« Forecasting Economic DeclineA New Year of Tough Times Ahead »

EU signs ACTA, global internet censorship treaty

January 27th, 2012

By Rady Ananda

On Jan. 26, the European Union and 22 member states signed the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced. They have now joined the US and seven other nations that signed the treaty last October.

This signing ceremony merely formalized the EU’s adoption of ACTA last month, during a completely unrelated meeting on agriculture and fisheries, reports TechDirt.

Though initiated by the US, Japan is the official depository of the treaty.

Removal of the Three Strikes clause, in which users accused of three counts of piracy would be barred from the Internet, paved the way for the EU to adopt ACTA last month.

Related to ACTA, a chapter in the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) “would have state signatories adopt even more restrictive copyright measures than ACTA,” reports the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Both ACTA and TPP were developed without public input and outside international trade groups, like the World Trade Organization and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Leaked cables published by Wikileaks in 2009 exposed early drafts of ACTA, resulting in a firestorm of controversy. Those cables, coupled with later releases, showed that ACTA negotiations began in 2006 and were controversial even to participating states. An historical summary of the treaty’s progress through December can be found here.

ACTA Violates Magna Carta and US Constitution

Like PIPA and SOPA, two domestic internet censorship bills that prompted major websites to blacken their name or website in a Jan. 18th protest, ACTA allows accusers of copyright infringement to bypass judicial review. Lack of “due process” makes these bills and ACTA unconstitutional and violates the Magna Carta, a charter signed in 1215 on which most Western law is based, including the US Constitution. It is often cited as the most important legal document in the history of democracy.

(The USA PATRIOT Acts, Obama’s assassination program, and the National Defense Authorization Act that allows indefinite detention are among many recent laws passed in the US which directly breach the Magna Carta.)

“The Constitution states only one command twice,” explains Peter Strauss of Cornell University Law School, further elaborating:

“The Fifth Amendment says to the federal government that no one shall be ‘deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law.’ The Fourteenth Amendment, ratified in 1868, uses the same eleven words, called the Due Process Clause, to describe a legal obligation of all states. These words have as their central promise an assurance that all levels of American government must operate within the law (‘legality’) and provide fair procedures.”

Not only due process, but US adoption of ACTA also violates Article II, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution, which provides that the president “shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two-thirds of the Senators present concur.”

The Senate never voted on ACTA.

During the Jan. 18 internet blackout, Darrell Issa (R-CA) introduced OPEN, (H.R. 3782, the Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade Act). Heather Callaghan points out that even though OPEN targets foreign-based websites,

“[T]he bill’s wording is wide open to pursue American sites. Just one example: when describing an infringing site, it starts with those ‘that are accessed through a non-domestic domain name,’ but continues in section (8)(A)(ii) for any site that ‘conducts business directed to residents of the United States.’”

As this slew of internet censorship bills and treaties make their way into law, “the United States fell 27 places on the Reporters Without Borders tenth annual Press Freedom Index of 2011 to 47th overall,” reports Activist Post.

Today’s signatories included the EU, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

Last October, Australia, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore and the United States signed ACTA.

Though involved in early ACTA negotiations, Switzerland and Mexico have not yet ratified it. However, “Since the agreement remains open to signature until May 2013, it is possible that other states may make a move to join it as well,” said Maira Sutton of EFF.

© Rady Ananda 2012. Originally published at Activist Post

No feedback yet

Voices

Voices

  • By Tracy Turner Behind the wholesome facade of your local grocery store lies a cocktail of banned chemicals, deceptive labels, and global food fraud. Safeway. Albertsons. Vons. Trader Joe's. Aldi. These household names conjure an image of bustling…
  • Bilderberg Meeting Attendees (1954–Present): Inside the Secretive Annual Gathering of World Leaders, CEOs, and Influencers Shaping Global Policy and Economic Strategy. Chapter One: The Lords of War and Waste By Ned Lud It begins not with a bang but with…
  • Ned Lud dedicates this to Mark Aurelius Netanyahu: The Prime Minister of Permanent Emergency The Godless Horseman: War Eternal, Peace Never He doesn’t ride in on a white horse—he arrives in Merkava armor, draped in Holocaust memory and wrapped in the…
  • by Janet Campbell Image via Freepik Children on the margins rarely have the luxury of being heard. Their needs are either diluted in policy debates or romanticized in feel-good campaigns that vanish as quickly as they arrive. But improving the lives of…
  • By David Swanson Late last century I figured out that I needed to work on a job dedicated to making the world a better place. I know not everyone can find such a job if they try. I appreciate all the other useful jobs that millions of people do — if not…
  • By Mark Aurelius One can feel the anger. One can feel the rage and disgust. It is a resentment severe but it is far from being some kind of blind hatred. Who could have thought Trump’s White House and Cabinet picks would be this fr..king frustrating,…
  • Robert David I. The New American Panopticon In 1971, Daniel Ellsberg leaked the Pentagon Papers, exposing the government’s lies about the Vietnam War. Today, a different kind of betrayal unfolds—not through war, but through data, algorithms, and…
  • Tracy Turner In recent years, Trader Joe's and Aldi have emerged as successful grocery store chains, with their private-label products that usually bear organic labels. But behind such appealing labels lies a disturbing reality: a significant proportion…
  • By Chris Spencer I. The New Alchemists: Turning Paranoia into Profit In the digital crucible of the 21st century, a strange alchemy has emerged: paranoia transmutes into profit, and the specter of chaos becomes a business model. Surveillance—once the…
  • By David Swanson, World BEYOND War Approaching 50 years since the end of the American War, as the Vietnamese call it, and something over 70 years since the start of it, depending when you start the clock, truth and reconciliation remain incomplete. I…
April 2025
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
 << <   > >>
    1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10 11 12
13 14 15 16 17 18 19
20 21 22 23 24 25 26
27 28 29 30      

  XML Feeds

b2evolution
FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted articles and information about environmental, political, human rights, economic, democratic, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. This news and information is displayed without profit for educational purposes, in accordance with, Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 of the US Copyright Law. Thepeoplesvoice.org is a non-advocacy internet web site, edited by non-affiliated U.S. citizens. editor
ozlu Sozler GereksizGercek Hava Durumu Firma Rehberi Hava Durumu Firma Rehberi E-okul Veli Firma Rehberi