”Hollywood versus The People” ACTA causes flood of protest

What the Pirate Party founder and inimitable digital freedom evangelist Rick Falkvinge calls the ”Hollywood versus The People” Anti-Counterfeiting (and much more) Trade Agreement ACTA has caused the biggest political protest storm ever among EU citizens.

The Avaaz online petition for the European Parliament (and the national parliaments) to reject the anti-piracy treaty has now been signed by 1.629 million concerned netizens, and new signatures keep pouring in.


Stopacta.com

Via @linotherhino I found her contribution to the coalition to defeat ACTA and drive back the IPR fundamentalists: stopacta.com.

The clear and pleasing layout makes it easy to find basic information, arguments, detailed reports and activist networks engaged in the struggle for Internet freedom.


ACTA roundup

After my latest roundup of blog posts about ACTA and related themes, here is a new batch of entries in English (EN), Swedish (SV) and Finnish (FI):

Grahnlaw (EN): ACTA text in 22 languages – Soon a million protesting online

Eurooppaoikeus (FI): ACTA ja nettikansalaisten kapina

Eurooppaoikeus (FI): ACTA-protesti jatkuu – Euroopan parlamentti ruotii

Grahnlaw (EN): De Gucht merits ACTA rejection

Grahnblawg (SV): Hammurabis lagar och ACTA

Grahnlaw (EN): Growing ACTA protest online and on the ground

Grahnlaw (EN): Piercing ACTA armour

Eurooppaoikeus (FI): ACTA paketissa – Vastalauseet jatkuvat

Grahnblawg (SV): Demonstrationer mot ACTA i Sverige och övriga Europa

Grahnlaw (EN): ACTA demonstrations today in Sweden

Grahnblawg (SV): ACTA framkallar största EU-protesten någonsin – Demonstrationer i Sverige


ACTA text and next

Since we are in linguistically diverse Europe, a reminder that the ACTA proposal and treaty text are available in 22 of the official languages of the European Union. Here to the English version (pdf):

Proposal for a COUNCIL DECISION on the conclusion of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement between the European Union and its Member States, Australia, Canada, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the United Mexican States, the Kingdom of Morocco, New Zealand, the Republic of Singapore, the Swiss Confederation and the United States of America; Brussels, 24.6.2011 COM(2011) 380 final

The European Parliament, which should have been ”immediately and fully informed at all stages of the procedure” (Article 218(10) TFEU, which says nothing about seeking the advice of industry special interests), can either give its consent or reject the treaty.

Most of the national parliaments need to approve ACTA before government ratification.



Ralf Grahn


P.S. Between the global issues and the national level, the European Union is a shaper of our digital future and online freedoms. Is your blog already listed among the more than 900 euroblogs aggregated by multilingual Bloggingportal.eu? Are you following the debates which matter for your future?