Slashdot Mirror
ACTA Referred To Europe's Top Court For Analysis
superglaze writes "The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement is to get an extra level of scrutiny in the EU after the European Commission said it would refer ACTA to the European Court of Justice, to check that it really does comply with fundamental freedoms in the union. This obviously follows mass protests over ACTA, and it seems justice commissioner Viviane Reding was the one who pushed for ECJ scrutiny. It's not currently clear if this will delay the European Parliament ratification process, but it is hard to imagine the parliament voting on ACTA (scheduled for June at the moment) before the ECJ has had its say — and no-one can say right now how long that will take to happen."
with fire. This thing needs to be buried and forgotten so we can be just as outraged at "ACTA 2.0; Now with a name to make you look like a pedo if you vote against it!"
Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
The people of the world have spoken. Your business model is flawed and obsolete. If you *truly* believe in capitalism half as much as you claim, you will accept that it is you who must adapt or die.
Could this be it for ACTA? Or is this just intended to defuse protests? Any EU slashdotters have any insight on this ? I could see it going either way.
My personal feeling is that the Internet needs to be treated much like the NRA treats gun control - mess with it, and you are in political trouble.
The overriding purpose of the EU is to promote corporatism by pushing for "competition" with just enough regulation that only the big boys get a real say.
While today people think of the EU as some left wing socialist pinko monster, it was founded very much as a businessman's government neutering and takeover effort - the EEC - and the majority of philosophy and law are about promoting business, not promoting individual freedoms. As a result, EU law tends to be that which has been lobbied for by friendly businesses, including competition law which charges sufficiently large firms relatively small amounts and sufficiently small firms relatively large amounts - IOW protection money to the former, crippling fines for the latter.
Your government's being half-owned by private business, dear EU citizen, is based on competition principles pushed by the EU. The neutering of regulatory bodies which protect public property from the airwaves to energy supply is promoted by EU Directives. The US federal government has nothing on the EU when it comes to requiring individual states to favour business.
The best way of stopping international law is to neuter international legislators who gradually consolidate power and work toward a common aim: lining their own pockets.
This is just a move to get ACTA out of the public eye. The time should be used for further actions...
...not least because of the implications of it.
Forget actual copyright infringement claims for a moment, please, this isn't what it's about (ACTA or this rant).
It's about Government intervention in content. Suffocation of the relation of ideas from brain A to brain B-Z and beyond, because someone doesn't like the idea that their vision of a society they have total control over is still somehow so far off, that they have to strangle freedom of expression any way they think they can get away with.
Well, fuck you, I'll say what I like, because MY freedom to express myself in forums available to me trumps your claim of entitlement to my hard-earned whether or not I choose to buy the shite you peddle and try to pass off as art, and it certainly trumps your deluded perceptions of entitlement to freedom from being offended or your plans for total control of every minor aspect of my life being undermined. I will resist you because I am a Human Being with a Soul, with a sense of self responsibility and self governance; I do not need or want your unnecessary intrusion into my life, and ACTA represents something I DO NOT WANT NOR WILL I CONSENT TO.
Sincerely,
A CONTENT CREATOR.
Operation Guillotine is in effect.
I don't think they're that bad really, the commissioners are fighting for their own country's benefit within the Union as well as doing their actual jobs. It's fair enough, it's how things work most places.
The European Parliament is at least clearly on the citizen's side, even if they don't have the power to act on it yet.
The Court of Justice is a very good check and balance, at least the system works.
This move by the commission is not to get a critical review. The commission is the undemocratic EU-level force pushing ACTA forward. The (elected) parliament is the one that would rather not have ACTA and one of the few entities that put massive pressure on the secret negotiations and has repeatedly voiced its disgust with the secrecy of it all.
This move by the commission is an attempt to put pressure on the EU parliament. If the court says that ACTA does not conflict with EU laws, then the parliament will have a harder time to justify voting against ACTA.
By getting the court's opinion now, the commission is disarming the EU parliament, taking away one of their reasons to refuse.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
I will never buy music again. You have shown yourselves unworthy of my money. There is already enough music, and enough people willing to make new music for their own pleasure and that of their audience, and to sell it through their own online channels. We have our own delivery mechanism and payment mechanism thank you. We don't need a music industry any more.
Korma: Good
ACTA is the product of a corrupted legislative process in the USA. It is appalling that a country that professes to uphold democratic ideals so dearly would force this accord on the world via undemocratic, secret negotiations. As tainted evidence that reveals even a ruthless criminal must be discarded to serve the greater good - Democracy itself, ACTA must be discarded for the same reason. No good can ever come from it. See our manifesto at http://whynotaskme.org/
Americans are so in love with their Freedom of Speech that they quote Voltair ALL THE PIGGING TIME.
The problem is, this makes them feel like they have done all the support for freedom of speech necessary and that a protest (one form of freedom of speech) that they notice (hence are in some way inconvenienced by, even if only having it push their favourite story back a few pages in the newspaper) is therefore a refusal of that supporting statement.
It seems like the USian quote from Voltair has a hidden coda: I may not support what you say, but I'll fight to the death for your right to say it (as long as you don't actually try to make me do anything to support you)
'Kabuki Dance' in EU-ese?
Until the hide-bound, freedom hating troglodytes that run the MAFIAA are sprawled out atop their massive desks with wooden stakes driven through their tiny black hearts, they will never give up, but merely regroup out of sight, like the filthy cockroaches they mimic.
The movies include music. Oops. Games? License music. Bugger.
The only winning move is to fight. That's the only way to win.
But that won't happen, so the next best thing is to pirate entertainment as long as they refuse to abide by the quid-pro-quo originally arrived at.