European Parliament Committees Reject ACTA As IP Backlash Grows

An anonymous reader writes "Earlier today [Thursday, May 31st], three European Parliament committees studying the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement — the Legal Affairs Committee (JURI), the Committee for Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) and the Committee for Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) — all voted against implementing ACTA. Michael Geist reports on how the strength of the anti-ACTA movement within the European Parliament is part of a broader backlash against secretive intellectual property agreements that are either incorporated into broad trade agreements or raise critical questions about prioritizing IP enforcement over fundamental rights including votes and reports opposing these deals in the Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and Mexico."

Re:Reason to hope

[Samalie]

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

I'm sorry....but I LOL'd for real on that one.

Harper will never stand up to US interests. NEVER. Between working hard to put the corporation over the citizen and bending over & taking the long dong of whatever legislation the USA proposes up his ass with a grin, we're slowly watching the erosion of the "Canada" that we all know and love.

We the people don't mean shit anymore to the powers that be.

Vive la revolution!

Re:Proud

[the eric conspiracy]

I said it before, and I'll say it again. The EU's problems are the result of a political structure and cannot succeed due to lack of sufficient federalization.

America figured this out 225 years ago. How long will it take for Europe?

Re:Proud

[Anonymous Coward]

Looking at the USA, one can only hope it will take forever.

Good for them

[jakimfett]

prioritizing IP enforcement over fundamental rights

This is the part that gets me. I'm all for punishing thieves. I'm not for slaughtering someone in the courts, cutting off their internet, and vilifying them in the media because they downloaded a couple songs and the episode of Game of Thrones that they missed.

To me, Big Media isn't sending the message of "we're being hurt by copyright infringement", the're saying "hey, we have enough money to buy off significant portions of governments, it'd be a shame to put it to use in a productive manner (like by streamlining and expanding digital distribution to give people what they want...)"

Re:The end is nigh

[MickyTheIdiot]

Going back to my last post, the depressing thing about the SOPA story is just how big the protest had to get before anyone in the media would pay any attention. Then the protest was demonized (often in a "pro-piracy" light). Then the protest had to even get BIGGER before it was treated fairly at all. The protest even had to get BIGGER THAN THAT before our idiot congresspeople paid any attention.

This is what I am talking about... it shows how much the corporate state gets listened to (and automatically treated as having the "correct" opinion) as opposed to your every day person that is supposed to have a voice. In that way the SOPA fight was very disturbing... you have to have a petition with millions of signatures before your own representative will even take your call.

Re:Proud

[AliasMarlowe]

The entire house of cards is on the verge of collapse, but at least our bureaucrats found the time to vote this shit down.

Actually, it's the elected representatives (in the European Parliament) who are voting it down, and who have repeatedly expressed their opposition to the secretiveness of the negotiation process and to what has resulted from those negotiations. The unelected bureaucrats (European Commission and its ilk) were largely in favor, and actively participated in those secret negotiations.

Many things would have worked out differently (drastically different in a few cases) if the EU were run more democratically. And reducing the democratic deficit is probably an essential step (not the only one, of course) towards exiting the present fiasco.

Re:Proud

[aekafan]

Actually, I would completely disagree with that. The system breeds corruption, and only the most corrupt make it to the highest power. It is inherent in any human system of government. Wait, are you one of those that believe we can have better system if we just try harder?

Re:Proud

[jalopezp]

The tea party wants more federalism and less centralised bureaucracy. In Europe, the problem is the opposite, states remain sovreign and citizens have very little say ove what goes on at the European level. The EU is an agreement amongst states, not a democratic institution, and it would take a major restructuring of the political landscape of its 27 members to make it into one. The EU has its origins in a four country agreement for the free trade of steel and coal, through the EEC into what it is today. It is remarkable that so much has been agreed on, but perhaps they were too quick to try to absorb so much of the economic autonomy of its members into a single supranational institution.