at least be so massive), if capitalism would timely adapted it's hunger for money to some sustainable position, as it was forced to do anyways as the consequence of the revolution. The parallel is in adapting new, sharing based, business models by major content producers (what, I believe, could paradoxically even increase their profit - at least in the middle horizon) instead of provocative and generally ineffective repressions.
4) People suffering large (=unpayable) fees, thus loosing their homes and possession, suffering arresting of their children ("stealers" of the copyrighted content) and lack of access to any relaxation, aggression diminishing, sources (i.e. copyrighted content) will tend to join ANY riots, regardless of how obscure goal they serve behind the curtain.
5) Final prove is the recent Greece history, where EU-enforced saving rules (which in general and especially compared to the ACTA targets are very reasonable) showed to be even more cost consumptive (because of the productivity decrease by strikes and cost increase due to suppressions of public riots plus collateral damage) than would be the status quo. This fact is not too publicly disseminated, but is confirmed by EU officials in some public sources and is behind the very recent statements of the Angela Merkel admitting the ability of the Greece bankrupt.

On the site note: yes, I do agree that any repressive push is just in the favor of the International Pirate Movement (which I foresee to be in the similar position now as Green Movement was in 70 years of last century, large uprise ahead), but still I do not support "the end justifies the means" approach if such a collateral damage is predictable.

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Re:I can understand why by xaxa · 2012-01-26 22:44 · Score: 4, Informative

Excellent :)

Write to Them has a convenient link to MEPs (and MPs, etc).

Re:I can understand why by TrueSatan · 2012-01-27 00:41 · Score: 3, Informative

I also did something, I wrote to the MEP's in my area, outlining my position and asking their opinion. They need to know this is important. My local government web site had a link to my MEP's.

The Free Software Foundation provides the following page of contact details for all the relevant EU politicians: http://www.openrightsgroup.org/blog/2011/acta:-signed,-not-yet-sealed-now-its-up-to-us Those on the Development Committee are the most important and are listed on the following link: https://memopol.lqdn.fr/europe/parliament/committee/DEVE/ For the FSF views on ACTA see: http://www.fsf.org/campaigns/acta

Re:I can understand why by kinarduk · 2012-01-27 03:07 · Score: 5, Informative

I've already had a reply from one of them (Andrew Duff)! ...

Thank you for contacting Andrew about the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement.

I can assure you that I will forward your email to Andrew so that he can read the specific points you make.

Andrew is not on the committee that specialises in these issues, but has been following developments closely along with his group colleagues, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in Europe (ALDE).

He recognises that some of ACTA's aims are valid, but also has real concerns that - as with so much legislation in this area - its implications for privacy and freedom may be more serious than is currently understood, and is seeking greater assurance on these points.

Throughout negotiations on ACTA the ALDE group has called for greater transparency and tabled a resolution in September 2010 asking the Commission for all relevant studies and impact assessments before signing the agreement. ALDE colleagues have sponsored many of the Parliamentary questions on this matter.

Negotiations were finalised in November 2010 and the relevant parties are now in the process of ratifying the Agreement through their internal procedures. In the EU this means that both the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers must give their approval. The Council adopted a decision on December 17th authorising the signature of ACTA, and the text now passes to the European Parliament for ratification. The International Trade Committee (INTA) and the Legal Affairs Committee (JURI) have already asked the Parliament’s Legal Services for advice on the agreement, and then the INTA Committee will produce a report with input in the form of opinions from the Development Committee (DEVE), the Industry, Research and Energy Committee (ITRE) and the JURI Committee.

On 24 November 2010 the European Parliament adopted a Resolution in which we called on the Commission to confirm that ACTA’s implementation will have no impact on fundamental rights and data protection. MEPs welcomed the Commission’s confirmation that the ACTA provisions will be fully in line with EU law and that neither personal searches nor the so-called ‘three strikes and out’ procedure will be introduced. The Parliament also emphasised that any decision taken by the Commission as part of the ACTA Committee must not unilaterally change the agreement’s content, and that therefore any proposed change must be approved by the Parliament and the Council.

ALDE will finalise its decision on whether to support the agreement or not once the legal advice and INTA committee report are available and only if concerns about interference with internet freedoms and other civil liberties can be assuaged. Until then it is not possible to have a fully informed position on this issue.

In the meantime I attach a couple of interim briefing documents I have received on the issue, which are designed to address some of the specific criticisms that have been levelled at these proposals.

Thank you once again for contacting Andrew about this issue. I hope this response has been helpful.

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