Romanian Prime Minister Admits He Has No Idea Why Romania Signed ACTA
from the us-pressure? dept
Here’s a bizarre one. With Poland putting ACTA ratification on hold, and Slovenia apparently regretting its signature, now we’ve got Romania’s Prime Minister, Emil Boc, admitting that he doesn’t understand why the country signed ACTA. It appears that opposing politicians are criticizing the government and promising that they will suspend enforcement under ACTA until there are actual public hearings held on the matter. It really is quite amazing that the folks in the entertainment industry, who thought they could ram this through are now discovering how much they’ve awakened internet users across the globe ever since they shot for the moon with SOPA. ACTA has been on the table for years, and only a few of us “copyright geeks” were paying attention to it. But SOPA really made it clear to huge populations of people just how the entertainment industry seeks to restrict the internet through copyright law… and they’re simply not going to take that any more. Update: And… um… just like that, he’s no longer Prime Minister, offering up his resignation today.
Comments on “Romanian Prime Minister Admits He Has No Idea Why Romania Signed ACTA”
I wonder
I wonder how many other treaties/global laws have been signed on the basis of: “We signed that? What’s it about?”
I wonder
Probably all of them.
and it’s about bloody time! why should every person on the planet loose things that have taken scores of years to achieve, be restricted by an industry that has no thought other than for itself and has no intention of employing a vision of the future?
Looks like keeping it secret from the public meant keeping it secret from politicians too. And they all signed it because someone with lots of cash told them too and said it was good for them (someone from the U.S. most likely).
Last-minute information: following Poland, the Chech Republic has also postponed ratification until further notice to hold a public discussion on ACTA. This happend after protests similar to Poland’s, as well as ANONYMOUS DDoS attacks directed at Chech websites.
With all these other countries coming out saying they’ll look the ACTA when will the US actually investigate the ACTA itself or Obama signing it without really being allowed to
US, just protest like we do! I know about the efforts of the OCCUPY movement, but protest ACTA as well along with SOPA/PIPA.
Just stop it. Stop it now! Sounds like my mum when I was a kid. Lol.
http://www.stopp-acta.info/english
Here’s a link about the Chech Republic in Polish, just Google Translate: http://www.tvn24.pl/0,1733923,0,1,anonymous-chwala-tuska-czesi-ida-w-slady-polski,wiadomosc.html
The best part is the part where the idiots from the industry said they wanted others to hear and debate copyrights.
Well know the public is hearing them and I bet the industry is not liking what is coming out of the public, every single person on earth hates them and wants the end of this nonsense even if it means the end of copyrights itself, nobody will come to defend them, nobody is rallying behind them.
And all of this was told to them in no uncertain terms, now they will have to live with the consequences of it, the public is another big hammer even bigger than the law and once it is target on something it will hit it until it is inline.
Hollywood made a similar mistake to the Komen foundation’s mistake of dropping, and then reinstating Planned Parenthood funding.
Hollywood could of kept on quietly adding victory after victory with treaties making IP terms longer and IP laws more enforced.
Komen could have kept on quietly appearing as a nonpartisan charity with no stance required on controversial issues like abortion.
Instead Hollywood awoke a sleeping giant with SOPA/PIPA, that alerted the public to the dangers of draconian copyright laws/terms/enforcement. Now Hollywood will have a much harder time pushing anything through, and may even start suffering changes in IP laws unfavorable to them, such as less enforcement, or shorter terms.
Komen meanwhile managed to piss everyone off, and cause a whole bunch of negative stories to get run on other stuff. Now people are questioning how much money Komen receives is actually spent treating breast cancer and researching cures for it (It’s less then 1/3 according to their own financial statements). Also stories about their abuse of trademark and suing smaller weaker charities for daring to use ‘for the cure’ in their names/slogans are also getting more attention. This will make it much harder for Komen to raise money long term, especially with everything they do now being viewed in a partisan lens.
I wonder how many people in the RIAA/MPAA have looked at SOPA and thought “We just had our Pearl Harbor moment”.
Insofar as I am aware, the only countries that have officially ratified ACTA are Australia, Canada, Japan, Republic of Korea, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, and the United States.
While other countries have expressed support, they have deferred ratification.
Thus, there is an incongruity here. I do not believe that any of the EU countries are presently “full-fledged” members.
