[p2p-research] Fwd: [fcf_discussion] ACTA: Will The EU Parliament Give Up its Power?

[Michel Bauwens]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: La Quadrature du Net <jz at laquadrature.net>
Date: Tue, Nov 23, 2010 at 7:07 PM
Subject: [fcf_discussion] ACTA: Will The EU Parliament Give Up its Power?
To: fcforum_discussion at list.fcforum.net


La Quadrature du Net - For immediate release

Permanent link:
http://www.laquadrature.net/en/acta-will-the-eu-parliament-give-up-its-power


ACTA: Will The EU Parliament Give Up its Power?


*** Paris, November 23rd, 2010 -- After last week's release of the final
version of the ACTA text, the European Parliament is about to adopt a
resolution preparing the upcoming ratification process, during a plenary
session scheduled tomorrow. This vote must be an opportunity for European
lawmakers to restate their opposition to this agreement, which is bound to
spread internationally some of the most extremist provisions regarding the
civil and criminal enforcement of copyright, trademarks and patents.
Disturbingly, the conservative EPP group tabled an isolated resolution,
which gives up on the Parliament's prerogatives. ***

Before the European Parliament decides to approve or refuse the ratification
of ACTA ("assent vote"), it will vote on Wednesday on a resolution to remind
the Commission of its views regarding the agreement. A common resolution
between the European Liberals (ALDE), the Social-Democrats (S&D), the Greens
(Greens/ALE) and the United Left (GUE/NGL) has been tabled [1]. It objects
to various aspects of the ACTA agreement, including its content and process.
On the other hand, the most important political group -- the conservative
EPP -- walked out of the negotiations on this joint resolution and is
putting forward a very worrying proposal which overlooks all the important
issues [2].

Whereas the majority of other European political groups worry that ACTA
might go beyond existing EU legislation (or acquis communautaire) [3], the
Conservatives pretend that ACTA does not imply any change to the acquis
communautaire, even though the forthcoming reform of the EU copyright,
trademarks and patent enforcement framework suggests otherwise. Furthermore,
the EPP resolution ignores all the important concerns voiced by some of the
EU's most important trade partners as well as experts and civil society
organizations [4].

"The European Parliament must reaffirm its power to legislate and protect
citizens by strongly rejecting the EPP resolution! ACTA goes way beyond any
trade agreement and have a direct impact on freedom of expression online,
privacy and access to medicines. If the Parliament were to accept this
process through the adoption the EPP resolution tomorrow, it would be
renouncing to its own powers." says Jérémie Zimmermann, spokesperson for La
Quadrature du Net.

Citizens can call their elected representatives (using our tool Political
Memory), especially members of the EPP, ECR and EFD groups, in order to urge
them to reject the EPP resolution, to make sure that the fundamental
freedoms and the rights of the public are protected by European lawmakers.




*** Our concerns with the EPP resolution ***

The EPP resolution:

 * puts pressure on Internet Service Providers in order establish
extra-judicial copyright enforcement in the digital environment in the
spirit of the Gallo report [5]. By doing so, it threatens the fundamental
freedoms of Internet users. In contrast, the joint S&D, ALDE, Greens and GUE
resolution "instructs the Commission to present to Parliament, before
initialling the Agreement, a legal analysis of the meaning, legality and
enforceability of ACTA's desired policies regarding cooperation between
service providers and right holders, particularly in reference to how
cooperative efforts within the business community will not limit fundamental
rights of citizens, including the right to privacy, the right to freedom of
expression and the right to due process".

 * paves the way for the criminalization of non-commercial infringement of
copyright, patent and trademarks, through the purposely vague notion of
"commercial scale" [6]. In contrast, the joint resolution "instructs the
Council and Commission to provide a legal assessment before initialling of
the agreement of whether the ACTA definition of "commercial scale" is
consistent with the WTO China ruling, is fully in line with the EU
principles of proportionality and subsidiarity, and will not limit the use
by Member States of national exceptions in relation to criminal enforcement
measures".

 * fails to recognize the illegitimacy of ACTA, which circumvent competent
international organizations like WIPO or WTO [7], where interesting projects
for the reform of the global IPR regime are currently explored, in order to
push for more extremist standards at the international level. In contrast,
the joint resolution "deplores that these negotiations and Agreement have
not been conducted in the framework of the existing multilateral fora
(e.g.WTO and WIPO) (...)". The resolution also "asks the Commission to
refrain from imposing this Agreement on developing countries and to advocate
with the other ACTA parties, so that procedures and terms of accession to
ACTA are appropriately flexible and take into account the development levels
of acceding countries (...)". Moreover, it paves the way to a durable bypass
of democracy by establishing an ad hoc ACTA committee competent to review
amendments to the agreement.



