[governance] G. Moody: Euro Commission Blames Social Networks For ACTAFailure

[Louis Pouzin (well)]

ACTA on the ropes !

Report to European Parliament
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=COMPARL&reference=PE-486.174&format=PDF&language=EN&secondRef=02

Press release
http://www.ip-watch.org/2012/04/17/key-committee-urged-to-seek-parliamentary-rejection-of-acta/?utm_source=daily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=alerts

It's a bizarre situation that the EU Commission be paid by European
taxpayers, for playing in the hands of US lobbies.

- - -

On Fri, Mar 30, 2012 at 17:55, michael gurstein <gurstein at gmail.com> wrote:

>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: a2k-bounces at lists.keionline.org
> [mailto:a2k-bounces at lists.keionline.org] On Behalf Of Manon Ress
> Sent: Tuesday, March 13, 2012 5:09 PM
> To: a2k discuss list
> Subject: [A2k] G. Moody: Euro Commission Blames Social Networks For
> ACTAFailure
>
>
> In Techdirt
>
> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120312/09321618075/european-commission-bl
>
> ames-social-networks-acta-failure-worried-about-its-imminent-directive-copyr
> ight-enforcement.shtml<http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120312/09321618075/european-commission-bl%0Aames-social-networks-acta-failure-worried-about-its-imminent-directive-copyr%0Aight-enforcement.shtml>
>
> by Glyn Moody
>
> Tue, Mar 13th 2012 4:12am
>
> European Commission Blames Social Networks For ACTA Failure; Worried About
> Its Imminent Directive On Copyright Enforcement from the
> still-not-listening dept
>
> Now that the EU's ratification of ACTA has departed from the original
> script
> of everyone just waving it through, the European Commission is clearly
> trying to come up with Plan B. Some insights into its thinking can be
> gained
> from the minutes (pdf) of a recent Commission meeting, pointed out to us by
> André Rebentisch.
>
> Here's what the President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso,
> said about ACTA:
>
>    The President introduced the topic, commenting on the intensity and
> scale of the public debate and the organised campaign against the
> Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). There were those in particular
> who felt that the agreement would lead specifically to an unwarranted
> restriction on freedom of expression and democracy on the Internet, and
> would distort the reasonable balance between intellectual property rights
> and other fundamental rights.
>
>    He therefore felt that the Court of Justice of the European Union should
> be asked to confirm the Commission’s position in this matter, namely that
> ACTA was consistent and compatible with the Treaties and with the Charter
> of
> Fundamental Rights of the European Union. He suggested that that day’s
> discussion should consider that point, but also the question of when would
> be an appropriate time to refer the matter to the Court, and the
> possibility
> of consulting Parliament and the Council with a view to adopting a common
> approach in this matter.
>
> The suggestion that the anger over ACTA was somehow part of an "organised
> campaign" looks like a continuing failure to grasp that the protests were
> about all Internet users across Europe coming together to defend their
> online community. As for the "common approach" with the European
> Parliament,
> it's easy to see why the European Commission would want this: it would
> allow
> the referral of ACTA to the European Court of Justice to be framed in such
> a
> way as to increase the likelihood of a positive response from the court. It
> will be interesting to see whether the European Parliament acquiesces in
> this, or continues to take a hard line on the need for more searching
> questions to be asked.
>
> Barroso's comments were followed by some observations from Karel De Gucht,
> the European Commissioner with direct responsibility for ACTA, who made
> some
> revealing remarks:
>
>    He noted that opposition had increased in the run-up to January’s
> planned vote in the US Congress on two legislative initiatives -- the Stop
> Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA)
> --
> aimed at increasing the protection of intellectual property rights on the
> Internet; in the end the vote had not been held, following a hostile
> campaign by social networks and the loss of White House support.
>
> It's interesting to see De Gucht linking the growing hostility to ACTA with
> the storm generated by SOPA/PIPA, and giving the credit for stopping those
> US bills to a "hostile campaign" waged by social networks. You can tell
> this
> really worries him, because he says something similar about social networks
> and ACTA immediately
> afterwards:
>
>    Despite the signature of ACTA in January by the Commission, the Union
> Presidency and twenty-one other Member States, the intense media campaign
> which was unleashed in Europe, instigated largely by the social networks,
> had since led a number of Union Heads of State or Government to decide to
> delay signature or ratification of the agreement by their national
> parliaments. He added that the campaign had also had a considerable
> influence on Members of the European Parliament and, following recent
> contacts with various political groups, he now felt it would be difficult
> to
> muster a majority in favour of ACTA within the EP.
>
> What's extraordinary is that no less than three other commissioners also
> spoke at the meeting about the importance of social networks, and the need
> to grapple with them.
>
> Viviane Reding:
>
>    She concluded by highlighting the rising influence of social networks on
> the Internet and the need for the Commission to take account of this in its
> communication policy and in dealing with various dossiers. Instructions had
> already been given to the communication units in the Directorates-General.
>
> Neelie Kroes:
>
>    She concluded by stressing the need for appropriate communication on the
> agreement, without waiting for the Court’s opinion, targeted particularly
> at
> the various stakeholders involved and social networks.
>
> Michel Barnier:
>
>    was also of the opinion that the key role of social networks in public
> debate in Europe forced the Commission to think carefully about adapting
> some of its means of communication and that Members should discuss the
> matter as soon possible.
>
> What emerges very clearly from this is that the most senior politicians in
> the European Union are completely nonplussed by the power of social
> networks
> to mobilize not just Net activists but ordinary Internet users, and are
> struggling to deal with it. I think we can expect to see attempts to
> neutralize that new force by "reaching out" to social networks in a variety
> of ways in the coming months. One area where that will clearly happen is
> for
> the forthcoming update on the EU's "IPR Enforcement Directive", generally
> known as IPRED. The Commission meeting referred to it explicitly:
>
>    As regards the planned revision of the 2004 Directive on enforcement of
> intellectual property rights, the Commission needed to adopt a prudent and
> balanced approach to this politically delicate exercise, and take account
> of
> existing texts on the protection of data and privacy in the areas of
> telecoms and fundamental rights.
>
> The EC knows that it must be very careful here, because the measures
> already
> mooted for the next version of IPRED are very close to some of SOPA's bad
> ideas -- for example, turning ISPs into copyright cops. The European
> Commission has observed what happened in the US, and is clearly very
> concerned that the IPRED update will meet the same opposition from those
> mysterious, uncontrollable social networks as SOPA/PIPA did and ACTA is now
> doing.
>
> --
> Manon Anne Ress
> Knowledge Ecology International
> 1621 Connecticut Ave, NW, Suite 500
> Washington, DC 20009 USA
> http://www.keionline.org
> manon.ress at keionline.org
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.igcaucus.org/pipermail/governance/attachments/20120418/fee31826/attachment.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
____________________________________________________________
You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
     governance at lists.igcaucus.org
To be removed from the list, visit:
     http://www.igcaucus.org/unsubscribing

For all other list information and functions, see:
     http://lists.igcaucus.org/info/governance
To edit your profile and to find the IGC's charter, see:
     http://www.igcaucus.org/

Translate this email: http://translate.google.com/translate_t