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acta-brief

2010-05-14

src:jz

ACTA notes

Sok minden történik az ACTA egyezmény körül, nemrég előadást tartottam a metalabban a témával kapcsolatban, alább az angol nyelvű jegyzetem.

background - history

  • EU is 21% of the worlds GDP (PPP) while the US is only 20%
  • WTO/TRIPs, World Trade Organization, established January 1st 1995, replaced GATT, Trade Related aspect of Intellectual Property rights agreement
  • [the following 3 bulletts curtesy of W] Big Pharma is in trouble, Ever expanding marketing and R&D costs, approval costs, duration of approval procedures
  • Big Content is in trouble, Disintermediation, Overabundance of material
  • Original UN institutions as WIPO, BRIC countries are fed up with maximalists, NGOs have gotten a seat at the table
  • Spring 2008, the European Union, the United States, Japan, Canada, South Korea, Australia as well as a few other countries start to secretly negotiate a trade agreement aimed at enforcing copyright and tackling counterfeited goods (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement).
  • some leaks appear, complete leak in march 2010, after negotiations in new zealand the eu publishes the first public draft.
  • The parliament: Resolution 10th March, voted overwhelmingly 633/13/16 - record of votes (search for "(ACTA) - RESOLUTION") "Parliament considers that the proposed agreement should not make it possible for any "three-strike" procedures to be imposed, in order to protect fundamental rights."

main issues

  • Acta benefits a few companies to the detriment of billions of humans.
  • policy laundering avoiding any hint of democracy Schlyter (swedish green mep): industrial lobby 90% of the participants in stakeholder meetings, among others: pfizer, daimler, ms, timewarner, google, yahoo, bsa, mpaa, pharma, br american tobacco, br telecom.
  • criminal sanctions (ipred) - the commissions negotiator devigne on going beyond the acquis vs the council
    • inclusion of non-commercial activities
    • border measures, search of personal items like phones, mp3 players, notebooks.
  • freedom of speech, one MEP talked about suppressing access to radical political sites.
  • privacy (monitoring, seizure, deep packet inspection) - Peter Hastinx, EDPS on acta: "Intellectual property must be protected, but it should not be placed above individuals' right to privacy and protection."
  • 3rd party liability - Alexander Alvaro from Germany said that "third party liability for internet servers is like making the post office responsible for what is written on the letters it sends".
  • censorship (censilia/censursula, blocking)
  • access to medicines - Medicines sans frontieres: "We are in danger of ending up with the worst of both worlds, pushing IP rules, which are very effective at stopping access to life-saving drugs but are very bad at stopping or preventing fake drugs."
  • other markets, that are dominated by a few big: spare car parts after-market, perhaps even thingiverse
  • The opposition to ACTA has support from edri, tacd, ffii, kei, reporters sans frontieres, EuroISPA (business association of eu ISPs)

what can be done

  • Written declaration 12/2010 was initially signed by MEPs Roithová (EPP) / Castex and Lambrinidis (S&D) / Alvaro (ALDE). list of signatories.
  • never allow similar un-democratic legislative process, since we have arrived in the lisbon treaty the EP has co-decision powers, these are democratically elected, while the commision not. We need to help the MEPs to discover and protect their new powers. Demand to start from scratch, not accepting a draft that has been 2 years in secret preparation.
  • get india/brazil/china/russia to comment and act on acta (india commented last tuesday, in an EP public hearing)
  • convince MEPs sign written declaration 12, generally educating them about acta, showing that people care.
  • community work: transcribing, cleaning, analyzing, translating, documents, leaks.
    • telecomix (pads+irc+twitter+wikis+small tools)
    • lqdn (wiki+co-ment+pads+twitter)
    • euwiki.org, pippi longstrings (not public yet), itsyourparliament.eu, custom tools!
    • develop tools that circumvent any kind of control, become a ciphernaut today!
    • support: LQDN, telecomix, eff, ffii, edri, your MEPs, wikileaks!
  • make more videos like: cleanternet

assorted links

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