EU Commissioner Admits Defeat Over ACTA

BRUSSELS - EU Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes has admitted defeat on the controversial anti-counterfeit treaty Acta, with her official spokesman telling reporters that the treaty’s demise is a “political reality”.

Speaking at a conference on internet freedom in Berlin on Friday (4 May), Commissioner Kroes told delegates that “we are now likely to be in a world without ACTA.”

Kroes also referred to the campaign mounted by internet freedom groups as “a strong political voice”, adding that “thousands of people are willing to protest against rules which they see as constraining the openness and innovation of the Internet.”

Next week, MEPs in the Petitions committee will discuss the anti-Acta petition launched by campaign group Avaaz which collected over 2.4 million signatures.

Commissioner Kroes is the first member of the EU executive to break ranks in publicly admitting that there is little prospect of Acta being ratified by the EU.

Publicly the EU executive, for whom Trade Commission Karel de Gucht led negotiations on the EU’s behalf, has continued to defend the substance of the treaty, and has called on MEPs to delay their vote until after the European Court of Justice releases its legal opinion on Acta.

The Commission referred Acta to the Luxembourg-based court hoping that it would clarify that the treaty does not affect existing EU law or breach the Charter of Fundamental Rights.

Kroes’ speech comes as the European Parliament is poised to reject Acta. Last week the legislature’s International Trade committee began debate on a recommendation by centre-left MEP David Martin to veto the deal, with the final vote in Parliament expected in June or July.

Meanwhile, the Liberal group of MEPs (ALDE) became the latest political group to come out against the treaty.

MEPs are also expected to start work on a report laying out issues ear-marked for re-negotiation. Some MEPs are expected to push for a sector-by-sector approach to anti-piracy measures, while others are seeking to completely re-open the text with a fresh negotiating mandate for the Commission.

However, seeking re-negotiation of Acta would be a major embarrassment for the Commission and would also require the agreement of other countries, including the US, Japan and Australia, who signed up to the treaty.

Six EU member states have already ratified the treaty which will now apply to their national law, causing concern about a fragmented international rule-book on online anti-counterfeit activities.

BREAKING NEWS: In last 2 hours Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in EU parliament rejects ACTA

The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats (ALDE) in the European parliament has announced it cannot support the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA).

The ALDE leader, Guy Verhofstadt announced the group’s decision on Wednesday.

“Although we unambiguously support the protection of intellectual property rights, we also champion fundamental rights and freedoms. We have serious concerns that ACTA does not strike the right balance,” he said.

While the alliance maintained its support for “multilateral efforts to protect intellectual property rights,” Verhofstadt said it should be based on a “sectoral approach” that was transparent and rooted in “a publically discussed mandate.”

“Civil society has been extremely vocal in recent months in raising their legitimate concerns on the ACTA agreement which we share. There are too many provisions lacking clarity and certainty as to the way they would be implemented in practice,”  he continued.

Verhofstadt also said ACTA “wrongly bundles together too many different types of IPR enforcement under the same umbrella,” eliminating the distinction between physical goods and digital services.

“Finally, the countries that are the main sources of counterfeit goods are not party to the agreement, so its value is questionable,” Niccolò Rinaldi, (IdV, Italy), ALDE spokesperson on ACTA in the EP international trade committee added.

Critics have long said ACTA was intentionally formulated to be as vague as possible.

On Tuesday, the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS)  expressed his concerns that the agreement could have “unacceptable side effects on individual rights.”

The EU’s rapporteur on ACTA David Martin had further warned last week that ACTA could “interfere with fundamental freedoms.” He also said there would be no means to “guarantee adequate protection for citizens’ rights” once the treaty was ratified.

Martin told RTlast Thursday ACTA would ultimately turn internet service providers into a de facto police force.

While ACTA says it should only be for commercial purposes,  Martain argues “‘commercial purposes’ are very weakly defined.”  He also expressed the fear it could criminalize “young people who are quite innocently downloading films and music in the privacy of their own homes.”

“ACTA tried to deal with counterfeit goods – real physical goods – in the same treaty as it dealt with internet goods, the virtual [ones]. I don’t think the two are meant for the same treatment,“he said.

