EU Rapporteur Deals Major Blow To ACTA: Recommends Rejection By European Parliament
from the didn't-see-that-coming dept
At the end of a morning of discussions about ACTA organized by the Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament, the Rapporteur for ACTA, David Martin, has recommended that the European Parliament should reject the treaty, saying:
“in the end I think the hopes of ACTA are outweighed by the fears; my recommendation is that we reject ACTA”
His view was echoed by both the President of the Socialists & Democrats in the European Parliament, Johannes Swoboda, and by Sergei Stanishev, Interim President of the Party of European Socialists, who said:
“The attempt to tackle infringement of intellectual property rights on the internet was done in a very short sighted way. This is a serious subject that needs to be dealt with, however ACTA is not the right place, ACTA is not the right tool and this is not the right way to deal with this issue”. The PES President called on the European Parliament to vote down the agreement at its plenary session in June.
This makes it practically certain that the left-wing bloc will vote against ratifying ACTA this summer. The question now becomes whether enough politicians in the other parties will decide to do the same. If they do, and ACTA is rejected by the European Union, it will lose much of its force as a global treaty.
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Filed Under: acta, eu parliament, european union
Comments on “EU Rapporteur Deals Major Blow To ACTA: Recommends Rejection By European Parliament”
The criminals will just find another way
If they can’t pass ACTA in the EU, then they’ll try, try again. Something new.
It’s like the DMCA. They only have to succeed once. We must succeed every time to get this nonsense defeated.
What we really need is to proactively get legislation that immunizes the internet from the scourge of ACTA, SOPA, PIPA, Protect IP, DMCA, etc. We need major statutory penalties for false DMCA takedowns.
Re: The criminals will just find another way
as long as money is the major motivator they will never stop. IP is the new gold and everyone wants a piece.
It’s a never ending resource that costs virtually nothing.
Re: Re: The criminals will just find another way
IP is most definitely NOT the new gold: gold is real.
Re: Re: The criminals will just find another way
>>as long as money is the major motivator they will never stop.
True, money does rule politics, and the MPAA right now represents a lot of money right now.
But I think there is another thing that might stop ACTA/SOPA types of anti-piracy laws. Those laws were based on the traditional content industry’s assumption that piracy means lost money. There are some people in the traditional content industry that are recognizing that the fight against piracy is costing and lot, and it will pay them back very little. There are also some politicians who are explaining the realities of anti-piracy legislation to their corporate overlords. Getting the content industry to change direction is about as difficult as turning around a supertanker, but there has been at least a little bit of movement that suggests a change in direction is possible.
Re: Re: Re: The criminals will just find another way
One problem is that the MPAA not only wants to combat piracy, or not mainly: restrictive laws and new excuses to sue people and companies make it more difficult for outsider companies to compete with them. If you take down every site that ever has a pirated file on it or contains a user post that links to one, then publishing any free, independent content on the internet will be very difficult.
The infrastructure of independent publishing and advertising is what they are trying to destroy, in order to protect their own monopoly on publishing and advertising. For that is all the MPAA do?not creating the content themselves. If anyone can just advertise and publish his own content cheaply and easily, the MPAA becomes absolete.
Re: Re: The criminals will just find another way
Gold hasn’t been what monetary funds have been based on for decades. There is not enough gold on the planet actually to account for the amount of money.
Money is backed by one thing and one thing only. TRUST!
You lose that trust, then that money fails being a medium of exchange.
Interestingly, the trust in the IP (Copyright) System is seriously waning in society at large, forcing re-evaluations of old business methods, fortification of old business methods (SOPA/PIPA/ACTA etc), and actual evolution of new methodology to allow Trust to come back into the system.
Guess which one will win in the end? Remembering that the only constant in the universe is change.
Re: Re: Re: The criminals will just find another way
even when gold (or, far more commonly for the ordinary folk, silver) was actually in use, trust was still a significant part of the backing (the rest being it’s value as a rare metal) … trust that the coin contained as much gold/silver as it was supposed to (as opposed to other metals), for example.
