ACTA Anti-Piracy Treaty Criticized by EU Parliament President
Following the massive protests against ACTA yesterday, EU Parliament President Martin Schulz criticized the treaty on national television.
“I don’t find it good in its current form,” he told ARD.
The president added that the balance between copyright protection and the rights of Internet users is “not adequately anchored in this agreement.”
Together with the individual EU members states, the European Parliament has yet to ratify the controversial anti-piracy agreement.
Australia, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore and the United States, already signed ACTA last October.
The comments from the EU Parliament President are shared by many experts, including professors Douwe Korff and Ian Brown who examined ACTA’s compatibility with human rights.
“Overall, ACTA tilts the balance of IPR protection manifestly unfairly towards one group of beneficiaries of the right to property, IP right holders, and unfairly against others,” they concluded.
“It equally disproportionately interferes with a range of other fundamental rights . This makes the entire agreement, in our opinion, incompatible with fundamental European human rights instruments and -standards.”
