[governance] BBC: European Parliament rapporteur quits in Acta protest

ricardo ruiz doutorsocratesoreidofutebol at gmail.com
Fri Jan 27 13:07:28 EST 2012


sad. Very short-minded people gorvernments from EU and US. Attached to
the past, with no solutions for a already existing new world. "money,
money, money, people, is the root of all the evil"

Deus salve MacunaĆ­ma no fim dos tempos -

Best and good luck for us, poor citizens,

R

2012/1/27, Riaz K Tayob <riaz.tayob at gmail.com>:
> [1 person, just one person... !]
>
> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16757142 European Parliament
> rapporteur quits in Acta protest Comments (90) By Dave Lee Technology
> Reporter Mr Arif's resignation follows protests in several locations
> across Poland Negotiations over a controversial anti-piracy agreement
> have been described as a "masquerade" by a key Euro MP. Kader Arif, the
> European Parliament's rapporteur for the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade
> Agreement (Acta), resigned over the issue on Friday. He said he had
> witnessed "never-before-seen manoeuvres" by officials preparing the
> treaty. On Thursday, 22 EU member states including the UK signed the
> agreement. The treaty still needs to be ratified by the European
> Parliament before it can be enacted. A debate is scheduled to take place
> in June. Mr Arif criticised the efforts to push forward with the
> measures ahead of those discussions taking place. "I condemn the whole
> process which led to the signature of this agreement: no consultation of
> the civil society, lack of transparency since the beginning of
> negotiations, repeated delays of the signature of the text without any
> explanation given, reject of Parliament's recommendations as given in
> several resolutions of our assembly." Mr Arif's decision to stand down
> follows protests by campaigners in Poland. Thousands of demonstrators
> took to the streets after the agreement was signed. Crowds of mostly
> young people held banners with slogans such as "no to censorship" and "a
> free internet". Earlier in the week, hackers attacked several Polish
> government websites, including that of Prime Minister Donald Tusk. The
> country's Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski defended the plans, telling
> local television: "We believe that theft on a massive scale of
> intellectual property is not a good thing." 'Legitimate demands'
> Campaigners' concerns have been buoyed by Mr Arif's strongly-worded
> statement released on Friday. "This agreement can have major
> consequences on citizens' lives," he wrote. "However, everything is made
> to prevent the European Parliament from having its say in this matter. I
> want to send a strong signal and alert the public opinion about this
> unacceptable situation. I will not take part in this masquerade." The
> treaty has caused controversy since an early discussion paper was
> published by Wikileaks in 2008 - two years after negotiations first
> began. The details were subsequently confirmed in 2010. People took to
> the streets across Poland to protest against Acta If ratified, it
> proposes to improve "the enforcement of intellectual property rights" in
> participating countries. It suggests setting international standards
> over how copyright infringements are dealt with, with preventative
> measures including possible imprisonment and fines. The UK's
> Intellectual Property Office has backed the measures, describing piracy
> as a "major global issue". "Yesterday's signing of Acta is important for
> the UK as it will set an international standard for tackling large-scale
> infringements of IPR, through the creation of common enforcement
> standards and more effective international cooperation. Importantly, it
> aims to improve the enforcement of existing IPR laws, not create new
> ones," it said. 'Dangerous' Darrell Issa, a US senator and vocal critic
> of the stalled Stop Online Piracy Act (Sopa), voiced his concerns about
> Acta at the World Economics Forum in Davos. "As a member of Congress,
> it's more dangerous than Sopa," he said. "It's not coming to me for a
> vote. It purports that it does not change existing laws. But once
> implemented, it creates a whole new enforcement system and will
> virtually tie the hands of Congress to undo it." In addition to
> internet-based measures, the agreement also seeks to curb trade of
> counterfeited physical goods. Past drafts of the treaty suggested that
> internet service providers would have to give up data about users
> accused of copyright infringement and might have to cut them off -
> although this segment of the agreement has since been removed. Outside
> of the EU, the treaty has also been signed by the US, Australia, Canada,
> Japan, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore and South Korea. In response to
> Mr Arif's resignation, a spokesman for the European Commission told the
> BBC: "Mr Arif and other members of the European Parliament's [Committee
> on International Trade] have had access to successive versions of the
> Acta text. The full text has been fully public since April 2010. It was
> made available in the first place because the European Commission
> convinced the other countries to publish this text. "There have been
> four stakeholder conferences since 2008, and at least three speeches in
> the European Parliament on Acta. And now there will be a full debate.
> This is exactly what the normal process is. "But most importantly Acta
> does not change any EU laws, it simply levels the playing field so that
> other countries match our standards. There is no threat to internet
> freedom or privacy. Everything you can do legally today in the EU, you
> would be legally able to do if Acta is ratified."
>
>


-- 
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Unix Shell Forkbomb (2002)

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