ACTA is being signed right now in the EU

http://www.thejournal.ie/ireland-and-eu-to-sign-controversial-acta-treaty-tomorrow-336764-Jan2012/?utm_source=shortlink

158 41 14 years ago

lambada• 14 years ago

If the article is accurate, then I hope that the EU Parliament will listen to the tech sector for a change. Unfortunately, I doubt we'll get a Blackout style campaign like SOPA had in the US.

ajuc3• 14 years ago

Some Polish web sites had blackout ( http://di.com.pl/news/43067,0,Polski_blackout_przeciw_ACTA_j... ), but mostly sites with young and tech-savy users. So general population only know about Anonymus group cracking gov servers, and maybe about protests on the streets.

toyg2• 14 years ago

The EU Parliament is a relatively benign organism. Elections are held with a proportional system across Europe, so it's quite easy for MEPs to lose seats to smaller parties; this basically forces them to listen to constituents, most of the time, or risk being defeated by, say, Greens or Pirate Party. Since they don't really have much of a say in nominating the "EU government" (i.e. the Commission), they don't really experience the drawbacks of such a system.

The problem is, in most cases the Parliament cannot veto what the Commission approves. There is a constant, constitutional struggle between them, but the Commission has the upper hand in most cases. This is because the Commission is nominated by (and directly works with) member states; in practice, if all states' governments agree to something, the EU Parliament probably wouldn't be able to stop them. At most, they could delay some decisions, hoping that political winds in member states will change in the meantime.

Create3• 14 years ago

There are ways to fight, although very tough. The FFII.org did a wonderful job on swpat. They did go for ACTA too, but sadly with less focus -- I cannot blame though.

Create3• 14 years ago

BBC News - Thousands march in Poland over Acta internet treaty

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16735219

ajuc3• 14 years ago

There were protest yesterday in many Polish cities - biggest in Kraków (15000 according to police), smaller 500-5000 in other cities. People summed it up to about 60 000 people in the whole country.

Today there will be protest in Lublin, Poznan, and other cities. I'm going to the one in Lublin.

Probably nothing's gonna change, but lies of the governament are too much. They say in TV and radio that ACTA won't change a thing in Polish law. And they say we need to change the law to be like in other "civilised" countries. No problem with contradicting themselves.

zalew2• 14 years ago

> Today there will be protest in Lublin, Poznan, and other cities. I'm going to the one in Lublin.

In Warsaw protests are moved to tomorrow because of legal issues (you have to notify 3 days before)

http://www.tvnwarszawa.pl/informacje,news,protest-przeciw-ac...

Other cities today, as you say http://www.tvnwarszawa.pl/informacje,news,acta-podpisana,393...

hastur6• 14 years ago

Yeah, ACTA really exploded in the public awareness in Poland in the past week.

You can read more about it here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3502200

And here's some more footage from the protests: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3511980

Create3• 14 years ago

thanks for all the news!

„Polak, Węgier, dwa bratanki, i do szabli, i do szklanki.”

tripzilch2• 14 years ago

Wow, "funny" how we heard nothing about this in NL.

zalew2• 14 years ago

The reality is nobody here except geeks was aware of ACTA at all. The explosion of media attention started about a week ago, and even polititians were totally unprepared to handle any reposnse and it looked like they were surprised that finally somebody noticed it. Even the most pro-govt media didn't leave it alone, but it's sad that the case was raised so late. Too bad we don't have any real rock-stars on the tech scene to speak up, such as sopa had google, reddit, etc. Most media coverage include interviews with old tards in suits and some rotting entertainment celebs skewing up the view on this issue talking about their precious mp3s nobody listens to anyway, and on the other side they show protesting people way too young to speak about it in a reasonable manner. I'm all happy about the protests emerging, but it's too bad we lack influencial people in the tech sector to handle this issue on a substantive level.

