European Parliament has principles
The overwhelming vote in the European Parliament this week - 663-13! - to oppose the secretly-negotiated Anti-Counterfeiting and Trade Agreement was striking. They’re calling for the text to be revealed, and they’re not happy about making ISPs introduce “US-style draconian ways” to punish misbehaving subscribers.
According to Wired, the Parliament isn’t saying that there shouldn’t be a treaty covering counterfeiting. But the text of the proposed treaty should be public, and if it requires ISPs to punish Internet users the Parliament will oppose it.
The US has refused to reveal the text of the treaty on national security and other grounds, citing its need to work with other government representatives on a confidential basis before the treaty is finalized. (Interesting interview with Michael Geist, the cyberlawyer of Canada, here.) Public interest groups in the US have been allowed to see the text - but only if they agree not to tell anyone about what they’ve read.
There’s a good deal of confusion about what the text of the treaty actually says. There’s also a great deal of concern about what it could do to harm users’ rights and interests. Is it a global DMCA? Does it mandate a global “three strikes” regime?
The cloak of secrecy that the US has flung over the ACTA proceedings has only served to make free-flow-of-information fans around the world more anxious. Now the European Parliament has put a heavy foot down. It’s good to see principled parliamentarians worried about civil liberties, and unfortunate that American interests are being presented in such a one-sided way.
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