European Parliament joins ACTA protests

GaryW

Rosalie Marshall, V3.co.uk, Monday 8 March 2010 at 17:53:00
Officials call for more MEPs to sign declaration against ACTA secrecy
Four members of the European Parliament have launched a public protest
against the Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), registering their
discontent with secret negotiations undertaken by the European Union, the US and
other leading countries since 2007.
Only a select number of European Commission (EC) members have been involved
in negotiating ACTA, but leaked documents show that the trade agreement contains
controversial proposals for disconnecting illegal downloaders from the internet.
The final terms of ACTA are due to be agreed this year. The European
Parliament has asked the EC for access to the secret documents before, but its
requests have always been denied.
The four MEPs that have formed the '12/2010 against ACTA' declaration argue
that the openness of the internet should be preserved, and that ACTA could
severely harm freedom of expression, net neutrality and the right to a fair
trial.
The MEPs are French socialist FranÃ§oise Castex, German liberal Alexander
Alvaro, Greek socialist Stavros Lambrinidis, and the Czech Christian Democrat
Zuzana RoithovÃ¡.
The declaration was accepted by the European Presidency two weeks ago and
will be open for all MEPs to sign after a translation period.
The four MEPs have been joined by digital rights groups across Europe in
calls for citizens to get in touch with their MEP to urge them to sign the
written declaration.
Digital rights groups, trade unions and other non-governmental organisations
have previously argued for the ACTA negotiations to be made more transparent,
but their voices have so far been ignored. The inclusion of MEPs in the protest
is likely to add more weight to the cause.
The written declaration defines boundaries that should not be crossed by ACTA
negotiators, emphasising that internet service providers should not be made
liable for actions undertaken by their users or be compelled to monitor and
filter their networks.
The text is in line with recent warnings from the European Data Protection
Supervisor, which said that ACTA threatened data privacy.
\"The adoption of the written declaration will send a strong message to the
Commission and Member States that the European Parliament will not let EU
citizens' freedoms be undermined by opaque diplomatic negotiations,\" said
JÃ©rÃ©mie Zimmermann, co-founder of French digital rights group La Quadrature du
Net.
\"Every citizen and non-governmental organisation concerned about ACTA can
participate by calling MEPs and urging them to sign the declaration.\"
Meanwhile Jim Killock, executive director for the UK Open Rights Group,
insisted that ACTA needs to be made transparent in order to determine whether
consumer rights are under threat.
\"The European Parliament should have been involved in the negotiations,\" he
said. \"I suggest UK citizens get in contact with their MEPs to discuss the
issue.\"
However, the ACTA clause relating to internet disconnection is likely to be
less significant to UK citizens as the government's Digital Economy Bill
proposes similar 'three strikes' laws that would see repeat illegal file-sharers
cut off the internet. A new amendment to the Bill may also see certain web sites
outlawed.

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