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Panic! ACTA is Back! Or?

When the European Parliament rejected ACTA last week, the controversial anti-piracy trade agreement was effectively killed.

A huge win for the millions of people who protested, but according to recent reports it might have been all for nothing.

Canadian law professor Michael Geist points out that many of the scary passages of ACTA are also present in CETA, a newly proposed agreement between Canada and the European Union.

Scary indeed, but the widespread panic is a little premature.

As Rick Falkvinge also writes on his blog, CETA was drafted long before the European Parliament voted against ACTA.

In other words, it’s more than likely that the European Parliament will kill CETA just as (and because of) ACTA was killed last week. The fact that the two agreements are so similar might actually be a good thing in this regard.

While it is clear that the copyright lobby is not going to stop pushing harsher copyright laws in the coming months and years, CETA can and will be stopped.

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
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  • http://torrentfreak.com/ Rob8urcakes

    lol, scary headline indeed Ernesto but CETA aint ACTA as the latter was expected to be agreed by multiple Countries worldwide and therefore carry much more weight, whereas CETA is only between Canada and the EU.

    And even then, as Rick says it’s highly unlikely the EU will agree to CETA in light of our rejection of ACTA with such a HUGE majority.  So I too am confident we will see of CETA too, if it even comes to a vote at all.

    Long live online freedom.
    Long live online democracy.

    • Kharos

      True and I hope CETA is turned down to, but let us not forget that the dirty tricks brigade are not adverse to the back door. If, big IF, but an if none the less, CETA got passed there would be very little to stop other countries ‘wanting’ to join that agreement.
      As always, as you know, be on guard :)

      Peace

      • YoudontneedtoknowwhoIam

         I believe that last has been best said, The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.

        • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=634281909 Raymond Johansen


          The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.” I don`t know who said it but the kudos go to you. A “Like” doesn`t cut it. The quote says it all. 

    • Mr. M

      ACTA had 37 negotiating countries, CETA has 28. The magnitude is still huge.

      • Haedocynic

        Ohh you mean the European countries. Right.

  • Hvew

    Let’s introduce SPARTA! Slay them all!!!!

    • Anon

      Social Protection Act Regarding Trade Agreements?

      (Eh, not my best work, but it’s all I could come up with.)

  • Luke

    How about FUCKYA, you MAFIAA imbeciles…

  • strdan

    No panic! Fight is back!

  • Mwhahaha

    There’s an expanded explanation of this story on techdirt.

    BTW TF how is *this* the news bit and the fat man’s hearing delay the main news today?

    • not him

      you should know how TF works by now, ffs.
      It’s pretty obvious if you look.

      News bits formally freakbits, is where news from around the web is brought to our attention and linked to. You know “bits of news”.
      Want the article ? click the link.

      The front page is for TF articles which are usually exclusive.

      You should really know this Mwhahah, it is plain to see if you care to think past your first initial thought.

      • Danny

        He is just a huge troll. Best to avoid replying to the moron.

        • Guest

          Like you?

  • townie2

    you may not have to worry about CETA if you live in an EU Country, but if you live in Canada…………

  • ndmushroom

    There’s something very flawed in a system where a bilateral (or even multilateral, as was the case with ACTA) trade agreement can constitute binding legislation at the EU level, even for things that shouldn’t be regulated at that level (principle of subsidiarity, anyone?) or that violate existing EU legislation. If all it takes for ACTA’s provisions to become EU law is for one bilateral “trade” agreement (say, EU-Western Samoa, or EU-St Kitts & Nevis) to evade the attention of the civil society, we’re treading in very dangerous territories.

    • http://profiles.google.com/zerianis10 Christopher Kidwell

      Agreed. I never understood this whole “International agreements are sacred and can never be broken” that some people insist upon.

  • Eliasverstappen

    This guy made a great comparison between ACTA and CETA

    http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/6580/135/ 

    • Anyone

      this is linked in the article above

  • http://twitter.com/devinprater La devin.preitr

    Ugh, the entertainment industry… Isn’t very entertaining anymore, quite annoying and  a bit dangerous to freedom. Next they’ll be introducing Big Brother. :)

  • Pingback: ACTA is dead! - Page 4

  • http://twitter.com/Anime4PSP Anime 4 PSP

    “While it is clear that the copyright lobby is not going to stop pushing harsher copyright laws”
    it is also clear that community will always protest and stop them.

    • Meh.

       Wrong. In the US, President Obama signed an executive order to seize control of all communications, including all non-military communications (which means the Internet) just days after the European Parliament killed ACTA, and a month prior to the ACTA vote Obama was considering executive action to stop online piracy.

      An executive order is the ultimate order able to be given by a US President, and it supersedes all others and not even Congress can stop it. The only way for such action to stop is termination by the President.

  • Vlad Tepes

    for the life of me i cant understand how stealing anything correlates to freedom. 

    • charly

      You should actually read ACTA before commenting if you think it has nothing to do with freedom

    • Conservative

      Hey Vlad, all countries of the world ALREADY have laws against stealing.  So ACTA’s purpose must have been something else.  In fact the purpose was to stop freedom.

    • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=634281909 Raymond Johansen

      Vlad Draculeae: Nobody ever said anything about stealing or downloading. The bad thing about such “trade agreements” are: Hollywood was never elected by people in your country. Why should they be able to make laws there? Outside the US we have real democrazies, (yeah I see the spelling) where as over the pond they let big companies decide laws. Here is the real threat of ACTA and similar attacks : private companies will be allowed to look into your living room, (or bedroom), and store information about you, (and yes, even if you did nothing wrong. Did you go to school? Ever read or seen Big Brother? Come back when you have.

  • http://akemi-mokoto.me/ Akemi Mokoto

    ACTA was never gone to begin with. It’s still alive until the treaty does not have enough countries to ratiffy it. Right now, they do.

    • Anyone

      yes, the US and Morocco are still left
      they can ratify it

      • http://akemi-mokoto.me/ Akemi Mokoto

        Actually it requires 6 countries and there are about 10 or 11 countries left which include(but are not limited to) the US, Japan(the creator and Depository). Since the US, Australia, Switzerland, Mexico, Morocco, Singapore, Canada, and South Korea. It looks like the US and Japan WILL agree to it along with a few other countries. But it won’t be dead until either they don’t have enough to ratify it or by May 2013. If they don’t have enough to ratify it they may use up that extra year to enter into more talks with other countries or find other countries who are more willing to agree to it.

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  • chillinfart

    Mexico signed ACTA recently, despite a reject made last year.
    http://alt1040.com/2012/07/mexico-acta

    Prepare to fight

  • cipnr korvo

    CETA just cannot pass. ACTA was rejected by 478 European deputees vs only 39. haha CETA is dead already!

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