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ACTA Gets Death Certificate In Europe

First time accepted submitter Seeteufel writes "The controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement is now officially pronounced dead in the E.U. The European Parliament broadly rejected the Anti-Counterfeiting Agreement a while ago, but there was still a court case pending at the European Court of Justice about the legality of ACTA. The Commission was open about its intent to reintroduce ACTA ratification to the Parliament after a positive Court decision. Now we learn the Commission has withdrawn its questions to the Court."

36 comments

  1. This may not be as good as you think! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    First thought: GREAT!
    Second thought: It's better for them to not have a court ruling saying that some of the ACTA content violate some EU principles when they will try to re-introduce the same content in CETA.

    1. Re:This may not be as good as you think! by Spottywot · · Score: 4, Insightful

      First thought: GREAT! Second thought: It's better for them to not have a court ruling saying that some of the ACTA content violate some EU principles when they will try to re-introduce the same content in CETA.

      Yes indeed, this round is won. Now stay vigilant.

      --
      In a cybernetic fit of rage she pissed off to another age...
    2. Re:This may not be as good as you think! by Runaway1956 · · Score: 2

      Stay vigilant. Sounds cool. I'll bet you could work that up into a slogan or something! How about this: "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty!" Catchy enough? ;)

      http://www.monticello.org/site/blog-and-community/posts/eternal-vigilance

      --
      "Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
    3. Re:This may not be as good as you think! by Spottywot · · Score: 2

      Maybe it did sound a bit melodramatic, not usually my style but now you mention it I quite like it. I'll be out tonight, lurking in dark alleys wearing a dark hood and cape saying - " This round is won, now stay vigilant." to passers by, in my best batman voice.

      --
      In a cybernetic fit of rage she pissed off to another age...
    4. Re:This may not be as good as you think! by VortexCortex · · Score: 1

      You should also wear a Guy Fawkes mask, but if folks ask who you are, stick with the voice and use the "I'm Batman" line.

  2. This really isn't the end. by bmo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The Copyright Kleptocracy has more money, better liquor, better caviar, better boats, better golf clubs, and better organization than you. They also rely on "crisis fatigue" where people like you and me have more pressing things just trying to get through life.

    We will see another version of ACTA under a different name byJune 2013, and if that fails, another one after that, and another, etc. And should they get one actually passed, they will push the envelope, probably not even stopping at an actual death penalty (they already participate in financial death penalties).

    Kyle Reese: Listen, and understand. The Copyright Kleptocracy is out there. It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead.

    --
    BMO

    1. Re:This really isn't the end. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Copyright Kleptocracy

      Typical crap from those who produce nothing.

    2. Re:This really isn't the end. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Preach it brother. Those fucking middle men who fancy themselves "publishers" have it coming to them.

    3. Re:This really isn't the end. by caknuckle · · Score: 1

      The key then is to help fund the Anti-Kleptocracy resistance (see OpenMedia for example), so that there's the Kyle Reese types completely dedicated to fight for us.

    4. Re:This really isn't the end. by Joce640k · · Score: 1

      We can win if the politicians get a clue and start viewing support for the CK as bad for their free lunch tickets.

      --
      No sig today...
    5. Re:This really isn't the end. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      Per your own admission, they are indeed producing something (ie, crap). Therefore, your statement about them producing nothing is wrong.

      OK, now seriously, the term "copyright kleptocracy" applies to those people who think that their defense of their intellectual property supersedes every single right and prerogative that other people may have. I have no problem with people defending what is theirs, but that does not mean that you must force innocent people to go bankrupt just to "set an example," or force your country's lawmakers to pass ill-conceived laws that, in the name of your aforementioned intellectual property, would end up crippling critical infrastructure (like for instance, the SOPA and the Internet).

    6. Re:This really isn't the end. by sribe · · Score: 2

      Allow me to correct a small oversight on your part:

      The Copyright Kleptocracy has more money, better liquor, better caviar, better boats, better golf clubs, better organization, and more hookers than you.

    7. Re:This really isn't the end. by bmo · · Score: 1

      Yeah, I only thought of the "hookers and blow" after I posted.

      You are absolutely right.

      --
      BMO

    8. Re:This really isn't the end. by sribe · · Score: 1

      Yeah, I only thought of the "hookers and blow" after I posted.

      Duh, yeah, I forgot the cocaine. Figures. Reflects my own preferences: a horndog with no interest in drugs ;-)

    9. Re:This really isn't the end. by rastoboy29 · · Score: 1

      Don't be so negative.  They can--and will--be defeated.  It's only a matter of time.

      We would just prefer it not be a thousand years.

      But I suspect it will be much shorter than that.  The younger generation is growing up with a contempt for them.

    10. Re:This really isn't the end. by bmo · · Score: 2

      I have you foed for some reason, and it just occurred to me that I no longer remember why I have a whole bunch of people foed, including you.

      Time to clean.

      --
      BMO

    11. Re:This really isn't the end. by Luckyo · · Score: 1

      It's actually the exact opposite. They are the ones on the offensive and they are the ones that will likely eventually win. Younger generation fully embraced massive levels of DRM and draconian content consumption limitations in modern smartphones for example.

    12. Re:This really isn't the end. by bmo · · Score: 1

      I unfoed you and a few other people, but the process is so slow waiting for the page to refresh and I have so many to go through that I had to give up unless you (or anyone else) have a tip on how to do a batch process. I've done a list of URLs with UIDs but FF pukes trying to open so many tabs.

      I'm going to have to look at what happens when I click on "I'm sure" and I can't be arsed right now.

      --
      BMO

    13. Re:This really isn't the end. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Typical crap from those who think they're special because they only see one kind of model.

    14. Re:This really isn't the end. by rastoboy29 · · Score: 1

      that's a valid point.