Re: The criminals will just find another way
Also you should start spreading the Word as much as you can to Boycott the Big Content Industry.
“Tons of great INDIE Films,Music,Books, and Art to buy.
And for the MAFIAA it is time for you to Die”
Re: The criminals will just find another way
Actually there is something new, that thing is called TPP.
Re: The criminals will just find another way
Sure they will find another way, while they are still in power. Vote the bums out. Come on you American voters, do your duty. Get organised. The attack ads in October/November this year should be setting new records for viciousness.
Wait a Minute
Is this the same rapporteur who resigned, or is it his replacement? Or was that other rapporteur someone else entirely?
Re: Wait a Minute
David Martin, the current Rapporteur for ACTA, replaced Kader Arif, who resigned January 27, 2012 in protest over ACTA.
Socialism is the answer!
Don’t you feel weird to be on the side of socialist (and basically communists)?
Re: Re:
I don’t feel weird. Most European Democracies lean towards Socialist policies and forms of government. It’s just normal around here.
Then again, I wasn’t indoctrinated to fear the big scary communist bogeyman.
Re: Re: Re:
Not to mention that if you equate socialism (which usually is social-democracy in Europe) and authoritarian, Soviet-style communism (or the Yugoslav, Cuban or Chinese variants) you are just being stupid. By that logic the US was fighting the commies by the sides of commies (as Western Europe essentially became social-democratic after WW2, no matter whether the ruling party was conservative, liberal (=libertarian in US-terms) or socialist)
Re: Re: Re: Re:
I think it is telling though that most of these countries are in the eocnomic shitter, because their socialistic policies are draining the economy and forcing people with higher incomes to move away to avoid being taxed to death. Greece has a huge socialist bent, and huge taxes, and as a result, much of the economy is underground and out of the government’s reach.
“The commons” that is often talked about here is pretty much the first step in socializing information. We all know how well socialist states do at encouraging any undertaking, it generally fails. People are paid regardless, they work less, they hang out, and they generally do not produce as much because there is no incentive in front of them.
Socializing information, music, movies… and taking away the profit motive is the first step towards gutting the very things we all enjoy. We can all end up watching nothing but Swedish art house movies about fish and poorly lit rooms. Excellent stuff, that!
Re: Re: Re:2 Re:
*”The commons” that is often talked about here is pretty much the first step in socializing information.*
You’re kidding, right?
Thomas Jefferson was against “Intellectual Property” in no uncertain terms: http://movingtofreedom.org/2006/10/06/thomas-jefferson-on-patents-and-freedom-of-ideas/
All free market economists find deleterious effects in monopolies, and “Intellectual Property” is a monopoly. The opposite of that monopoly is your “commons” or more commonly, public domain.
I give your troll a C-, it’s properly formatted, but you’re not subtle enough when you slide in the Big Lie.
Re: Re: Re:2 Re:
Good to know McCarthyism is alive and well!
Re: Re: Re:2 Re:
I think it is telling though that most of these countries are in the eocnomic shitter, because their socialistic policies…
Debt-wise, some in the EU are doing as well or better than we are, but our economy isn’t doing all that well either. If you think all of their troubles is social-commie-marxism, then what is ours? Last I heard, our national debt–weighed per capita–is even higher than Greece. And our current legislature is just as ineffectual and indebted to the current political system as the Greeks are to theirs.
So, yeah…try again.
Re: Re: Re:2 Re:
I think it is telling though that most of these countries are in the eocnomic shitter,
You mean like the USofA right?
Australia has a major social system. Free Medicine, Compulsory Superannuation payments by employees, Unionisation, Free education (up to and including University education) , Democratically elected SECRET ballots of politicians… the list goes on.
Oh and the Australian economy is like so far ahead of the USA that the exchange rate is now $1US to $1AU where 2 years ago it was $1US to $0.75AU and had been for 20yrs since Australia floated its currency on the international market.
But hey, socialistic methods that actually help ALL people and not just one select part of society are what government by definition is supposed to do.
Pure capitalism which is what you seem to worship is just another word for the other extreme ism’s like Communism and fascism.