If the European parliament rejects ACTA, other EU members would not be able to ratify it. However, it could still come into effect if six of the agreement’s 31 signatories chose to do so, though it would not have any legal force within any state that had not individually ratified the act.

Currently, Australia, Canada, Japan, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, the United States, the European Union, and 22 EU member states have signed ACTA, though no state has gone through with the ratification proces

EU WILL MOST LIKELY REJECT ACTA! EU Reppetuar Sounds Death Horn

The controversial pan-global anti-piracy agreement, ACTA, may soon be dead in the water. The Member of the European Parliament responsible for monitoring its progress through the European Union says it should be rejected.

­The pact sparked anger among Europeans, with thousands protesting against giving big firms the power to ban people from using the Internet for illegally swapping files. Twenty-two countries in the bloc signed up to the agreement, with a vote on its ratification due this summer in Brussels.

Political commentator Luke Samuel told RT that the treaty exposed how undemocratic the decision-making process is in the EU.

“The real problem with ACTA, specifically, is how it shows that the European Union is effectively allowed to do politics without any reference to [its people],” he said. “This is not a piece of EU law, it’s a trade agreement that will bestow certain obligations on European countries to make law in certain ways.”

The fact that national governments in the EU signed up to ACTA, Samuel continued, in no way means that ordinary people had any say in the provisions of the agreement. This, he said, makes the whole process “fundamentally anti-democratic.”

Fabio Reinhardt from the Pirate Group of the German Parliament says public outrage will bring down this legislation.

“I think it’s great that hundreds of thousands of people were on the streets in Europe to [stop ACTA], and ACTA may [be shelved internationally]. I think it’s great for civil rights,” he told RT. “I think it’s a phenomenon we haven’t seen before, that people were so eager to defend their rights, to communicate – something that really surprised politicians on various high levels.”

ACTA is an international agreement aimed at protecting intellectual property. It somewhat resembles the US’s Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), which was shelved by lawmakers after protests.

The US, most of the EU, Australia, Canada, Japan and several other countries have signed the ACTA treaty, but none of these signatories has yet ratified it. This last step would make the agreement viable. As soon as ACTA is ratified by any six countries, the convention will come into force.

EU Stops ECJ Referral: Protestors Expecting a Rejection from EU Parliment

Campaigners against ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement) are hailing as a success the decision by the European Parliament’s trade committee not to refer the deal to the European Court of Justice (ECJ).

The committee on Tuesday rejected a plan to send the proposed accord to the E.U.‘s highest court by 21 votes to five. This means that the proposed deal could be put before the whole Parliament as soon as June, avoiding a possible delay of about 18 months for a court decision.

Digital rights groups opposed to ACTA, such as La Quadrature du Net, said that the plan to send the deal to the ECJ had been nothing more than a stalling tactic.

The European Commission, which brokered the controversial deal, has already referred the text to the ECJ in the hopes of receiving the court’s backing. But if the Parliament as a whole decides to reject the treaty, it will be immaterial, as the E.U. cannot go ahead with ratifying the pact unless parliamentarians back it.

Under the proposed ACTA deal, a country may “order an online service provider to disclose expeditiously to a right holder information sufficient to identify a subscriber whose account was allegedly used for infringement.” Anti-ACTA activists said that this would be tantamount to forcing ISPs to become the unofficial police of the Internet.

It was this fear that prompted a widespread Stop ACTA campaign that saw thousands of protesters take to the streets across Europe in recent months and caused many E.U. member states to delay or rule-out ratification, despite signing the deal individually in Japan in January.

Those protesters hope that a vote against the deal from the Parliament will be the final nail in ACTA’s coffin and they may have grounds for optimism—when the deal last went before the Parliament in November 2010, it was only very narrowly passed by 331 to 294, with 11 abstentions.

The EU Commission Admits Mistakes on ACTA

The European Commission has said it was surprised by the scale of opposition to a global anti-counterfeit treaty, having underestimated the power of social media to mobilise protesters.

