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ACTA is being signed right now in the EU

thejournal.ie

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Re: ACTA is being signed right now in the EU

#4
post #3

BBC News - Thousands march in Poland over Acta internet treaty http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16735219

There were protest yesterday in many Polish cities - biggest in Kraków (15000 according to police), smaller 500-5000 in other cities. People summed it up to about 60 000 people in the whole country.

Today there will be protest in Lublin, Poznan, and other cities. I'm going to the one in Lublin.

Probably nothing's gonna change, but lies of the governament are too much. They say in TV and radio that ACTA won't change a thing in Polish law. And they say we need to change the law to be like in other "civilised" countries. No problem with contradicting themselves.

Re: ACTA is being signed right now in the EU

#5
post #2

If the article is accurate, then I hope that the EU Parliament will listen to the tech sector for a change. Unfortunately, I doubt we'll get a Blackout style campaign like SOPA had in the US.

Some Polish web sites had blackout ( http://di.com.pl/news/43067,0,Polski_blackout_przeciw_ACTA_j... ), but mostly sites with young and tech-savy users. So general population only know about Anonymus group cracking gov servers, and maybe about protests on the streets.

Re: ACTA is being signed right now in the EU

#6
post #3

BBC News - Thousands march in Poland over Acta internet treaty http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16735219

Yeah, ACTA really exploded in the public awareness in Poland in the past week.

You can read more about it here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3502200

And here's some more footage from the protests: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3511980

Re: ACTA is being signed right now in the EU

#8
post #2

If the article is accurate, then I hope that the EU Parliament will listen to the tech sector for a change. Unfortunately, I doubt we'll get a Blackout style campaign like SOPA had in the US.

The EU Parliament is a relatively benign organism. Elections are held with a proportional system across Europe, so it's quite easy for MEPs to lose seats to smaller parties; this basically forces them to listen to constituents, most of the time, or risk being defeated by, say, Greens or Pirate Party. Since they don't really have much of a say in nominating the "EU government" (i.e. the Commission), they don't really experience the drawbacks of such a system.

The problem is, in most cases the Parliament cannot veto what the Commission approves. There is a constant, constitutional struggle between them, but the Commission has the upper hand in most cases. This is because the Commission is nominated by (and directly works with) member states; in practice, if all states' governments agree to something, the EU Parliament probably wouldn't be able to stop them. At most, they could delay some decisions, hoping that political winds in member states will change in the meantime.

Re: ACTA is being signed right now in the EU

#9
The headline is misleading. There are still several national parliaments that need to ratify this (there appears to be a majority against in the Netherlands at the moment), and it has to go through the EU parliament.

The EU parliament is notoriously allergic to these kind of secret backroom shenanigans and corporate manipulations and is eager to prove its democratic value. This is an excellent opportunity to flex the little bit of political muscle it has.

Re: ACTA is being signed right now in the EU

#10
post #8
post #2

If the article is accurate, then I hope that the EU Parliament will listen to the tech sector for a change. Unfortunately, I doubt we'll get a Blackout style campaign like SOPA had in the US.

The EU Parliament is a relatively benign organism. Elections are held with a proportional system across Europe, so it's quite easy for MEPs to lose seats to smaller parties; this basically forces them to listen to constituents, most of the time, or risk being defeated by, say, Greens or Pirate Party. Since they don't really have much of a say in nominating the "EU government" (i.e. the Commission), they don't really…

There are ways to fight, although very tough. The FFII.org did a wonderful job on swpat. They did go for ACTA too, but sadly with less focus -- I cannot blame though.
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