The ACTA Internet Chapter: Putting Pieces Together
ACTA Guide, Part 1: The Talks To-Date
ACTA Guide, Part 2: The Documents (Official and Leaked)
ACTA Guide, Part 3: Transparency and ACTA Secrecy
European Commission Responds To ACTA Questions |
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Monday February 08, 2010
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The European Commission has posted a response to one of the many questions raised by members of the European Parliament about ACTA. The EC seeks to pacify the ACTA concerns by arguing that the treaty will be limited in scope and is targeted at commercial activities: The Commission can inform the Honourable Member that the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) will be in line with the body of EU legislation, which fully respects fundamental rights and freedoms and civil liberties, such as the protection of personal data. This includes the Intellectual Property Rights' relevant aspects of the Telecoms package. ACTA should not contain measures restricting end-users’ access to the internet that would not be appropriate, proportionate and necessary within a democratic society and without a prior, fair and impartial procedure. It is the Commission's view that ACTA is about tackling large scale illegal activity, often pursued by criminal organisations, that is causing a devastating impact on growth and employment in Europe and may have serious risks to the health and safety of consumers. It is not about limiting civil liberties or harassing consumers. Comments (13)
Darryl Moore
said:
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loophole "ACTA should not contain measures restricting end-users’ access to the internet that would not be appropriate, proportionate and necessary within a democratic society and without a prior, fair and impartial procedure." As loopholes go, this is certainly a sizable one, which should increase scepticism in the process for most people, rather than alleviate it. |
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Again... ...are we supposed to take their word for this? In that case, I will add that ACTA will make everyone a millionaire and add a bubble-gum scent to every computer in the world. |
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deception? If the fears and uncertainty were so unfounded, they wouldn't cling to their secrecy it like it was all that was holding ACTA together. |
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Commercial scale It's perhaps enlightening to compare this to what the EU intellectual property enforcement directive says about "commercial scale": "Acts carried out on a commercial scale are those carried out for direct or indirect economic or commercial advantage; this would normally exclude acts carried out by end-consumers acting in good faith." In other words - since infringements normally give some advantage the scale is not important, neither is it important whether there are any actions done for commercial gain (eg. in the Swedish implementation of the directive all illegal uploading is classified as being "commercial scale" - even if it's just a single file). If you read the quote above and think about it you will realize that "commercial scale" infringements in this sense covers practically all intential infringements irrespectively of the scale or whether they with a more normal vocabulary would be seen as commercial. I suspect that the talk about limitations to commercial activities is just a smoke screen. And as the Swedish example shows it's possible to in the legal framework redefine "commercial" so as to include also such things that most people wouldn't think of as commercial. |
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... That's great that they shared their views with us. We want a little more than views though, how about they show us the details so we can make up our own minds? I trust the views of a European politician about as much as I can throw the overweight, snout-in-the-trough politician himself. That is, not very much at all. |
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don't you just hate it when they answer questions Wait, what? Those secretive, cabalistic deceit-mongers are responding to concerns? How dare they? |
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... "ACTA should not contain measures restricting end-users’ access to the internet that would not be appropriate, proportionate and necessary within a democratic society and without a prior, fair and impartial procedure." All they need to do is define appropriate, proportionate, necessary, fair and impartial. Then tell us which democratic society they are referring to. They vote in Iran, Afghanistan and surprisingly the US after all. After they clarify that we will be in a position to determine if the rest of what they say is garbage or not. |
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They are responding to concerns! Yup, they are responding. Exactly like Clinton didn't have sex with Lewinsky, Nixon didn't break the law, and Canadian forces didn't hand over detainees to torturers. With denials and half truths. How dare they is right! |
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They are responding to concerns! European Commission Responds To ACTA Questions, What about our Canadian Govt, why don't they have the courtesy to tell us something. I bet my MP doesn't even know this is happening. |
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Benefit of the doubt "It is not about limiting civil liberties or harassing consumers." Let's be kind and assume that the office assistant who wrote this is simply mistaken. |
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Slashdot story about ACTA This may interest some people gathered around your blog, I believe: http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/02/09/2242230/Submit-Your-Comments-About-ACTA |
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@strunk&white Nothing wrong with responding to concerns, but my concerns have certainly not been responded to here. The concerns are: Why is ACTA being kept secret, what are you hiding, can you lift the secrecy and involve the stakeholders? The answers are (paraphrasing): "ACTA is being kept secret because people would likely walk away from the negotiations if it what we are doing were revealed to the public" (http://keionline.org/node/706) and "We have nothing to hide" and "no." |
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Closed Door Negotiations... Or a Corpotate Cabal's Blueprint for Criminalizing the Unruly Masses? Frankly, I'm headed towards an explosive Cronenberg Moment of cranial overload trying to wrap my pointed head around the myriad ramifications of the proposed ACTA legislation and the potential penury these draconian measures could have, not just on me as an unrepentant Digital Media archiver and sharer... but upon ANYONE the Blue Meanie Brigade might have a more sinister beef with. But, of course, as any Honest Lawyer (sic) will tell ya after a few pints... it's the raison d'etre of trip-wired Fine Print obfusication. Or simply put: Dragon's Breath. |
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