Maros Sefcovic, a commission vice-president, on Tuesday (20 March) admitted his institution was caught on the back foot when thousands of people earlier this year took to the streets to protest the agreement.

“What is the power of the people? We saw it recently here in January and February when we suddenly realised that, in spite of the freezing temperatures, we had thousands of people in different squares in Europe protesting against Acta.”

Acta – the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement – is meant to protect intellectual property rights, as well as target counterfeit goods and generic medicines, but critics say it undermines freedom of expression and privacy.

The European Commission, negotiating the treaty alongside EU member states since 2008, has often been in the firing line over the secrecy of the international discussions.

But the issue really flared up when it and 22 member states signed the document in January and formal ratification began.

“We saw how our absence in the world of social media on this particular topic caused us a lot of troubles,” Sefcovic told a Brussels audience.

“I think this is a lesson for all of us that we have to be much more active and in a much more communicative mood when it comes to such sensitive topics in the future,” he added.

The protests took place in several cities in Europe, resulting in a series of member states deciding to suspend ratification. The European Parliament, which can reject the treaty, received a two-million strong global petition against Acta.

The commission for its part made tactical semi-retreat in February by saying it would turn over the treaty to the EU’s highest court to see if it breached any EU laws, particularly on privacy.

“We saw this huge wave of communication on the social media to which we didn’t react on time (causing) the situation where we need now to backtrack a little bit and look for reassurances from the European Court of Justice,” said Sefcovic.

But some believe the commission took the easy way by seeking to depoliticise the discussion and focus it on legalese.

Martin Schulz, head of the European Parliament, recently suggested that by taking the court step, the commission had removed the immediate chance for parliament to discuss an issue that citizens feel strongly about.

If Poland Maintains Stance, Even if ACTA Passes in EU Court. There is No Chance for Ratification

ACTA has been currently suspended for scrutiny in the ECJ.
On Friday, Prime Minister Donald Tusk completed the about-face his government had started on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA).

“I sent a letter today to all the party leaders who cooperate with the Civic Platform and the Polish People’s Party in the European People’s Party, including prime ministers, the [German] chancellor, presidents of some countries and the leadership of the European People’s Party, with a proposal to reject ACTA in the shape that was negotiated by the European Commission,” Mr Tusk told a news conference Friday evening.

The PM admitted that the position prepared by Polish officials on ACTA over the last few months was “reckless.”

“I was wrong. … It would be a sin to maintain a mistaken belief … the agreement does not correspond to the reality of the 21st century. The battle for the right to property should also respect the right to freedom.”

If this trade agreement somehow passes its court session which will take up to 2 years, if Poland maintains its current position, then there will be no chance for the ratification of ACTA as all of the 27 member states have to agree fully with the terms of the trade agreement.

Many countries have pulled out or have suspended ratification of ACTA in their country. The reason I have focused on Poland here is because they are in a rare group of countries that have rejected ACTA altogether including The Czech Republic and Slovakia.

BUT WE NEED TO KEEP UP THE PRESSURE!

If Poland Maintains Stance, Even if ACTA Passes in EU Court. There is No Chance for Ratification

ACTA has been currently suspended for scrutiny in the ECJ.
On Friday, Prime Minister Donald Tusk completed the about-face his government had started on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA).

“I sent a letter today to all the party leaders who cooperate with the Civic Platform and the Polish People’s Party in the European People’s Party, including prime ministers, the [German] chancellor, presidents of some countries and the leadership of the European People’s Party, with a proposal to reject ACTA in the shape that was negotiated by the European Commission,” Mr Tusk told a news conference Friday evening.

The PM admitted that the position prepared by Polish officials on ACTA over the last few months was “reckless.”

“I was wrong. … It would be a sin to maintain a mistaken belief … the agreement does not correspond to the reality of the 21st century. The battle for the right to property should also respect the right to freedom.”

If this trade agreement somehow passes its court session which will take up to 2 years, if Poland maintains its current position, then there will be no chance for the ratification of ACTA as all of the 27 member states have to agree fully with the terms of the trade agreement.

