EU Commissioner Reveals He Will Ignore Any Rejection of ACTA 253
Dupple tips a story at Techdirt about comments from EU commissioner Karel De Gucht, who made some discouraging remarks to the EU International Trade committee about the opposition to ACTA: "If you decide for a negative vote before the European Court rules, let me tell you that the Commission will nonetheless continue to pursue the current procedure before the Court, as we are entitled to do. A negative vote will not stop the proceedings before the Court of Justice. ... If the Court questions the conformity of the agreement with the Treaties we will assess at that stage how this can be addressed." De Gucht also spoke about proposing clarifications to ACTA if Parliament declined to ratify it, which, as Techdirt points out, doesn't make much sense: "Remember that ACTA is now signed, and cannot be altered; so De Gucht is instead trying to fob off European politicians with this vague idea of 'clarifications' — as if more vagueness could somehow rectify the underlying problems of an already dangerously-vague treaty."
As an American... (Score:5, Insightful)
And there's the out... (Score:5, Insightful)
EU nations to citizens: "We voted against it, what more coupld we do?"
EU nations to RIAA: "Ok, it's passed, pay up."
It will pass in some form (Score:5, Insightful)
ACTA will be ratified in some form because it will be resubmitted again and again till the lobbyiest succeed. This happened before with the EU constitution, it will happen with ACTA and it will happen in the future for many more treaties/laws.
Re:And there's the out... (Score:5, Insightful)
Easier to buy a judge than an entire branch of government.
ruling class gonna rule (Score:5, Insightful)
is anyone surprised?
the amount of power held by those that ACTA favors outweighs the amount of power held by those against.
rulers gonna rule. who'd have thunk it?
(I'm not in favor of ACTA, not even close; but I don't really hold up much hope when this much greed is involved, mixed with this much 'can-do' power to pull it off.)
this is a people problem. a scalability one. do our governments 'work' for us anymore? in the modern times, with mass communication now possible, are any of our systems really working? it does not seem so!
A country that is not a country. (Score:5, Insightful)
This is the type of thing when you have something resembling a country, but that is not in essence a country, which has non of the protections or checks and balances that a state should actually have.
Democracy at the EU level, kind of a joke.
Re:ruling class gonna rule (Score:5, Insightful)
this is a people problem. a scalability one. do our governments 'work' for us anymore? in the modern times, with mass communication now possible, are any of our systems really working? it does not seem so!
Has it ever worked for us?
Do we just notice it more now since we find about these things before they happen?
Re:As an American... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:You mean he actually bought the European Court? (Score:5, Insightful)
Democracy has never counted in the EU because the majority of the people of Europe have never wanted a bloated, centralised state where bureaucrats in Brussels tell them what to do.
When EU citizens vote wrong, they're forced to vote again and again until they give the right answer.
Re:It will pass in some form (Score:5, Insightful)
Then the courts will have no choice but to ignore it completely.
No, it will just be enforced selectively ("with discretion") as most current laws are.
Re:It will pass in some form (Score:5, Insightful)
The other option is to have it so overreaching that it becomes impossible to do anything without infringing.
Then the courts will have no choice but to ignore it completely.
The problem with laws like this isn't that they get ignored, but that they get selectively used.
There are other similar laws and the result is that anyone (police, lawyer, judge, politician, busybody neighbour) gets to decide whether or not you are guilty.
I mean, since you are always guilty, it's just a matter of turning you in for prosecution. It's great for police who want to harass you, or a landlord or tenant who wants to screw you for asserting your rights, or a business competitor who would like you out of the way.
It basically brings a country slowly into a police state. I do not favour it in the way you seem to...
They can't arrest us all (Score:4, Insightful)
It's become crystal clear over the years that it is everyone's moral imperative to ignore copyright law.
That is the only way we, as a society, are going to conquer the science-and-arts-crippling concept known as "intellectual property" and move forward as a civilization.
Re:Do we miss stories where they fight for people? (Score:5, Insightful)
do they ever really stand up for The People and say, "no matter what we're going to do X even if you say no"?
Sometimes a popularly elected government comes into power and both promises and honestly intends to act against business interests, sure.
That's called a "rogue state" and we have CIA drone strikes to deal with them.
Re:Do we miss stories where they fight for people? (Score:5, Insightful)
How do they keep getting elected? What other choice do we have? When all sides of the issue are bought and paid for by the same people, what, seriously, what choices do we have? It's not that they don't represent us, it's that they represent where the money is coming from.
Think about it - to a politician, $1 = 1 voice. So, I have around 10,000 in savings. If I give all of that, my voice becomes stronger than my neighbor's, regardless of where I stand. I can influence media, I can influence protests, I can send letters. My neighbor can't do any of that, because he's just trying to make it to supper tonight.