* Références *

1. The joint resolution is available at:
http://www.laquadrature.net/files/draft_joint_resolution_ACTA_23_11_10.doc

2.
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=MOTION&reference=B7-2010-0618&language=EN

3. See for instance the legal analysis by FFII, "Some examples of ACTA going
beyond present EU legislation (the acquis)". Address:
http://people.ffii.org/~ante/acta/acta-acquis2.pdf<http://people.ffii.org/%7Eante/acta/acta-acquis2.pdf>

4. -75 US intellectual property scholars wrote to President Barack Obama to
criticize its administration for "negotiating a far-reaching international
intellectual property agreement behind a shroud of secrecy, with little
opportunity for public input, and with active participation by special
interests who stand to gain from restrictive new international rules that
may harm the public interest":
http://www.wcl.american.edu/pijip/go/blog-post/over-75-law-profs-call-for-halt-of-acta
-Brazil<http://www.wcl.american.edu/pijip/go/blog-post/over-75-law-profs-call-for-halt-of-acta%0A-Brazil>expressed
it disagreement with ACTA at WIPO in late-October, saying that
"ACTA may affect the balance of rights and obligations embodied in the
international intellectual property system between rights holders, on the
one hand, and third parties who are users of protected goods and services,
on the other": http://keionline.org/node/999
-India <http://keionline.org/node/999%0A-India> did too, stressing that,
ACTA includes "several elements which have far reaching implications for
ACTA non-Members".
-China also criticized ACTA, stating that "excessive or unreasonably high
standards for IPR protection could unfairly increase monopolistic profits of
right holders, eating into the consumer surplus and further broadening the
gap between the rich and the poor in the world":
http://keionline.org/node/1001
-The <http://keionline.org/node/1001%0A-The> day before the release of the
last ACTA draft, the Senators of Mexico (a negotiating country) passed a
resolution calling for the suspension of negotiations and the the launch of
a a wide-ranging consultation process:
http://www.merca20.com/mexico-fuera-de-acta-casi/
-United <http://www.merca20.com/mexico-fuera-de-acta-casi/%0A-United>Nations
Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health, Anand Grover, commented
during an October 28 public consultation on ACTA and the right to health,
that the process for creating ACTA appears to violate international human
rights obligations for ensuring participation in law making affecting access
to medicines and other health issues:
http://www.wcl.american.edu/pijip/go/blog-post/challenges-to-acta-mount-the-week-in-review

5. http://www.laquadrature.net/en/Gallo_report

6. ACTA provides that "acts carried out on a commercial scale include at
least those carried out as commercial activities for direct or indirect
economic or commercial advantage."

7. See
http://www.laquadrature.net/en/acta-an-outdated-agreement-that-must-be-rejected



** About la Quadrature du Net **


La Quadrature du Net is an advocacy group that promotes the rights and
freedoms of citizens on the Internet. More specifically, it advocates for
the adaptation of French and European legislations to respect the founding
principles of the Internet, most notably the free circulation of knowledge.

In addition to its advocacy work, the group also aims to foster a better
understanding of legislative processes among citizens. Through specific and
pertinent information and tools, La Quadrature du Net hopes to encourage
citizens' participation in the public debate on rights and freedoms in the
digital age.

La Quadrature du Net is supported by French, European and international NGOs
including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Open Society Institute and
Privacy International.

List of supporting organisations :
http://www.laquadrature.net/en/they-support-squaring-net-la-quadrature-du-net


** Press contact and press room **

Jérémie Zimmermann, jz at laquadrature.net, +33 (0)615 940 675

http://www.laquadrature.net/en/press-room




-----
+info http://list.fcforum.net/wws/info/fcforum_discussion
----




-- 
P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net  - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net

Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss:
http://listcultures.org/mailman/listinfo/p2presearch_listcultures.org

Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens;
http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens

Think tank: http://www.asianforesightinstitute.org/index.php/eng/The-AFI
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listcultures.org/pipermail/p2presearch_listcultures.org/attachments/20101124/ac0f91c4/attachment.html>