Many countries have pulled out or have suspended ratification of ACTA in their country. The reason I have focused on Poland here is because they are in a rare group of countries that have rejected ACTA altogether including The Czech Republic and Slovakia.

BUT WE NEED TO KEEP UP THE PRESSURE!

ACTA HAS BEEN SUSPENDED!! Is this a victory?

The European Commisson has stalled approval of the controverisal anti-piracy Acta treaty in light of virulent opposition to the legislation.

Acta, instead, will be taken to Europe’s highest court to determine whether implementing and enforcing the agreement in its current state would violate fundamental EU rights.

The decision to suspend the anti-piracy and counterfeit bill, arguably, was already taken out of the EC’s hands.

Several countries have already rejected the bill in its current form, including Germany, the Netherlands and Poland. Due to this, the agreement could not be enforced, as it would require every European country to both approve it and sign i in order to adhere to the treaty.

Not only has the treaty faced opposition from country leaders, its ramifications are understood by the general public; who have protested online as well as taking part in street demonstrations to express their displeasure. Protesters have marched against Acta across Europe; from London and Helsinki, Paris to Vienna.

On the heels of the SOPA and PIPA acts, it was unlikely to be met with open arms.

Karel De Gucht, the EU trade commissioner, said that taking the treaty to the European court of justice would clear the “fog of misinformation” surrounding Acta, as well as assessing the compatibility of the treaty with standing EU rights and freedom.

“This debate must be based upon facts and not upon the misinformation or rumour that has dominated social media sites and blogs in recent weeks,” De Gucht said. “Acta will not censor websites or shut them down; Acta will not hinder freedom of the internet or freedom of speech.”

However, opposers of the treaty fear that Acta will lead to censorship and further governmental control of the Internet. Taking the agreement further to gain approval of the UCJ has not dispelled these concerns. Jeremie Zimmermann, co-founder of the Internet advocacy group La Quadrature du Net stated:

“No legal debate can fix ACTA or give it a legitimacy that by design it cannot have.”

The agreement has collected the signatures of 22 European member states so far, and is set to be debated in Parliament in June this year.

Another Chance to Get The Message

Yet again, we are taking to the streets all over Europe on the 25th of Febuary. We need to keep up the pressure. Aparently there are much bigger numbers exprected this time. Also, many other countries have joined the fight against ACTA.

Belfast will be taking part of course, as you can see in the events and links section above.

This day of action has been dubbed “Finishing the Fight”, which in my opinion is an exaduration, but with hope we will secure our voice in the dealings and debates going on right now.

Support is Slipping; What is Soon to Happen?

Support for Acta in Europe is waning as both Bulgaria and the Netherlands refuse to ratify the international anti-piracy agreement.

Bulgaria will not ratify the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement over fears it will curb freedom to download movies and music for free and encourage internet surveillance, economy minister Traicho Traikov said on Tuesday.

More than 4,000 people marched in the capital Sofia last Saturday calling on parliament not to ratify the act. Similar rallies drew thousands of protesters across eastern Europe, as well as in Germany, France and Ireland.

“I will table a proposal to the Council of Ministers to stop the procedure of Bulgaria’s signing the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement,” Traikov said.

The decision means Bulgaria will not take any action concerning Acta before European Union member states come up with a unified position.

Meanwhile, the Dutch Lower House has backed a motion from the Green Left party which says the Netherlands should, for the time being, refrain from signing Acta, according to a report at Radio Netherlands Worldwide.

The RNW report says that the parliament is seeking clarity about whether the treaty threatens the rights and the privacy of internet users.

Acta aims to cut trademark theft and tackle other online piracy but the accord has raised concerns, especially in eastern Europe, over online censorship and increased surveillance. Some protesters have compared it to that used by former communist regimes.

Many Bulgarians also fear the free download of movies and music, a common practice in the bloc’s poorest state, might lead to imprisonment if the treaty is ratified.

“Bulgarian society is not ready to accept mechanisms which raise suspicions of violation of the freedom of expression and freedom [on the] internet,” Traikov said.

