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NEWS: European Parliament Rejects ACTA




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SereneChaos



Joined: 14 Oct 2011
Posts: 384
Location: Middle of Nowhere, USA
PostPosted: Sat Jul 07, 2012 4:26 pm Reply with quote
Is ACTA the larger scale, international version of SOPA/PIPA that I heard about awhile ago? I know there was a bill or something that was even bigger than SOPA and has largely gone unnoticed, but I can't remember its name. If this is what I'm thinking of, glad it got rejected somewhere. If I'm mistaken and it's not, then I'd don't really have anything to say since I know nothing about this treaty.
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_V_



Joined: 13 Apr 2009
Posts: 619
PostPosted: Sat Jul 07, 2012 4:28 pm Reply with quote
Does this mean that ACTA will not go into effect in the United States either?

Or does it mean that United States residents will still be affected by ACTA?

And how does this relate to that copyright law Canada passed today? (I now it isn't related to ACTA, but along similar lines, how does that affect folks?)
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_V_



Joined: 13 Apr 2009
Posts: 619
PostPosted: Sat Jul 07, 2012 4:34 pm Reply with quote
SereneChaos wrote:
Is ACTA the larger scale, international version of SOPA/PIPA that I heard about awhile ago? I know there was a bill or something that was even bigger than SOPA and has largely gone unnoticed, but I can't remember its name. If this is what I'm thinking of, glad it got rejected somewhere. If I'm mistaken and it's not, then I'd don't really have anything to say since I know nothing about this treaty.


ACTA isn't a law, its a trade treaty. Basically (as is my understanding) when SOPA got shut down on the government level, all of the internet and cable providers - Cablevision, Comcast, whathaveyou - banded together to propose making a business-level trade agreement. Sort of like how the Comics Code wasn't a federal law, its just something all the companies agreed to.

The idea is that ACTA would result in cable companies actively monitoring what websites you visit. If they found you using illegal downloads, they'd literally ban you from the internet. That is, prevent you from every purchasing home internet again, with ANY internet service. Moreover, because this isn't really a "law", it doesn't have appeals processes, or "professional oversight" to make sure they aren't overstepping their bounds.

Now of course, people have pointed out that fundamentally this became a choice between having the *government* violating our privacy, and an international treaty-cabal of *private corporations* violating our privacy. The difference being that we don't elect corporations.

So in many ways its even worse than ACTA, has even less oversight, and worst of all, is probably easier for them to put into effect.

Many in the USA have been pushing for the treaty to be struck down because *inherently*, tracking people's internet use at the level needed to find illegal downloading is going to violate everyone's privacy.

Essentially, yes, if you passed a law saying that police could enter everyone's house without a warrant to inspect your socks drawer without permission....yes, you probably would find some illegal hard drugs like heroin in some peoples' houses. But at what cost to the privacy of everyone as a whole?

ACTA is supposed to go into effect in the USA on July 14th.
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dan9999



Joined: 25 Oct 2011
Posts: 648
PostPosted: Sat Jul 07, 2012 4:41 pm Reply with quote
Love it how animenewsnetwork posts after DAYS, that this treaty was rejected in Europe giving human rights and democracy a victory over the economic interest of a select few (primarily those of the USA) and then immediately also lets us know Canada has passed new copyright laws...
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Gilles Poitras



Joined: 05 Apr 2008
Posts: 482
Location: Oakland California
PostPosted: Sat Jul 07, 2012 5:06 pm Reply with quote
Be careful of passing on half baked rumors as to what ATCA is and will do. To do so discredits those on both sides of the issue.

The EFF has some good info on ACTA and the concerns some have with it:
https://www.eff.org/issues/acta/

One things ACTA does do is make it easier to stop counterfeit goods, including fake medications for serious conditions. This is more than blocking knock off imitation plushies and bootleg games.

Frankly I support strong international agreements to go after pirates etc. But I'm not sure if ACTA is the best agreement for this.
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Gilles Poitras



Joined: 05 Apr 2008
Posts: 482
Location: Oakland California
PostPosted: Sat Jul 07, 2012 5:19 pm Reply with quote
I just did some checking and it looks like ACTA is still in the process of being written. I expect we shall see the text revised to deal with the objections and produce a better agreement that will then have a chance of passage.

