Critical.
Authoritative.
Strategic.
Subscribe to CIO Magazine »

EU Parliament rejects ACTA in 663 to 13 vote for openness

MEPs demand talks are open to public scrutiny

The EU Parliament has approved a common resolution that calls for openness over the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), in a 663-to-13 vote, arguing that ACTA contradicts agreed EU laws on counterfeiting and piracy online.

In addition, EU Parliament has said it is ready to go to the Court of Justice if the European Commission (EC) does not reject ACTA rules, or indeed even give Parliament access to the draft ACTA texts.

This is a massive setback for the highly secretive ACTA, an international anti-counterfeiting framework that has been in development for over two years. ACTA, a draft of which was leaked online in February, seeks to establish international standards on intellectual property rights enforcement.

However, critics say ACTA would allow "US-style draconian" policies to penalise piracy, including the controversial "three strikes" rule that requires ISPs to cut off an illegal filesharing subscriber's Internet connection after two warnings.

Essentially, today's vote will mean negotiators will have to go back to the drawing board and come up with a compromise to appease objections raised by EU Parliament.

Christian Engstrm, MEP for the Swedish Pirate Party, welcomed the decision: "This is just the beginning. This is a resolution by a virtually unanimous parliament, but it is not formally binding for the Commission. If they want to ignore us, they technically can. Then we will have to fight on."

The participating countries in the ACTA talks are the US, the EU, Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Singapore, Jordan, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates.

Their next meeting will take place in New Zealand in April. The 11 negotiating parties aim to conclude the treaty by the end of this year.

Join the CIO Australia group on LinkedIn. The group is open to CIOs, IT Directors, COOs, CTOs and senior IT managers.

More about: EU, European Commission
References show all

Comments

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
Users posting comments agree to the CIO comments policy.
Login or register to link comments to your user profile, or you may also post a comment without being logged in.
Related Coverage
Related Whitepapers
Latest Stories
Community Comments
Tags: Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, copyright, european commision
Latest Blog Posts
Whitepapers
  • Prepare Your Enterprise for the Mobile Revolution: Boost the Bottom Line with Mobile UC
    This white paper will highlight the changes in the mobile workplace; outline the benefits of unified communications (UC) and Fixed-Mobile Convergence (FMC) for mobile workers; identify the key market trends and business challenges IT managers must pay attention to now and into the future; and offer best practices for choosing a solution that will deliver clear ROI.
    Learn more »
  • Managing IBM License Complexity
    IBM provides thousands of products in its portfolio and uses a variety of license models, contract terms and conditions. These license models can be very complex, causing frequent confusion for organisations trying to grasp the concepts while maintaining license compliance. While at first IBM licensing may seem incomprehensible, some education on the license models and licensing scenarios will help minimise the confusion. In addition, a more automated approach to managing licenses enables organisations to gain control, reduce ongoing software costs and minimise license liability risks. Read on.
    Learn more »
  • Oracle Exadata Database Machine Warehouse Architectural Comparisons
    Exadata is Oracle’s fastest growing new product. Much of the growth of Exadata has come at the expense of specialized data warehouse appliance vendors. These vendors have published competitive comparisons to Exadata, claiming: Architecture is what really matters for performance, Purpose-built data warehousing architectures perform best, They see architecture as an end in itself rather than as a means to an end. Read on.
    Learn more »
All whitepapers
rhs_login_lockGet exclusive access to Invitation only events CIO, reports & analysis.
Recent comments