Negotiations over Acta have been taking place for several years. Some European countries have signed Acta but it has not yet been ratified by any counties.

Campaign Film on Youtube

The protest film I have created for this campaign can be found on Youtube on my channel.

My channel name is MrScienceNut, please subscribe as there is more on the way.
Alsa al link can be found in the links section.

After Protests on Saturday: Is ACTA Dead in the Water?

The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement is unbalanced and does not offer enough protection for the rights of internet users, the president of the European Parliament has said.

Martin Schulz, a German politician who became president of the parliament in January, said on Sunday that ACTA was a flawed agreement. His words came after massive protests on Saturday, in which tens of thousands of Europeans took to the streets to demonstrate against ACTA.

“The necessary balance of… protection of copyright on the one hand, and [protection of] users’ fundamental rights on the other, is not sufficiently established in this agreement. So, I think it’s not good in its current form,” Schulz told Germany’s ARD evening news on Sunday night.

Read this
EU promises no law change as full Acta text released

The near-final text of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement has been published, and EU officials say it will not require any changes to pan-European law

Read more
The contents of ACTA, which has been under development since 2007, cannot be changed at this point, having been finalised in November 2010. If it is to come into force anywhere in the EU, it must be ratified wholesale by the European Parliament, as well as every EU member state.

Although the EU and 22 member states have signed ACTA, no-one has yet ratified it. Indeed, Poland, the Czech Republic and Latvia have all suspended their ratification processes pending further consultation.

Germany and Slovakia, neither of which has even signed ACTA, let alone ratified it, have also said they will not yet sign the agreement. In Germany’s case, the country will hold off signing until the European Parliament has voted on EU-level ratification later this year.

ACTA is an international agreement, drawn up behind closed doors, that aims to bring much of the world up to the standards of copyright enforcement found in places such as the US and EU. Its critics say it ignores the rights of internet users and could harm free speech in countries that do not have the safeguards found in the EU and US.

According to the current timetable, the European Parliament’s trade committee, INTA, will start examining ACTA on 29 February. INTA will make a recommendation to the parliament at the end of May, and the parliament will vote in mid-June.

Several groupings in the European Parliament have already expressed their hostility to ACTA. These include the Greens-European Free Alliance and the Progressive Alliance of Socialists & Democrats, of which Schulz was chairman before assuming the parliamentary president’s seat.

The ACTA protests in Europe on Saturday differed in size, depending on the country in which they were being held. In London, around 200 people demonstrated in front of the offices of rights-holder groups, while in Munich 16,000 took to the streets.

Protests were also seen in dozens more cities, including Berlin, Warsaw, Prague, Bucharest, Vilnius, Paris and Brussels.

Protests Take Over Streets of Europe

Thousands of people have taken part in co-ordinated protests across Europe in opposition to a controversial anti-piracy agreement. Significant marches were held in Germany, Poland and the Netherlands against the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (Acta).

Around 200 protesters gathered in central London outside the offices of several major rights holders. Demonstrators argued that Acta will limit freedom of speech online. However the agreement’s supporters insist it will not alter existing laws, and will instead provide protection for content creators in the face of increasing levels of online piracy.

The treaty has to date been signed by 22 EU members, including the UK, but has yet to be ratified by the European Parliament. A debate is due to take place in June.

On Friday, Germany delayed signing the agreement in order to, a spokesman said, “give us time to carry out further discussions”.

‘In secret’

Saturday’s London demonstration was supported by the Open Rights Group, a vocal opponent to the treaty. The group’s executive director, Jim Killock, argued that Germany’s stance shows Acta negotiations were carried out “in secret” by EU “bureaucrats”.
Continue reading the main story

What is Acta?

The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement is an international treaty aiming to standardise copyright protection measures.It seeks to curb trade of counterfeited physical goods, including copyrighted material online. Preventative measures include possible imprisonment and fines Critics argue that it will stifle freedom of expression on the internet, and it has been likened to the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act (Sopa).Acta has been signed by 22 EU members, including the UK, but is yet to be ratified by the European Parliament.

“Three member states in Europe are now looking like they don’t want to sign,” he told the BBC.