Superbowl Commercials
I missed the superbowl yesterday, as I don’t watch football much anymore, but I do check you tube for the commercials(wierd right?), and I noticed that I couldn’t get the marvel avengers commercial on you tube. So hollywood, in their usual panties in a wad style, passed up free advertisement for their movies because it was you tube I’m assuming….were people might pirate your pilot? I’m confused…
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Did you see the videos that people posted from the making of the Avengers?
A lot of people that saw it happening on the streets took their cameras out and filmed and it is all on Youtube LoL
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I didn’t spend a lot of time, I’ll check that out!
Nobody reads these things
Apparently, it’s not just Congress that votes on laws nobody has read! It seems to be a world-wide problem!
Re:
The US did not ratify ACTA. It was signed as an Executive Order. Executive Orders don’t need to be ratified, at least according to the White House.
European countries are not full-fledged members of ACTA. 20 countries out of 26 have SIGNED the document, but the signing is just a “promise” of ratification. None of the countries have RAFITIED ACTA, which means it is not in effect. Furthermore, some countries (Poland, the Chech Republic) have POSTPONED RATIFICATION until further notice.
If the **AA were held as liable by the laws as I am....
If the **AA were held as liable by the laws as I am, then we would see some interesting lawsuits and charges.
RIAA would be jailed pending their soundproofing every venue for music, thus setting up a situation of entrapment for every citizen who passed by unknowingly.
MPAA fined for allowing drive-in movies.[I know, but there must be at least ONE somewhere out there that hasn’t heard that they are extinct.]
Those annoying TV screens in cars would have to be removed or hidden from outside view. Daily fines accrue to MPAA until that is done.
Radio taken off the air as an enticement to violate the law.
Ditto TV.
Copyright enforcement is a two-way street. The **AA should be required to put in as much effort as I have to. Otherwise, the legal doctrines of laches and unclean hands enters the picture. If they haven’t made reasonable efforts to enforce copyrights, and protect their Preciouussss IP, then why should we be bothered?
Note that I am not putting the artists in the place of the **AA. The artists are not in favor of these laws, and haven’t been the ones writing or pushing for their passage. The artists seem to have more common sense.
A high school friend of mine ended up being a TV writer and producer. When we were rooming together in college, I was attending engineering school, and he was trying to pass the Liberal Arts remedial math course. He once said to me in frustration, “You’re smart at math. You probably even know the pi of 9.”
I should ask him what he thinks of SOPA/PIPA/ACTA. He used to use names of our friends in his shows for his characters. He tried to get mine in once or twice, but the editors just wouldn’t buy a name like mine as being real. I wonder which way the studios would go on that little piece of copyright reuse?
Re:
‘I do not believe that any of the EU countries are presently “full-fledged” members.’
if sense plays it’s part, there wont be any ‘full fledged members’ either. perhaps then everywhere else will start to realise that the only reason they signed was because of the threats of sanctions etc from the US and to prop up the US entertainment industries. hopefully, repealing some of the one-sided laws already in place will then quickly follow
Superbowl Commercials
Don’t you realize forced scarcity make people buy more /s
I wonder
Probably all of them.
You guys just don’t understand! You have to pass the treaties/global laws before you can read what is in them. Jeesh, crony capitalism and bought politicians only work that way! It is the only way to keep us intellectually challenged trolls in power and keeps artists from realizing there is an easier, better way of getting noticed instead of going through us where we can rip them off.
/sarc
I wonder
I already explained it, it’s called quantum politics.
Re:
They are far too oblivious for that to occur to them. This is far more like Jack Abramoff first seeing all the news starting up and thinking it will just blow over with nothing coming of it.
Pearl Harbor
Probably none of them. They still see the general citizenry as a resource to be controlled by whoever has the most expensive ad campaign. Right now they think they just need a good way to counter Google’s influence and all will be well. This is less Pearl Harbor and more Gettysburg.
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Fuck where can i buy that commercial i need to see it now so i know what to buy in the future!
The amount of delusional stupidity in this thread is hilarious.
5th h of ACTA talk, 2 first hours at TV, all in the Net. Many nice statements. We destroyed iron curtain maybe we will now do something for freedom too.
Yeah, there’s an ongoing online ACTA debate right now in Poland with our prime minister and the minister of culture and various non-government organizations and various individuals. The gonvernment is getting slammed, our equivalent of RIAA (ZAiKS) is getting slammed, all is good :-). This might lead to a liberalization of copyright law in Poland and across the EU. One can hope.
