Slashdot Mirror
Yet Another European Government Drops ACTA
An anonymous reader writes "The government of Bulgaria, which had already signed ACTA, yesterday reversed itself, and announced that it would not seek ratification of the treaty. This comes after similar moves by Poland, Germany and the Netherlands, and a weekend of massive protests against ACTA across the European continent."
Everywhere but not in America!
We in Canada thank you for being smarter than us. Our prime minister still has his nose up American corporate ass.
TFA is just a LMGTFY??
This must be a new low.
It looks like ACTA is pretty much dead in the EU, as it will only enter into force if all the EU countries agree to it unanimously. However, it will still remain in force for the other signatories as long as at least 6 states sign it. So far United States, Australia, Canada, Japan, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, and South Korea have all signed it, so at least three of those need to back out for the treaty to die completely.
Man...glad I was here to see the wild west days of it back in '92-'93 and just after that.
Then again, I remember going to the gates at airports to greet people as they got off the plane, and even before metal detectors going to the gates.
Sigh...the US use to be a much more free place.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
I am Bulgarian living in Bulgaria right now. I am as happy as any of you about the ditching of ACTA by our government. But! They change their minds twice a day. The position of the other European governments against ACTA, I think, is based (to a certain extent at least) on principles and integrity. Our government is silly, uninformed, clueless and it may easily jump back on the ACTA bandwagon if put under pressure. They were clearly ready to force the ratification of ACTA on the Parliament. What changed their minds was the protest wave -- the government are populist and easily bend before protests. However, they bend easily before anything. So, let's wait and see...
Yeah but they underestimated that EU citizens are not fucking stupid, and doped up on high fructose corn syrup and anti-depressants.
You forgot all the Adderall.
C'mon, kids -- you know the schtick! Better Living Through Chemistry!
(...goes and hides in his den and looks for that Canuckistan immigration packet...)
"What in the name of Fats Waller is that?"
"A four-foot prune."
They already tried that by telling me that downloading a couple of tracks from the Internet was equivalent to nicking a car. They then showed that piracy is masterminded by some half-naked medieval torturer with glowing red eyes and a red hot branding iron. Seems so fucking cool to me that I of course had to give it a try.
It was disappointing, but I at least came away with some free music.
-- Using the preview button since 2005
It seems governments can't ignore us when we coordinate via the internet and represent the interests of internet users. Big changes are happening despite all of the govs trying to shut down the internet. We are living through serious history, interesting times.
Text of the treaty:
http://register.consilium.europa.eu/pdf/en/11/st12/st12196.en11.pdf
Main aim of this legislation seems to be exporting the US legal approach to the rest of the world. Tactics like secret negotiations, participants having to sign non-disclosure agreement intended to implement this more or less under the radar of public scrutiny.
Please take into account that the US patent system is considered "broken" through awarding trivial patents, patents on software, genetic patents, patent trolls, corporate patent wars.
Like the mission to Iraq the US has again created a coalition of the willing and is using that to get more aboard. US diplomacy is exerting pressure to join. If the EU would have joined it would have very difficult for third world countries to evade joining. That would definitely have impacted the price and availability of generic pharmaceuticals.
That legal approach includes for instance the damages calculation which led to obscene claims in the US and also would enable a business model for law firms to extort consumers sharing a few files.
Please note that this treaty aims to cover all Intellectual Property rights. The implications for the Internet (ISPs having to cooperate) draws the most attention up to now.
More specifically it will enable Monsanto to enforce their genetic seed patents outside the US. So do expect them to sue farmers saving part of their harvest for seeding next year. Given the wide contamination by pollen seed stocks are inevitably contaminated by GM material.
The US political system is thoroughly corrupted. Corporate interest like MPAA's Dodd (an ex-senator mind you) is openly threatening to retract campaign contributions. The failure of the US political system in their fiduciary duty to protect citizens/voters/consumers against exploitation by the economic system is of truly epic proportions.
Corporate interest simply don't have the same level of influence in Europe.
However now the very secretive approach has been exposed, the very text will be studied much more thoroughly. For now ACTA seems dead in the water indeed.
Nice to see international grass roots cooperation to stop this (now more that 2.3 million signatures:
https://secure.avaaz.org/en/eu_save_the_internet/?tta
I don't know how or why people have kept missing this, but the United States has not ratified ACTA either, and there is about zero chance it is going to.
A U.S. representative signed it, but it was never ratified.
Pull your heads out, folks.
Yeah, I don't think opposition from former Eastern Bloc countries like Bulgaria and Poland surprises anyone really, nor do I expect their dissent to convince any of the proponents to back down, particularly the US. On the contrary, I expect they'll use that to fuel their argument about the necessity of ACTA.
Good to see Germany and the Netherlands opposing it though. The economic powerhouse of Germany cannot be ignored, and their opposition makes it politically easier for other countries to voice their dissent as well.
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
it seems it is young people of Europe that take it to the streets, not much of that in USA protesting against such laws. however, there are other protests but media coverage is sparse. It should be noted many from former Eastern Bloc countries take issue with laws like ACTA because they know what it is like to live in a country with censorship and compared to without.
mfwright@batnet.com