[p2p-research] Fwd: [opennetcoalition] ACTA: Game Over?

[Michel Bauwens]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: La Quadrature du Net <jz at laquadrature.net>
Date: Fri, Sep 24, 2010 at 9:10 PM
Subject: [opennetcoalition] ACTA: Game Over?
To: opennetcoalition at laquadrature.net


La Quadrature du Net - For immediate release

Permanent link: http://www.laquadrature.net/en/acta-game-over


ACTA: Game Over?



*** Paris, September 24th 2010 - The Tokyo round of negotiations on the
Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement has just begun. It could be the last one
before the signature of the final agreement. The text, which is now close to
completion, remains an alarming threat on fundamental freedoms online, and
could lead to the generalization of anti-democratic legislation and
governance. ***

The latest leaked text - dated August 25th - of ACTA still contains
provisions calling for closer cooperation between Internet Service Providers
and rights holders [1], favored by legal and monetary pressure put on
Internet technical intermediaries (access and service providers, ISPs) [2].

These repressive and dangerous policies in ACTA are consistent with the
position of EU institutions, who are also pushing for extra-legislative and
extra-judicial measures to deal with online file sharing. According to the
Commission, backed up by the Members of the European Parliament who voted in
favor of the Gallo report, "Rights holders and other stakeholders should be
encouraged to exploit the potential of collaborative approaches and to place
more emphasis on joining forces to combat counterfeiting and piracy in the
common interest, also taking advantage of possible alternatives to court
proceedings for settling disputes" [3].

"ACTA pushes for the creation of private copyright police and justice of the
Net, in negation of the right to a fair trial. Such policies would
inevitably affect both freedom of expression and privacy." declares Jérémie
Zimmermann, spokesperson of the citizen advocacy group La Quadrature du Net.

Article 5 and 6 of ACTA, finalized unlike most of the text, create an "ACTA
committee" which will play a key role in processing subsequent amendments to
the agreement, subject to forms of approval by the parties that are defined
in ambiguous terms. This procedure risks amounting to the creation of a
parallel legislative process bypassing public opinion and democracy.

"ACTA is an experiment in the circumvention of democracy. Even if the most
offensive provisions become less visible in the final text, ACTA must be
rejected as such. If we tolerate it, we will create a precedent and
Parliaments will be pressured to rubber stamp packages negotiated without
democratic debate." concludes Zimmermann.


* Références *

1. See article 2.18.3: "Each Party shall endeavor to promote cooperative
efforts within the business community to effectively address intellectual
property rights infringement (...)"

2. Article 2.x before article 2.2 in the "civil enforcement" chapter

3. See p. 10 of the communication of September 11th, 2009, regarding the
enforcement of intellectual property rights:
http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/iprenforcement/docs/ip-09-1313/communication_en.pdf



** 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



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