If you think Swedish arthouse films are the only ones that are about boring subjects in poorly edited films, then you really haven’t seen some of the crap coming out of Hollywood and cable TV studios lately have you? And lets not even talk about ‘reality’ TV!
Re: Re: Re:2 Re:
Yeah, and the rest of the world totally hasn’t felt the effects of any recession whatsoever. Or two.
The lengths to which you will go to continue propping up the IP regime are laughably pathetic.
Re: Re: Re:2 Re:
Oh yes, because US-style crony capitalism was /so/ helpful to the world economy, right?
Honestly, given that half of America seems to think that anyone to the left of Sean Hannity is a flaming communist, and ‘socialism’ is equated with Stalinism/Maoism, how can we get them to understand that helping your fellow man is not the same as Fascist/Stalinist state control?
Europe grew up through some ugly wars, fought largely on our own territory. When will the US grow up?
Re: Re: Re:2 Re:
actually, most of them have their economies in the shitter due to their economic policies being based on fundimental assumptions made as far back as Adam Smith that are simply WRONG.
the NATION is not a meaningful economic unit. the lack of realisation of this fact alone derails any government economic policy of any nation larger than a city state.
Free Trade is NOT beneficial to long term economic growth unless every city-region (NOT nation, sure as hell not CONTINENT) involved has it’s own unique currency.
Government granted monopolies given to private or corporate interests are NOT beneficial to ANYONE save the individual they are given to, and even then only if said individual is competent. (natural monopolies due to small customer base is a different story, while things like infrastructure should be government run in the first place)
also, general incompetence due to people being chosen by party affiliation and willing to toe the ideological/party line rather than ability.
Those are the main reasons for their economic failings, everything else is just variety of method.
Soviet Communisim just massively amplifies the compitence last issue.
the problems in Europe aren’t caused by democratic socialism, (which, to my understanding, is the idea of democratic political processes and regulated capitalism, no?) as they’re the Exact Same Problems that the USA is going through.
it is caused by Bureaucracy, Greed, and the belief in their own invincibility by the ruling classes. the ONLY effective solution, and it’s only a Partial solution, is to make these entities SMALLER. I’d argue that France is too big. the EU is simply insanity. the USA’s problems would be Significantly reduced (not solved, mind you, just more manageable) if it weren’t the size of a bloody continent.
any organization one desires to have run Properly needs to be Small enough that it’s leaders can interact directly with the ‘man on the ground’, and cannot afford to ignore him.
note this is NOT a libertarian argument for ‘small government’. to advocate truly ‘small’ government is to advocate rule by corporation (to be fair, to advocate ‘big’ government is to advocate a bureaucracy that can either become a police state or drown in it’s own paperwork. you want a happy medium). it is advocating that the size of thing any one person or group is responsible for be Smaller. arguably if you can’t cross it, do stuff on the other side, interact with stuff on your way, and come back in a day, or recognize everyone in it at least by sight, it’s big enough that you need to pay very careful attention because problems are not so easily fixed.
economically, the largest viable subset of ‘everything on the planet’ is the city-region (that is, a city and it’s economic hinterland. make it politically independent and it’s a city-state). there’s a solid case to be made, to my mind, that Politically the largest viable subset of ‘everything on the planet’ is maybe a dozen units of such a size owing loyalty to a King of some sort (democracy is not needed so much at this level if you realize that the vast majority of day to day stuff, as well as all the Funds for anything, are handled at the city-region level, which can be run in a democratic manner MUCH more easily… or at least as a representative democracy who’s representatives are close enough to their constituents to be run out if they fail to do their jobs…)
Re: Re: Re:2 Re:
Because the US economy is currently doing superbly..
Now lets take a look at countries in Eurpoe and who was in power when the economy hit the shitter. Focusing on the so called PIIGS. Must all be socialist nut jobs right. Note I don’t pretend to be an expert on the politics of any of these countries just simple observations.
