EU parliament soundly defeats anti-piracy bill that could threaten internet freedom

   The European Union parliament soundly defeated the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). The margin of the defeat was quite large. 478 voted against the bill and 165 abstained while only 39 voted in favor of the bill.
  A conservative party in the parliament tried to postpone the vote until after the European Court of Justice had ruled whether the act poses a threat to civil liberties. The agreement has already been signed by Australia, Canada, Japan, South Korea,. New Zealand and the United States as well as the EU and member states.  Some of these signatories may now decide to jettison the deal or try to renegotiate it.
   Oxfam claimed that ACTA could very well make life saving drugs very costly for those in poor countries:. "ACTA could have made life-saving drugs much costlier for the world's poorest, resulting in devastating consequences for their health. With Europe's rejection, we're now hugely relieved that ACTA is going nowhere,"  What is represented as necessary for free trade is of course usually the opposite. Key to free trade and ensuring that markets do not interfere with monopoly rights are intellectual property rights such as patents.

. EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht, who represented the bloc in ACTA negotiations said: "With the rejection of ACTA, the need to protect the backbone of Europe's economy across the globe, our innovation, our creativity, our ideas - our intellectual property - does not disappear," While some claim that ACTA is dead it will no doubt arise again from its ashes. Monopoly rights not free markets are crucial to modern capitalism's profitability. Free markets are defended for ideological purposes and to argue against economic policies that the most powerful capitalist bodies do not like. For more see this article.

More protests in Europe over Anti-Piracy Bill

 ACTA the anti counterfeiting trade agreement. Throughout Europe protesters braved sub zero temperatures to express their concern about the bill. See the entire article here.
  Many see the bill as a serious threat to internet freedom. The issue is becoming one of citizen power. Critics note that details of the bill were worked out in secret. The process was so flawed that when the EU signed the bill on Jan. 26 the European Parliament's rapporteur on ACTA resigned in protest.
   He called the agreement a charade to prevent the EU parliament from having any say in the regulations.
Due to the strong negative reaction some countries may not ratify the deal.

ACTA piracy bill faces strong opposition in Europe

 In several countries there has been strong negative reaction against the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). There have been protests in Poland, Slovenia, and Greece among other countries.
    In Poland the Prime Minister Donald Tusk has suspended ratification for now. He admits that consultation on the bill had not been adequate. Of course the EU wanted to and did pass the bill without consultation. No doubt that was the whole idea! 22 of 27 states in the EU have already signed on to the bill.
   In Greece the Ministry of Justice had its website defaced by Anonymous hackers. In Greece the protests were against both ACTA and the IMF and EU terms for the Greek bailout funds. Greek authorities were warned that they had two weeks to stop ACTA or more government websites would be taken down up to 300 of them. This message appeared on the hacked Ministry of Justice website.
   In Slovenia the official who signed ACTA on behalf of Slovenia claims now that her act was one of "civic carelessness" and that she had neglected her civic duty. Protests again ACTA are planned in the city of Ljubljana today (Feb. 4th) For more see this article.
 

ACTA an international agreement that challenges internet freedom

While U.S. anti-piracy legislation such as SOPA has been blocked for now internationally the move to censor the internet and protect big media companies is thriving with the passage of ACTA.

ACTA stands for Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. The agreement is being negotiated between the U.S. Canada, Japan, and South Korea among other countries. The bill would enforce copyright and outlaw counterfeit goods but critics say it would also censor the internet.

The agreement was all done in secret away from the public eye. One European Parliament official reportedly resigned because of the secrecy involved. The official said:"I condemn the whole process which led to the signature of this agreement: no consultation of the civil society, lack of transparency since the beginning of negotiations, repeated delays of the signature of the text without any explanation given, reject of Parliament's recommendations as given in several resolutions of our assembly."

There have been protests in Poland over ACTA. The entertainment industry is protecting their monopoly all in the name of Free Trade. The specific bills that we have already seen in the U.S. are carrying through on promises made in the ACTA treaty. SOPA will be back soon.