TorrentFreak

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 [...]

The world is witnessing the largest offline protest against copyright legislation today. Massive demonstrations against the draconian anti-piracy treaty ACTA are spanning four continents, with protests in more than 200 European cities alone. Hundreds of thousands of people are taking to the streets to prevent their countries and the European Parliament from putting the free Internet at risk by ratifying ACTA,

As a Member of the European Parliament, I very much welcome the increased attention the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) has received in the past weeks. It has taken a while for massive outcry to emerge, but we are seeing protest voices getting louder and louder.

The European Union has officially signed the controversial “anti-piracy” trade agreement ACTA. It hereby follows in the footsteps of Australia, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore and the United States, who already signed it last October. While this is a step in the wrong direction, it is not the end-station for the legislation [...]

Thousands of people have joined anti-ACTA protests all across Poland this week. At TorrentFreak we first mentioned the controversial trade agreement early 2008, and nearly 4 years later it is coming dangerously close to passing. Although the text of the legislation has been toned down somewhat, it still poses a threat to the Internet and [...]

A letter sent on behalf of 21 pro-copyright outfits including the Motion Picture Association and IFPI shows how the European Parliament is being urged to sign the controversial ACTA anti-piracy agreement. The backroom lobbying effort document, which came into TorrentFreak’s possession, reveals how the organizations ask Parliament not to wait for a response from the European Court of Justice but simply sign “with no further delays.”

This is a guest post by TorrentFreak reader cjd, aka Caleb. According to a newly leaked document the “3 strikes” mafia are at it again. Following on the ACTA debacle, they have again been been working secretly on a new global anti-piracy plan. Of course, the democratic process is conveniently undermined by making their agreement [...]