TorrentFreak

The place where breaking news, BitTorrent and copyright collide

ACTA: First EU Parliament Committee Opinion Says “Reject”

The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, a treaty aimed at harmonizing global copyright enforcement, is now weaving its way through the various committees of the European Parliament. Its final vote could come as early as June 11th.

“The first committee to file a recommendation, the Industry, Research and Energy committee (ITRE), has just published their draft opinion on ACTA,” writes Pirate Party founder Rick Falkvinge this morning.

Crucially, the final point in the ITRE’s draft opinion advises the Committee on International Trade to withhold its consent to the agreement [ACTA].

The next step will see Amelia Andersdotter, the MEP responsible for the drafting of an opinion and presenting the issue to the committee, do so on April 24th. Andersdotter is the Member of European Parliament for the Swedish Pirate Party.

The vote on this stage will probably take place May 8th 2012.

This post is from the News Bits section of TorrentFreak where we present stories from around the web in a concise summary format. Full TorrentFreak articles can be found here. If you have a tip please let us know. News Bits have their very own RSS feed
  • ndmushroom

    The draft opinion can be found here http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-%2f%2fEP%2f%2fNONSGML%2bCOMPARL%2bPE-483.518%2b01%2bDOC%2bPDF%2bV0%2f%2fEN

    Call me a pessimist, but I don’t think that a draft opinion (i.e. a document written by its rapporteur for which no amendments have yet been tabled) drafted by a Pirate Party MEP dismissing ACTA is surprisingly good news (the opposite would be surprisingly bad news, though). There’s still a very long way to go, one that could involve anything from an avalanche of amendments to a counter-opinion by the ACTA supporters.

    • Derp

      Like before just SOPA…..
      I can see a declaration of “”this is dead”" appearing…. so as to pacify us.
      But we resisted and moved forward regardless.

      You are a pessimist … that can be a good thing

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Don-Dilly/1624894683 Don Dilly

    The other issue that would be covered by ACTA and would be detrimental to member states and all dumb enough to ratify it is the impact ACTA would have on generic drugs. Currently many state health services use generics, many of which would under ACTA be treated as counterfeit.

    And dont say that the USA is out to exploit people’s health to benefit US pharma companies. Uou only have to look at the price differentials and generics availability in canada and the lengths and expense the USGov goes to trying to exploit their own citizen’s health, often to the point of criminalising them all because they want their health and cant afford the artificially high US prices.

  • Anonymous

    They haven’t been paid yet.

    • this is democracy

      and…. American politicians look on in disbelief…………..and say

      “” We got $123,202,063″” last year from TV/Movies/Music industry “”

      “” Europe is socialist , Not a real democracy “”

      “” Money = speech , corporations = people “”

      • Anonymous

        Add on top of this…They might enforce trade-sanctions on the countries that oppose these retarded laws.

        What’s going to happen? US of Fascism will exclude itself from the rest of the world. Import from China and no one else will give a rats a$$ about their country, life and business. Real Americans will move out (those who can) – the rest will stay stuck, homeless & fucked in the land of the “free” (ya right)

        • Mwhahaha

          What does America make and export to Europe these days other than media?

          As you say most things are from the far east or europe itself. America isn’t a huge manufacturing concern for important imported goods.

          I’m hoping the US does embargo itself off from the rest of the world, they might stop trying to bully us over watching a few of their films here and there whilst we getthru the tedium of this US caused economic depression.

          The way the US is acting these days they’re going to drive Europe into the waiting arms of China, or more likely India as they rise in terms of economic power.

          Is this the real cause of all this weight being thrown about? Fear due to their declining status as the world’s most important country?

  • http://TorrentFreak.com Enigmax (Andy)

    TF reader and regular commenter Rob8urCakes asked us to post this email he received from Alyn Smith MEP on the subject of ACTA

    ———————————————-START———————————————————–

    I have received a great deal of correspondence from constituents on the topic of ACTA and I understand your concern over the potential implications of the Agreement. I have been watching the progress of the negotiations closely and the Parliament has been active and vocal on this issue since the start of the discussions.

    In March 2010, a Resolution “on the transparency and state of play of the ACTA negotiations” was adopted with a strong cross-party majority. This Resolution explicitly urged the European Commission to make the negotiation texts available to the European Parliament – and consequently, to society at large – as legally required by the Lisbon Treaty. It also made it clear that the Parliament would not accept any allegedly proposed provision which may limit fundamental rights – such as the right to freedom of expression and the right to privacy – that ACTA might contain.