“That shows that politicians are only really starting to look at this now. All of a sudden, the whole thing is breaking down.”

Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia have already delayed the process after significant pressure from mostly young people.

“The point today is to say Acta is undemocratic,” Mr Killock added.

“It’s lacked scrutiny, it’s setting up dangerous new pressures to censor the internet to remove users and put pressure on [Internet Service Providers] to start policing for copyright.”

More demonstrations were held in other UK cities, including Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Anonymous hackers

The anti-Acta movement has also been widely adopted by members of the Anonymous activist collective, which has claimed responsibility for putting high-profile government websites out of action, including that of the Polish prime minister.

Speaking at the London protest Loz Kaye, leader of the Pirate Party UK, dismissed worries that aligning closely with Anonymous - whose members carry out various illegal activities online - was harmful to their cause.

“What we’ve seen is a whole wave of people coming out on the streets right across Europe,” he told the BBC. The Open Rights Group’s Jim Killock The Open Rights Group’s Jim Killock called the agreement “undemocratic”

“Some people have been called extreme, but equally, Amnesty International, Médecins Sans Frontières have spoken out. Even The Economist, which is hardly radical, has described the treaty as potentially draconian.”

‘Greater transparency’

The BBC contacted several key rights holders prior to the demonstration - all of which declined to comment.

The UK’s Intellectual Property Office has maintained that Acta “should not” mean new laws relating to internet use.

In a statement, Baroness Wilcox, parliamentary under-secretary for Business, Innovation and Skills, told the BBC: “It was important for the UK to be a signatory of Acta as it will set an international standard for tackling large-scale infringements of [intellectual property rights], through the creation of common enforcement standards and more effective international cooperation.

“During the negotiations, we continually pushed for greater transparency as we believed that this would have led to a better understanding of the agreement by the public.”

A Day of Action

This is an email I recieved from AVAAZ employee Alex Wiks -

Dear friends,

Politicians across Europe are starting to withdraw their support from the dangerous ACTA treaty. This weekend’s mass protest is our moment to bury ACTA for good. Click to join the day of action, in person or virtually—let’s win this!

Take action now
In 24 hours, people across the planet are joining a global street protest to bury ACTA for good.

This week our massive 2 million ACTA petition caused shockwaves in Brussels, and we’ve just learned that Germany has put ACTA on ice and other governments are close to following suit. If Europe says no to ACTA, it dies!  We’re at a tipping point—If enough of us join the protest tomorrow, we can secure our online freedom and end the threat of ACTA’s censorship nightmare.

Let’s turn out in thousands to protest or, if we can’t be there in person (most of the protests are in Europe), send messages of solidarity to our fellow citizens who are marching. Click here to use our map tool to find an event near you, or leave a solidarity message for marchers:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/acta_day_of_action_hub/?vl

Our massive ACTA petition was personally delivered to leading EU politicians in Brussels this week as it grew to 2.2 million signers and beyond. The European Parliament is choosing their new point person on the treaty right now. Let’s make sure that person realises that ACTA is too hot to handle.

Four Eastern European governments and now Germany have just said they’ll stall their decision on the treaty. Now, if hundreds of thousands of people attend thousands of rallies all across Europe tomorrow, we can ensure that all politicians across the 27 EU countries are put on notice that people don’t want ACTA and will continue to take action until the treaty is buried.

- Alex

A Retreat for ACTA

This text is taken from www.forbes.com -

It worked against SOPA, and it seems like the massive mobilization of internet protests may be derailing the once-inevitable ACTA as well.

A number of countries signed ACTA two weeks ago, sparking an initial wave of protests throughout Europe. Other countries, like Germany, said that they would sign shortly. But now, after the opposition has been growing stronger some countries seem to be backing off. Poland was the first country to suspend ratification, and on Friday Germany announced that they aren’t going to vote on the Bill until they’ve seen how the European Parliament deals with it.

It’s big news for the controversial Bill: the legislation must be approved by all 27 member for it to go into effect. The United States has already signed.