StavrosK2• 14 years ago

Ugh... Where can I march against this?

ajuc3• 14 years ago

Site about ACTA in EU and protests: http://whovotesforacta.eu

StavrosK2• 14 years ago

Thank you.

rickmb3• 14 years ago

The headline is misleading. There are still several national parliaments that need to ratify this (there appears to be a majority against in the Netherlands at the moment), and it has to go through the EU parliament.

The EU parliament is notoriously allergic to these kind of secret backroom shenanigans and corporate manipulations and is eager to prove its democratic value. This is an excellent opportunity to flex the little bit of political muscle it has.

hastur6• 14 years ago

The title is not exactly misleading. ACTA is first signed by the executive branches (foreign ministers or ambassadors), and this is what happened today in Tokyo for most EU nations.

Then ACTA will be ratified by the EU Parliament (i.e. the legislative branch).

Then ACTA will be ratified by national Parliaments. (Where necessary - most likely in all EU countries. A little different story in U.S., where Obama can just put it into law by executive order, because treaties that don't change U.S. law don't need to be ratified by Congress.)

The ratification in EU Parliament is what really counts, because 80-90% of ACTA text applies to EU law, and only a fraction applies to national law. (The latter primarily with regards to criminal prosecutions, which obviously are strictly national jurisdiction.)

rickmb3• 14 years ago

National parliament ratification is also not a mere formality. The EU cannot afford to be divided at this moment, or have the mood in member states turned against it even more.

Ironically, rejection by the EU parliament would save the EU a lot of internal headaches. Which is why you could very well see members of parties that support ACTA on the national level reject it in the EU parliament.

Political games: they can tell the US and their copyright mafia friends they've signed it, and the rejection by EU parliament was out of their control...

nickik2• 14 years ago

They way ACTA was planned shuld not be possible for any democratic nation. This clearly shows that we have to evlolve you democratic systems.

skrebbel4• 14 years ago

Nice related trivia: If the EU would apply to become an EU member state, it would be rejected because it's not democratic enough.

Yes, that's a problem and yes, it'll take decades to fix.

nickik2• 14 years ago

Haha I knew the fact but heavn't quite heard it put like this :)

I don't really like the EU I would rather have a free market zone and travel zone without all the other stuff, Europe should not become an Empire.

jabkobob• 14 years ago

I find it funny how they try to use iTunes and the music purchased from iTunes as an example for how this legislation would affect people, even though music purchased from iTunes has been DRM free for a few years.

gryzzly2• 14 years ago

German European Parliament facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/EP.Informationsbuero.fuer.Deutschlan...

gryzzly2• 14 years ago

German EU parliament contacts page: http://www.europarl.de/view/de/Service/Anfragen_Kontakt.html

ergo142• 14 years ago

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3514232 - ACTA will NOT pass as of now since it's in validation of Basic Human Rights Bill, so it looks with exception of Poland and Czech EU is safe, but i have high hopes that our (polish) parliament will not ratify the document.

AhtiK• 14 years ago

Is ACTA potentially affecting desktop applications that are storing encrypted information to the cloud using private-public keypair? Private key would be available only locally.

From ACTA it's not clear for me if desktop app provider should start storing the keypairs in case a law enforcement asks for the access to the data.

Any ideas?

eliasmacpherson• 14 years ago

If it does go through and border searches for pirated media become a reality, it would be terribly unfortunate if random people had encrypted files on their computer that they don't know the password to, entering the UK. In fact any unexplained binary file of about 3mb could be an encrypted mp3. Handover the password: or rot in contempt of court. EFF are right about encrypting your disk as a new years resolution. This could be a disaster if it gets fully ratified.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Counterfeiting_Trade_Agree...

"exempts travellers from (border) checks if the infringing goods are not part of large scale traffic" I'd love to know how they expect border security guards to determine what's part of large scale traffic and what's not.

"jailed over computer password refusal": http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-11479831

ACTA is being signed right now in the EU

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