From their point of view, the politicians are representing The People. It's just that the money involved is so freaking skewed that The People are no longer represented fairly in these initial steps. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if (in the US at least) our representatives are truly at a loss as to why their approval rating is so low. I hope I did a good job of explaining my views on that. It's hard to get into words sometimes.
I know that none of that may transfer into this instance in the EU, but I believe that the same rules apply there. Money = power, power = money. The commissioner probably sees the interests groups with the most money, and probably believes that they represent the general public's views.
Or he's just a dick. One or the other.
Re:As an American... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Keep trying til you get the vote desired (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:They can't arrest us all (Score:4, Insightful)
It's become crystal clear over the years that it is everyone's moral imperative to ignore copyright law.
That is the only way we, as a society, are going to conquer the science-and-arts-crippling concept known as "intellectual property" and move forward as a civilization.
Thank you, I agree wholeheartedly!
- GPL violator
More seriously, the concept of intellectual property is neither crippling nor backwards. I think everyone but the entertainment media/attorney complex would agree that copyright can be useful if scaled back to 15 years or so and ending extensions. Same with vigorously limiting the scope of patents. And I hope you can see how trademark law can prevent public confusion.
Re:As an American... (Score:5, Insightful)
No worries, these people will be labeled something among the lines of "terrorists, pedophiles, liberals, wing nuts" or whatever other term will be deemed valid and hostile enough by spin doctors writing speeches for modern leaders.
Then most of the sheep will happily nuke the "enemies of the state" into the oblivion.
Re:As an American... (Score:5, Insightful)
What's that got to do with it? Why would gun owners invoke the 2nd Amendment to defend a bunch of long-haired hippies who want to steal American Property?
Especially after acquiescing to the Patriot Act and airport scanners that administer a dangerous dosage of radiation as a routine measure?
No, my friend, I'm afraid that I've yet to see the 2nd Amendment get invoked for any other reason than to kill brown people and fags except maybe the Civil War. And after the New Deal, the reasons for the secession of the Confederate States look like gripes that could be solved over an afternoon tea.
Your internet tough guy argument fails. Even after all the shortwave saber rattling I used to believe in and follow when I was growing up, the American people remain hopelessly cowed.
Re:As an American... (Score:5, Insightful)
As an American: at least he's honest about it. My politicians just issue bald-faced lies.
He's not being honest because it's virtuous; He's being honest because there's no consequences for him doing it. Our politicians lie their asses off when it suits them just like yours. He just knows there's no fight left in the general population. Don't go getting funny ideas about how our politicians are somehow special... they were bought and paid for same as yours, and probably by the same people.
Re:Keep trying til you get the vote desired (Score:4, Insightful)
And the problem with this is what, exactly?
Re:As an American... (Score:5, Insightful)
Most politicians lie and break many of the promises they make. Few of them get killed. An armed populace isn't a significant deterrent, although chest-thumping morons will claim otherwise.
Re:ruling class gonna rule (Score:2, Insightful)
PROTIP: The ACTA supporters are TINY industries.
You only completely blindly believe that they are huge and your gods, because of the amount of cocaine those fuckers sniff on a daily basis, making them act like they are actual gods.
Look up the numbers: It's ridiculous. E.g. the whole global music industry's revenue is about as big as some broke-ass German construction company (Holzwinkel) 's *profit*.
The whole German music industry is as big, as the municipal transport services of Cologne (a 1 million people city).
It's crazy! In terms of business, they are meaningless!
Yet everybody acts like they are so fuckin' huge and powerful! THEY'RE NOT!
Re:As an American... (Score:5, Insightful)
Soldiers are trained to obey orders. I wouldn't bet your life on "US soldiers won't fire upon US civilians", since they've happily done so before.
Re:As an American... (Score:5, Insightful)
What is happening is a government agency is wasting taxpayer dollars attempting to force through something everyone already democratically opposes to suit one small corrupting segment of the market. What should happen is the idiot should be fired, as they do not have the right to waste taxpayer dollars on things only on small part of the market is interested in when major parts of the market have already expressed their opposition and that opposition has extended out to democracies within EU. You basically have one paid off asshat who has publicly stated that they will exploit a loophole to waste millions of taxpayer dollars in attempting to force through the interests of minor corrupt part of the market. So how much money will be wasted in all of this, somewhere between one million and ten million dollars, just burned away by one paid off dick head on a power trip, this person desperately needs to be fired.
Re:As an American... (Score:5, Insightful)
I concur. I think it was at the beginning of the last century that people in Switzerland were protesting against the government. This is a direct democracy, please remember this when I tell you that the MILITIA was ordered to open fire... and they did.
So a government directly appointed by the people used a militia formed of the people to kill the people. Never underestimate how much of a mindless weapon a soldier can be become, even with relatively little training.
Re:As an American... (Score:4, Insightful)
Stanley Milgram disagrees with you.