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EC Says ACTA ISP Provisions Dropped from CETA, Yet Most of ACTA Likely Remains Intact

The European Commission, which initially indicated that it would not respond to the posting of the leaked CETA IP chapter, has now responded by saying that the two ACTA provisions involving Internet providers have been dropped from CETA. When asked whether those were the only changes, EU Trade spokesperson John Clancy said there may be other changes but that this was the biggest one.

While the removal of the Internet provider provisions is a good step, the European Parliament’s overwhelming rejection of ACTA was the result of far more than just the Internet provider provisions. Indeed, there has been concern about digital locks, damages, criminal provisions, and border measures. All of those provisions also appeared in the February 2012 CETA draft and Clancy’s response suggest that most, if not all, remain there.

The decision to respond to the CETA concerns is undoubtedly the result of the enormous amount of attention the connection between ACTA and CETA have received in Europe over the past 48 hours. This includes:

Add in popular vloggers such as the Philip deFranco Show (over 2 million subscribers) and the heavy traffic tech sites such as Slashdot, TechDirt, and BoingBoing, and it becomes apparent the CETA story has quickly propagated throughout Europe and online.

As with ACTA, leaks and 140 character denials on Twitter are not good enough. The leaked text was clear that the majority of ACTA is being replicated nearly word-for-word in CETA.  In light of the Parliament vote and the public concern, Canada and the EU should immediately release the current draft text so that the public can fully analyze and comment on the secret trade deal.

7 Comments

  1. pat donovan says:

    ratifies when?
    i think Parliament still ratifies treaties… till then they are just so much noise.

    executive orders, not withstanding, right? will harper try that route instead?

    much of it (various treaties) violates current laws, too. a 20 year effort to prove you can’t do that will be costly.

    plus all these free trade deal increase imports, not exports.

    low goal, low methods, low results.

    the corperations (which don’t follow thru on their promises for R+D anyway)
    will benefit… and no one else.

    packrat

  2. Harper the toadie
    It’s a shame that Canadian prime ministers are so often trying to appease the world powers. Canada has enough to stand on its own without trying to squeeze into every trade deal so it can be seen as one of the big boys. Just as with the TPP, Harper is willing to do whatever to appease our bigger foreign partners. So what if it limits Canadian’s freedoms? He’ll be part of the club (albeit always a junior member.)

    The Americans hated Trudeau with a passion because he wouldn’t bow to foreign pressure. Regardless of what you though of Trudeau, he had a backbone and would be the first to tell the US and its media lobby to F-off – literally. Canada sorely needs leadership that looks out for Canadian interests first not personal, small minded goals like Harper has.

  3. Devil's Advocate says:

    @BillG:
    “Regardless of what you though of Trudeau, he had a backbone and would be the first to tell the US and its media lobby to F-off – literally.”

    Yeah, you had to salute him for that alright!
    Remember the “Fuddle-Duddle” story?
    🙂

  4. I see CETA heading for the same dustbin as ACTA if they do not grasp the new reality … the public are no longer willing to let their lives be dictated solely by corporate interests.

    Here is a great article on this very issue: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/07/op-ed-eus-rejection-of-acta-subtly-changed-trade-law-landscape/

  5. I think negotiators are starting to realize that including “Intellectual Property” related issues into a package with other trade related issues, increases the chance of “throwing out the baby with the bathwater”.

    The RIAA/MPAA and other copyright maximalists have now incurred the wrath of wider areas of industry and negotiators. It is one thing to ride on the coattails of other negotiations, but when the ride completely derails everything, it gets shaken off pretty quickly. Strong “IP” advocates are becoming irrelevant, even in the circles they have been traditionally strongest.

  6. Copyright extension & We Are The Bad Guys!
    Don’t forget that another major problem with CETA is the copyright extension by another 2 decades. The ACTA similarity overshadows this and when it’s dropped (naturally) the extension might be seen as a small matter.

    Also note that EC spokesman John Clancy made it seem like that it’s actually CANADA pushing the EC for these extreme measures:

    “The last time there was a negotiating session on criminal enforcement, during a video-conference in October 2011, no agreement was reached on some of the proposals by Canada which are indeed far-reaching,” said the Commission.”

    So WE are the Bad Guys here?! What are we hiding? Who else is in on this?

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