Portugal, Admitedly the Socialist Party have been in power more during the last decade but from the late 70s through to now there have been plenty of times where centre right conservative liberal party The Social Democratic Party have been in power. In fact they formed 8 of the 13 governments in power since elections in portugal began in the late 70s/early 80s.
Italy, Berlusconis coalition most definitely right leaning basically was in power since 1994.
Ireland, Fine Fail right of centre political party heavily influenced for some time by the Progressive Democrats most definitely a right leaning party.
Greece, New Democracy Once again Right leaning party were in power from 1981-1989 then back in power from 2004-2009.
Spain, from 1989-2004 People’s Party you guessed it a right leaning conservative party was in power.
I’m not espousing any political position of my own here, merely pointing out the fallacy that is the American insistence on blaming financial collapse in European countries on those darned Socialists. If the socialists are to blame for everything please explain the US collapse, because well by the European definition of socialist there has pretty much never been a socialist in power in the US.
Re: Re: Re:3 Re:
… to be fair, most of those who claim Europe’s economic woes to be entirely the fault of their radical leftist ideals seem to consider the ‘right’ to start somewhere around the area of WW2 Japan and/or some sort of corporate utopia…
all the US entertainment industries will do is:-
a)continue to try to force TPP down all countries throats
b)bring CISPA to the international table, not just in the US
c)keep everything that’s in ACTA now as it is, just reword it a little, so it means the same but sounds different.
i assume that Congress and the entertainment industries will think that this is all Google’s fault.
i also assume that every country in the EU will be put on the dreaded US 301 list. i hope every country tells the US to fuck itself!!!
Good news & question
These are good news indeed. But, if the EU rejects ACTA, does it mean that the treaty only will apply to the countries outside the EU that signed ACTA like the US?
I can’t wait to read troll comments; “Rapporteur David Martin is a piracy advocate who wants free stuff, no wonder why it is featured in this pro-piracy, pro-google, anti-IP, anti-industry & anti-american values blog owned by pirate king himself; Mike Masnick”
Most interesting thing to all this....
No shills, no bob, no one even trying to spin this that it means nothing. Silence, in this case, is golden 🙂
Re: Most interesting thing to all this....
Someone took time out from their busy day spinning and flacking to write a reply to “Squig” at 11:35am. It’s not “bob” or “darryl”, as the writing is of a much better grade, and it’s all spelt properly. I’m guessing it’s The Anti-Mike.
The fight is not over yet, we must get Japan, America, and Canada to reverse their ratification of the treaty! Rise Internet Strong fight against all tyranny that threaten to take away our Internet! Combat for the complete annihilation of ACTA, TPP, CISPA, Bill C-11, Bill C-30, and other bills that try to harm global Internet usage by criminalizing innocent citizens.
Hopes & fears
This good news and the earlier ACTA dies the better.
If I was to make a prediction then I believe the United States will end up being the only country that will ratify ACTA which would nationalize this International treaty.
My main concern in all this is that the Copyright Cartels will hold on to ACTA and say to other countries “we won’t allow you to do what you want to do until you ratify ACTA when by not doing so your country is only a piracy haven for infringement”
Re: Hopes & fears
Can you clarify your last statement there? Are you saying that USA and those cartels are acting like thugs to the other TPP and ACTA signatories? And yes I have the same concerns as you, I am afraid that MPAA is going to scapegoat whole countries for not signing ACTA and treating innocent citizens like criminals. Such right wing tactics from MPAA and USA these days.
One problem down, a lot more to go.
Well, ACTA’s definitely down now. I guess that’s that for EU. Upnext on the list is CISPA…
Re: One problem down, a lot more to go.
Nope there is still that June 2012, now that ACTA is pending final vote lets take care of TPP shall we? Oh yes to you Americans vote those SOPA and ACTA politicians out of office for me. I live outside US soil so I am relying on you Americans to do it for me. To Canadians reading this comment now, please also do the same, fight C-11 and C-30 or else our kids cannot pursue long-distance education.
Pirate Party for US (and Canada)
Everyone who cares about their Internet, please vote for your nation’s Pirate Parties to lead America and Canada and show those MPAA peeps that their right-wing policies will die out!
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