Such international agreements take some time to be discussed and re-written, years is common.
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yuna49



Joined: 27 Aug 2008
Posts: 3804
PostPosted: Sat Jul 07, 2012 7:41 pm Reply with quote
ACTA negotiations took place for the most part in total secrecy under pressure from the Obama Administration and the American delegation. For an Administration that claims to be in favor of "transparency," its role in ACTA has been a travesty. Until the treaty was actually submitted for legislative action, members of the public could only learn about the proposed texts and the negotiations involved through leaks.

I will vote for the Democrats this fall for many other important reasons, but their behavior over ACTA turns my stomach. The Democrats are even more in the pockets of the MPAA than the Republicans are, egged on by such luminaries as Vice President Biden who has always been a shill for the studios, and motivated by the need to raise a lot of money in campaign contributions from Hollywood.

Rather than include a raft of links to various sources, I suggest just doing a Google search for "acta secrecy" and reaching your own conclusions.
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Egan Loo



Joined: 25 Feb 2005
Posts: 1363
PostPosted: Sat Jul 07, 2012 7:55 pm Reply with quote
dan9999 wrote:
Love it how animenewsnetwork posts after DAYS, that this treaty was rejected in Europe giving human rights and democracy a victory over the economic interest of a select few (primarily those of the USA) and then immediately also lets us know Canada has passed new copyright laws...


The treaty was rejected on Wednesday, which happened to be a holiday in the United States. Half of the non-Americans on ANN's staff were also either leaving Anime Expo in Los Angeles or going to Japan Expo in Paris on that day.

We still posted a full day's news (19 articles since Japan was not on holiday) on Wednesday, but we had to prioritize news that were directly anime- or manga-related. That's why there were no daily briefs on Wednesday or Thursday (first day of Japan Expo), but many daily briefs on Friday and Saturday; on those days, we caught up on news briefs that are not directly anime- or manga-relevent, but are still newsworthy, such as these legal briefs.
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einhorn303



Joined: 20 Nov 2006
Posts: 1180
PostPosted: Sun Jul 08, 2012 8:49 am Reply with quote
Reddit will be in jubilation over this.
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egoist



Joined: 20 Jun 2008
Posts: 7762
PostPosted: Sun Jul 08, 2012 10:43 am Reply with quote
yuna49 wrote:
For an Administration that claims to be in favor of "transparency," its role in ACTA has been a travesty.


Not so hard to guess who has been "funding" this administration.
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_V_



Joined: 13 Apr 2009
Posts: 619
PostPosted: Tue Jul 10, 2012 11:14 am Reply with quote
The question still stands:

ACTA was struck down in Europe, does this mean it will still pass in the USA by July 14th?
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Saffire



Joined: 25 Nov 2007
Posts: 1256
Location: Iowa, USA
PostPosted: Tue Jul 10, 2012 11:21 am Reply with quote
_V_ wrote:
The question still stands:

ACTA was struck down in Europe, does this mean it will still pass in the USA by July 14th?
It can still go into effect if six of the remaining eight nations sign. If three more reject it, then its completely dead. Political opinions seem to lean toward rejection being likely, but could change if the US signs.

The eight remaining nations are Australia, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore and the US.
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Mohawk52



Joined: 16 Oct 2003
Posts: 8202
Location: England, UK
PostPosted: Tue Jul 10, 2012 3:11 pm Reply with quote
I'm not surprised with this. It's not like the EU parliament has nothing else to sort out at the moment, like it's very existance. Laughing
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enurtsol



Joined: 01 May 2007
Posts: 14896
PostPosted: Tue Jul 10, 2012 8:37 pm Reply with quote
Mohawk52 wrote:
I'm not surprised with this. It's not like the EU parliament has nothing else to sort out at the moment, like it's very existance. Laughing


As they say, the European Parliament doesn't wield significant legislative power anyways. It's the non-elected European Commission whose enormous executive power that matters. Laughing
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