But opposition is growing stronger, and anti-SOPA protests are being planned in over 200 cities on Saturday. As in America, protesters are casting the conflict in monumental terms, citing extreme risks to freedom of speech and the freedom of the internet.

AVAAZ Petition Reaches 2ml this Morning

The AVAAZ.org petition to stop ACTA in its track has worked. But now they have set up a new target. The petition hopes to reach 3 million signitures soon and opposition to the treaty is rising with protests taking place all over the EU on Saturday including Belfast.

Time to call a few MEPs

Here is a list of select MEPs I have pulled out. This is just a small portion of the MEPs you should contact. My best bet is to ring them, that is what I will do anyway. If you want to find more MEPs in any area in the UK see the link above.

Naomi Long
Northern Ireland MP
belfast.east@allianceparty.org
naomi.long@allianceparty.org
028 9047 2004 (landline)

Jim Nicholson
Northern Ireland MEP
meps@conservatives.com
020 7222 1994 (Mobile)

Diane Dobbs
Northern Ireland MEP
diane.dodds@europarl.europa.eu
02892 667733 (landline)

Bairbre de Brún
Northern Ireland MEP
bairbre.debrun@europarl.europa.eu

Charles Tannock
England MEP
charles@charlestannock.com
020 7349 6946 (Mobile)

Gerard Batten
England MEP
gerard.batten@europarl.europa.eu
020 7403 7174/7175 (Mobile)

Catherine Stihler
Scotland MEP
catherine.stihler@europarl.europa.eu
01383 417 799 (Mobile)

David Martin
Scotland MEP
david@martinmep.com
0131 440 9040 (Mobile)

A Good Democratc Protection Community Website

As well as collecting nearly two million signitures against ACTA in the EU (A cause we both share), avaaz.org has over twelve million members worldwide. If you are opinionated about what happens in your country, then have a look at this site.

The full address is…
www.avaaz.org

Join the community and have a truly powerful voice

Act Against ACTA on Saturday 11th Febuary!

A protest consisting of the Anonymous group and Occupy Belfast will be taking place on the Saturday the 11th Feburary 2012 to combat ACTA. They will be marching from “The People’s Bank” to the City Hall and then onto other locations to spread the word about this terrible act. Come along and join in the fight against censorship.

The protest will begin at 1pm and go on until around 4pm.

We will have banners, posters, placards and leaflets for people to use. Also make your own. Anonymous will also hand out paper versions of the V for Vendetta masks for anyone who wishes to wear one.

A petition with almost 2 million signers will be sent to the EU Parliment offices in just a few days

Help sign the petition and tell the EU not to sign this aweful treety.
https://secure.avaaz.org/en/eu_save_the_internet/?acrCccbT
Copy this URL into your browser and sign the petition.

With some help this COULD BE THE END TO ACTA!

Email from MEP and member of the Greens/EFA Group Keith Taylor written by “Grace” on his behalf

Dear Jamie Shaw,

Thank you for writing to Keith Taylor MEP regarding the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), which he has asked me to respond to on his behalf. Like SOPA and PIPA in the US, ACTA is extremely worrying, and is much closer to home. With the decision to sign the agreement by the EU Council of Ministers at the end of 2011 the European Parliament is now starting its Consent Procedure. The news that on Thursday 26th January the EU and 22 Member States, including the UK, signed the agreement is very alarming. The treaty still needs the European Parliament’s consent before it can be enacted, which means that MEPs have not yet voted on the agreement. The Greens/EFA Group in the European Parliament, of which Keith is a member, issued the following press release on Thursday, condemning the signing of this controversial agreement: http://www.greens-efa.eu/digital-and-fundamental-rights-acta-5206.html

Keith and his colleagues in the Greens/EFA Group in the European Parliament are deeply concerned by both the content of the draft text and also the process by which the agreement is being adopted. For this reason, not only will Keith vote against ACTA when it is put before Parliament, but the Greens/EFA will be fighting to ensure that the agreement is not adopted until Parliament has been properly consulted and that the protection of the fundamental rights of EU citizens can be assured.