      But they still torrent their balls off, too.

  3. ACTA may = windows 8 lockin and that pushed them by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 2

    ACTA may = windows 8 lock in and that pushed them away from it.

    as under the law you will not be able to bypass a locked boot loader.

  4. Bravo! by pubwvj · · Score: 1

    It's a start to the end of greed. They'll try again, of course.

    1. Re:Bravo! by VortexCortex · · Score: 1

      It's a start to the end of greed.

      There is no end to greed. Even those who become selfless crave more and more of it...

  5. It is just a little delay by qbast · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What copyright lobby does is throwing shit at a wall - almost every time something sticks. Even if whole shot missed (like in case of ACTA), then well - there will be another shot in half a year. See the same stuff pushed as CETA and if this somehow fails, split and attached in small pieces to unrelated bills. Sorry, in current system this fight is impossible to win.

  6. meanwhile in Germany by terec · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'm glad ACTA didn't make it. But the copyright lobby in Europe remains extremely powerful. For example, in Germany, they have successfully pushed the government to try to implement a copyright on snippets. This follows a long list of pretty hair-raising special rights and fees that different failing industries managed to carve out for themselves. I think the successful fight against ACTA in Europe has less to do with a respect for liberties and privacy and more with simple economic realities: ACTA would primarily have benefited US companies doing business in Europe; European companies are already well protected by draconian European laws.

    1. Re:meanwhile in Germany by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's the 21st century; use Google Translate.

  7. EU vs Human Rights by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    This is not the end. EU Charter of Human rights is different from the European Convention on Human Rights. It has an extra phrase in it:

    "Intellectual property shall be protected."

    Article 17, Right to property.
    http://www.europarl.europa.eu/charter/pdf/text_en.pdf

    This defined Patents Copyrights etc. mostly CORPORATE assets, as equivalent to human property and the right to hold these and have them protected as a fundamental HUMAN right. They contaminated the Human Rights Declaration with their lobbyist crap, wrapped it up in a similar name and declared THAT document as the definition of human rights in the EU.

    So what the EU Commission was up to, was to ask the European Court (which is not the Hague Court that reviews human rights cases), if ACTA was compatible with Human Rights (as defined by this fake Human Rights Declaration that the EU came up with that includes that phrase). You see the game being played there?

    If you think that an EU Commission that would try that, would simply drop it, you would be naive. My guess is, it will be substantially moved into anti-terror legislation. Perhaps the Clean IT mk 2:

    http://www.edri.org/files/cleanIT_sept2012.pdf

    Recall Clean IT, this document resulted from meetings between European Police, NGOs and ISPs and generated a secret draft which included agreed items to counter terrorist speech by surveillance and censorship and liability for ISPs for not enforcing it.

    It was not a basis for EU Law, rather the police/NGOs/LEAs/ISP would agree to it, the ISPs would define the law in their terms of service agreements, and the national law would be changed by lobbying from them at a national level to fix any legal problems. It's been dismissed as a talking document, yet the key points were largely agreed by the national police forces and NGOs.

    I repeat the key points WERE ALREADY LARGELY AGREED. ISPs would include those terms in their EULAs, which in turn would stop the police going after the ISPs and by contract rather than EU law, Clean IT was set to be implemented, the schedule was up for discussion, but the basics were already agreed. Who needs the EU Parliament, if the police and ISPs decide to implement it by contract law?

    CleanIT is almost ACTA, a few tweaks here and there and you have ACTA. Just play with the definition of 'terrorist' a little differently:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_terrorism

  8. So what got passed in the meantime? by __aasehi2499 · · Score: 1

    While we were watching this shiny object and trying to block its passage.

  9. Unitary Patent by higuita · · Score: 1

    Just in case you didn't see it, european patents... specially the case where the the European patent office have broad powers, poor control and a very bad historic data (ie: likes to give software patents where they are explicit forbidden)

    --
    Higuita
  10. ACTA might have been needed by DickBreath · · Score: 2

    There are companies who make real physical products that are counterfited by cheap knockoffs. These could have benefited from an anti counterfiting treaty. But Nooooooo. Hollywood hijacked the entire process, in secret, just to take away people's rights under the guise of alleged copyright infringement. Those who ACTA might have benefited can thank Hollywood for killing ACTA.

    --

    I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
    1. Re:ACTA might have been needed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Indeed, the consumer lost out here also. in the final draft of ACTA there was only 1 provision about physical counterfeiting, and it was directly related to brand protection, rather than having and regard for the safety of the counterfeit product.

      Basicly, they said it's not as bad to sell a defective iPod knockoff under a different name with a battery that explodes and melts a kids face off, than it is to sell a perfectly safe knockoff that breeches the trademark of the original.

    2. Re:ACTA might have been needed by VortexCortex · · Score: 1

      There are companies who make real physical products that are counterfited by cheap knockoffs. These could have benefited from an anti counterfiting treaty. But Nooooooo. Hollywood hijacked the entire process, in secret, just to take away people's rights under the guise of alleged copyright infringement.

      The real kicker is that when you make a knockoff of a digital item it's actually possible for the "counterfeit" item to be better than the original by providing other features -- Already small enough for your portable media player, or removed defective-by-design DRM... It would be as if you counterfeited money, and the bank actually prefers it to legal tender.

      Don't even get me started on artificial scarcity of information. Let's sell Ice to Eskimos! No you fools, that's dumb! We won't make creating ice illegal. Let's sell Bits to folks with Computing Devices! Uhmm.. wait, isn't that the same thin-- Oh, fine, whatever, here's some laws against copying, now go away.

  11. don't fear the dead by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The undead however ...

  12. Re:ACTA may = windows 8 lockin and that pushed the by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What a fuck are you talking about?