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The ACTA Fight Returns: What Is At Stake & What You Can Do

Posted by Soulskill on from the sopa-was-a-warmup dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The reverberations from the SOPA fight continue to be felt in the U.S. and elsewhere, but it is the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement that has captured increasing attention this week. Several months after the majority of ACTA participants signed the agreement, most European Union countries formally signed the agreement yesterday (notable exclusions include Germany, the Netherlands, Estonia, Cyprus and Slovakia). Michael Geist has a full rundown on what is at stake and what you can do, wherever you live."

4 of 82 comments (clear)

  1. Signing is only the start of the battle by Elektroschock · · Score: 5, Informative

    Signing does not mean a thing because the European Parliament still has to decide whether to give its consent, and when a single nation asks the European court of Justice, or the Constitutional court then it's dead, because it is against EU Treaties/constitutions. it's not too late to get involved.

    1. Re:Signing is only the start of the battle by Seumas · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Actually, the START of the battle was two or three years ago. At the most lenient, the start of the battle was at least a YEAR ago, when the fact that ACTA was being worked on in secret (and partly by our president, who promised his would be the most open administration!) was exposed to the public.

      It's great that people are all freaking out about this in the last few days before ACTA is being signed, but WHERE THE FUCK WAS EVERYONE FOR THE LAST 12+ MONTHS?! I'd been bringing ACTA up to people over most of this time and they just returned with dumb blank stares.

  2. Re:Obama! by sycodon · · Score: 5, Interesting

    He signed the treaty, despite it not being ratified by the Senate. I don't think he can weasel out by whining the Senate was ignoring it. The Constitution is pretty clear on this.

    [The President] shall have Power, by and with Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur.

    --
    When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
  3. White House "Petitions" by oneiros27 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Assuming that the White House actually takes the petitions seriously, the current ACTA related petitions are:

    ... and, not ACTA related, but as I'm an ALA member, there's also one that needs another 6k signatures by next week for funding for school libraries. (although, personally, I'd rather it go to regular public libraries, so they have access over the summer)

    --
    Build it, and they will come^Hplain.