Keith shares your concerns regarding the potential impact of ACTA on European citizens’ fundamental rights. In 2010 he supported Written Declaration 0012/2010 on ‘the lack of a transparent process for the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) and potentially objectionable content’. As you may well be aware, this Written Declaration was adopted by the European Parliament in September 2010 and in November 2010, the Greens/EFA Group tabled a resolution in Plenary which you can find here: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=MOTION&reference=B7-2010-0617&language=EN Unfortunately it was not adopted, which is why we have to continue to fight.

You might also be happy to know that the Greens/EFA Group have commissioned a study on the compatibility of ACTA with the European Convention on Human Rights & the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, http://rfc.act-on-acta.eu/fundamental-rights.  We have also commissioned a study on ACTA and Access to Medicines, which you can see here: http://rfc.act-on-acta.eu/access-to-medicines. These studies try to compensate for the lack of proper impact assessments the Commission promised to make, but never delivered.

The lack of transparency in the negotiations and drafting process to date is alarming, particularly given ambiguous wording of several sections of the draft document. We have major concerns about the use of the unknown term ‘fair process’ as opposed to the well known concepts ‘due process’ and ‘fair trial’ which have protected citizens’ rights for centuries Several MEPs have formally submitted questions asking the Commission to clarify what these ambiguous terms mean and how they are expected to be interpreted by the European Court of Justice. However, the Commission’s answers have not alleviated our concerns as many of them refer to documents which have not been made public. The Commission has made a document compiling all questions it has received on ACTA, which you can access at http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2011/april/tradoc_147852.pdf

The European Parliament is now about to start dealing with the question whether to give or whether to withhold consent to ACTA. Most crucial will be the committees LIBE (civil liberties), DEVE (development) and INTA (international trade - leading committee on ACTA). Keith is a member of INTA and will be voting against ACTA, and will be leaning on his INTA colleagues to do so too.

If you want to help, we suggest you contact especially liberal and social-democrat MEPs in these committees, as it is not clear yet how these political groups will vote in the end. Your request to them can make a real difference.

Thank you once again for writing to Keith on this important matter, and please rest assured that the Greens/EFA group will continue to fight both the content of ACTA and the lack of transparency in the process. If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to get back in touch.

To see more about the work that Keith does in the European Parliament please visit his website: http://www.keithtaylormep.org.uk

Kind Regards,
Grace

Email from MEP and member of the UKIP Party William Dartmouth

Dear Jamie Shaw,

You may rest assured that I and all my UKIP colleagues will vote against ACTA when it comes to the Plenary.

UKIP’s statement on ACTA:

Statement on ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement)
This piece of legislation which is being proposed and led by the European Commission will be opposed by all UKIP MEPs when it is voted on in the European Parliament.

UKIP do not want the EU making decisions on behalf of the UK and in this case it is even more pertinent given that this multilateral agreement would never be passed through national governments and a supranational level gives it a greater chance of being passed than if it were passed through accountable parliaments.

ACTA would create an international legal framework and supporters have claimed it is required to combat counterfeit drugs and goods and pirated material.

However civil society groups and developing countries were excludes from the discussions during the drawing up of the legislation. Developing countries and many international humanitarian and welfare organisations are concerned about the impact of ACTA on life saving drugs in the developing world whilst civil liberties groups insist that ACTA will weaken fundamental liberties and freedom of expression.

The liability of Internet Service Providers is also a reason why UKIP could not support the legislation in much the same way as libel laws in the UK, where newsagents were liable for the sale of newspapers or magazines if they were found to contain defamatory material restricted freedom of speech.

Claims that UKIP have supported ACTA are grossly misleading. UKIP voted against a ‘motion for resolution’ in the European Parliament which is non legislative and non binding.

Furthermore, the reason UKIP voted against the motion was because it asked the Commission to continue negotiating the agreement, something which UKIP is opposed to. We did not support this as we did not support legitimising unelected bureaucrats negotiating matters which will affect Britain, hidden away behind closed doors.

Whilst we understand that there needs to be profits made by companies such as those who make video games and for research and development we do not feel this piece of legislation is the answer.

Very best William Dartmouth