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Avengers is just a remake of previous works, that’s all Hollywood is doing and has ever done. That’s what copyright and television brings, it brings rehashes of previous works and locks them up for others so that no one else can ever use them. Hollywood, thanks to copyright law, is the most derivative source of content and has always been. Avengers just takes previous characters and repackages them into a movie and it passes as new. I would say Copyright law has put us in the most derivative time in history, everything thanks to copyright and Hollywood has been a rehash of rehashes.
(not that there is anything wrong with rehashes, but IP extremists keep complaining about how the Internet brings us rehashes so why can’t I complain about how copy’right’ and Hollywood has brought us rehashes).
I wonder
I already explained it, it’s called quantum politics.
Yup, I like your version better. Someone needs to send Senator Pelosi a bill for violating your copyright/patent.
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Then don’t watch it.
Romanian here.
Emil Boc has just resigned so a new government will be formed, which will not be voted by the opposition… the politics here is a mess right now with opposition boycotting the parliament and senate.
Anyway, of course Boc didn’t know anything, he was just a puppet (like Dmitry Medvedev was Putin’s cover) for the president Basescu which is well known for sucking up to whatever US says.
He wants to buy second hand American planes, he accepted to install US anti-missile radars here in the country, he and his party offered big construction contracts to US companies that never went anywhere but wasted hundreds of millions of dollars.
Most people here don’t really know about ACTA, but some TV channels are starting to talk about it and the opposition is against ratifying it without public being involved.
As a nation, we’re a bit slow at protesting, there’s no such culture in us, so I personally don’t see large protests against it but hopefully something will happen.
Marius, please report on your country’s situation on an ongoing basis if you can :-). Is your country planning nationwide ACTA protests on the 11th as well? We are going into the second stage of protests, since the open discussions with the government don’t seem to be going anywhere.
hello i am interested to protest , i am from romania too, the prime minister is down….:D
Re:
The amount of delusional stupidity in this comment is hilarious.
Re:
If you’ll check the map here:
https://www.accessnow.org/policy-activism/press-blog/acta-protest-feb-11
you’ll find some 30 Romanian cities joining the 2/11 protests, with almost 20,000 people confirmed on the Facebook page of the protest. I think the real number will be much lower. The reasons? Add to our lack of ‘protest culture’ the recent resignation of our PM (which will shift the public interest to some other directions) and the temperatures below -15? C forecast for Saturday evening.
I wonder
He needs to pay me up dang it!!!
Superbowl Commercials
and if you don’t like what you allege to be rehashes on the Internet then, instead of complaining, don’t watch them.
and another example of rehashes are textbooks. The textbook industry always comes up with new math books that are simply the old ones with a few pages flipped around and they charge a fortune for them. and schools can’t keep the old ones for too long because eventually they run out of used copies and since they can’t simply copy the old math books, since it’s illegal, schools (and students) are forced to buy new rehashes of math books that are only rehashes of the old ones with a few pages flipped around. If it weren’t for copy protection laws publishers would be encouraged to actually change the books to make them more useful, and offer reason to buy, instead of simply changing up a few pages and re-selling the same thing over and over.
So don’t give me this nonsense about how ignoring copy protection laws and the Internet leads to rehashes. No, what leads to rehashes are the IP cartels and IP laws that allow IP holders to make money off of old material instead of coming up with something new to give people additional reason to buy.
Re:
Ratify has many meanings. I use it in the context of “approval, assent, etc.”
And now apparently the Romanian government has collapsed. Coincidence? /conspiracy
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2012/02/201226222612228935.html
Re:
The amount of delusional stupidity on the internet is hilarious!
Superbowl Commercials
ill file share it. then send it home on a HDD
article
This article is not pro. It is very subjective, and that aint quite the story.
Superbowl Commercials
It’s amusing how you people think you can ignore reality and pretend everyone will believe your rationalizations.
If your life is hopeless just say so. If you have no prayer of finding a job, and have no money to pay for your content addiction, just admit it.
Article
No worries, there’s no internet anyway.
Re:
But Czech Republic has never signed the ACTA treaty like Donald Tusk from Poland.
acta
I just started a protest in my town. Today i went to the city hall and registered it. Yesterday me and 2 friends gave160 flyers on the street. I cant wait for it! It will be on saturday
I wonder
In romania many,way 2 many!