    I was a signatory of the European Parliament’s Written Declaration 12/2010 which called on EU negotiators to ensure that ACTA would not weaken citizens’ fundamental rights of freedom of expression, privacy, and judicial due process. This Declaration was signed by 377 Members of the European Parliament and became the official non-binding position of the European Parliament on ACTA.

    My group in the European Parliament, the Greens/European Free Alliance, has commissioned two very important studies regarding ACTA which may be of interest to you. One is on the compatibility of ACTA with the European Convention on Human Rights & the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights (http://rfc.act-on-acta.eu/fundamental-rights) and the other is in relation to Access to Medicines (http://rfc.act-on-acta.eu/access-to-medicines).

    The European Parliament must now give its consent to the agreement reached. This will include discussions in different committees (Committee for International Trade, Committee for Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs and Committee for Legal Affairs), none of which I am a member of. I will, however, be following the discussions very closely. The vote of consent is likely to take place towards late summer 2012.

    Just for your information, the Commission has made a document compiling all questions it has received on ACTA, which you can access at http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2011/april/tradoc_147852.pdf.

    Thank you once again for writing to me on this important matter, and please rest assured that I will continue to campaign for the protection of the fundamental rights of EU citizens.

    Yours aye,

    Alyn

    ___________________________

    Alyn Smith MEP

    Member of the European Parliament for Scotland

    ——————————————————-END———————————————————-

    • Fredrika

      Exactly were in that text was his actual answer to Rob8urCakes request of voting no to Acta, and what does he mean with the following line:

      > “The European Parliament must now give its consent to the agreement reached.”

      They must? He is not aware of the fact that it can be rejected? Or does must mean something else in his native language?

      • Anonymous

        His native language, Scottish, is strange indeed. I interpreted it as “…must now give its consent if ACTA is to be ratified”. He is with the Greens/European Free Alliance, so I believe he will vote against it anyway. http://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/28508/Alyn_SMITH.html

      • Anyone

        it means that if the parliament does not give its consent then ACTA will not be ratified

        it doesn’t mean that the consent is guaranteed

        • http://7-books.net/ SleepyJohn

          Who makes the actual decision about signing or not signing ACTA? I was under the impression that decisions made by the European Parliament are not binding on the EU Executive (The unelected European Commission). I have been unable to find confirmation or otherwise of this, but I do not believe that the European Parliament is the executive arm of the de facto European Government. Can anyone clarify this with absolute certainty?

        • Anyone

          in order for ACTA to be ratified the EU Parliament and every single member state has to give their consent

          if one of those does not ACTA will be dead

    • http://torrentfreak.com/ Rob8urcakes

      Thanks Andy :)

      Disqus has been naughty with me recently and I dunno why, but TF is the 2nd site using disqus that’s failed to post my comment.

    • Mwhahaha

      Thanks rob8urcakes for this.
      Unfortunately the links don’t seem to be working, for me (on chrome) anyway.

      In bold to get someone’s attention!

      Any chance you could repost those links if they’re not accurate or let me know if it’s an issue on my end. ta.

  • Pingback: ACTA: First EU Parliament Committee Opinion Says “Reject” | U Torrent Free Download

  • Anonymous

    Beijing policy makers say they’re eager to encourage greater domestic consumption. Chinese shoppers are famously luxury-happy, flying to Hong Kong and further afield in droves to stock up on Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Chanel and more. All of which means the stage is set for the next great innovation to hit China: 
    Louis Vuitton Outlet malls.

  • BTGuard - BitTorrent Anonymously

NewsBits

Even more news...

  • Blu-ray Anti-Piracy Tech Stops Discs and Promotes Purchases

    An anti-piracy system present in all official Blu-ray players since 2012 has received a fresh update...

  • Foxtel Breeds Pirates by Locking Up Game of Thrones

    One of the main reasons why people turn to piracy is the lack of legal alternatives....

  • UK Student Admits Breaching Sony Copyrights With Leak of PS3 SDK

    Last year an Internet user known as El Nomeo leaked version 3.70 of Sony’s Playstation3 SDK...

  • Pirates Can Be Identified Despite Sharing IP Addresses, ISP Claims

    Carrier-Grade Network Address Translation is a network mechanism through which many Internet subscribers can share the...

  • Feds Seize Cash from Major Bitcoin Exchange’s Dwolla Account

    The U.S. Government has taken a significant action against the web’s top Bitcoin exchange by seizing...

MostDiscussed

Below are TorrentFreak's most discussed articles of the past month. Join the discussion if you like.

CopyQuote

Left Quote

“The Pirate Bay has been one of the most important movements in Sweden for freedom of speech, working against corruption and censorship.

Peter Sunde Left Quote

PopularArticles

A selection of some TorrentFreak's classics dug up from our archives.