ACTA Moves Forward In Europe Despite Protests - What It Means For Our Freedom Online

Protesters demonstrate against ACTA (Image by AFP/Getty Images via @daylife)

◼ The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) was signed yesterday by the European Commission, leading to protests across Europe but especially in Poland where thousands of citizens took to the streets over concerns of online censorship. - Forbes (image source)

Some EU leaders are unhappy as well. Kader Arif, the European Parliament’s rapporteur for ACTA, resigned over the issue on Friday, saying he had witnessed “never-before-seen manoeuveres” by the officials responsible for crafting the treaty.

In a statement, Arif said: “I condemn the whole process which led to the signature of this agreement: no consultation of the civil society, lack of transparency since the beginning of negotiations, repeated delays of the signature of the text without any explanation given, reject of Parliament’s recommendations as given in several resolutions of our assembly.”

◼ If You Thought SOPA Was Bad, Just Wait Until You Meet ACTA - Forbes

Few people have heard of ACTA, or the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, but the provisions in the agreement appear quite similar to – and more expansive than – anything we saw in SOPA. Worse, the agreement spans virtually all of the countries in the developed world, including all of the EU, the United States, Switzerland and Japan....

The treaty has been secretly negotiated behind the scenes between governments with little or no public input. The Bush administration started the process, but the Obama administration has aggressively pursued it.

Indeed, we signed ACTA in 2011.

According to critics, ACTA bypasses the sovereign laws of participating nations, forcing ISP’s across the globe to act as internet police.

Worse, it appears to go much further than the internet, cracking down on generic drugs and making food patents even more radical than they are by enforcing a global standard on seed patents that threatens local farmers and food independence across the developed world....

Update: An earlier version of this post claimed the act required Senate ratification. Reports are conflicting, but it appears this is not the case. ACTA has been signed as a sole executive agreement, meaning the president’s signature on this is all it takes for it to become law, though Sen. Ron Wyden has questioned the constitutionality of that move on the part of the administration.

◼ How To Protest ACTA - Dave Thier/Forbes

The internet is starting to mobilize against the controversial bill, but ACTA is already moving forward in the European parliament. Protests against it are much less developed than those against SOPA, but they will certainly move quickly. For starters, French digital rights advocacy group La Quadrature has posted a ◼ how-to guide on protesting in seven different languages.

Where Do Your Representatives Stand on SOPA and PIPA?

◼ SOPA Opera - ProPublica

67 Supporters, including California representatives Baca, Bass, Berman, Bono Mack, Boxer, Chu, Feinstein, Gallegly, Schiff, and Sherman.

Speak Up for Internet Liberty!

Republican Liberty Caucus: Despite claims that they have been “improved” and rumors that opposition from the Obama administration may make them harder to pass, we expect the Senate to move forward with a vote on the Protect IP Act (S.968), its version of the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act (H.R.3261), on Tuesday and a vote on SOPA in the House may follow a few days later.

Despite prominent protests from major websites like Wikipedia and Google, which are staging “blackout” events, shutting their systems down to draw attention to the issue, influential media lobbyists have bought enough support in Congress that they may be able to ram these bills through Congress with leverage from powerful Congressmen like SOPA author and Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-TX).

We expect the US Senate to hold its first vote on PIPA/SOPA on Monday the 24th. Please write your Senators now to demand that they stand up for liberty and free enterprise on the internet and oppose prior restraint and censorship. Don't let the US implement Chinese-style internet regulation. ◼ ACTION ITEM: CONTACT FORM HERE

SOPA protest: 7,000 and growing, say organizers

◼ An estimated 7,000 websites are planning to go dark Wednesday as part of a mass protest against a pair of controversial anti-piracy bills — and opponents of the measures say the number is likely to increase. - Politico

A mix of watchdog groups, content creators and grass-roots activists on Tuesday touted the planned mass Internet blackout as the largest online “revolution” in the U.S. to date.

The online protest is aimed squarely at lawmakers pushing the Stop Online Piracy Act in the House and the PROTECT IP Act in the Senate and comes with a message: back off the bills or face the wrath of the same Internet community you’re trying to regulate.

“Tomorrow will be a big day of action,” said Tiffiniy Cheng, director of fightforthefuture.org, which is organizing the blackout. “The fight will continue until we get the final say from members of Congress that these bills will be dropped, and we’ll start from the beginning on how to balance protection of copyright with expression online.”

What Congress Heard from Constituents in 2011:

◼ Top 50 Bills in Congress That Garnered the Most Messages to Congress - SF Gate

POPVOX releases list of bills that provoked the most messages from constituents to Congress in 2011. Robocalls to cell phones, consumption tax proposals, abortion restrictions, health reform repeal, and online intellectual property bills topped the list....

Topping the list of legislation was H.R. 3035, the Mobile Information Call Act, with over 10,000 people weighing in against the proposal. Given the large-scale opposition, the sponsor, Representative Lee Terry, pronounced the bill "dead" on December 17.

The "Fair Tax Act" took two spots in the top ten list, with the House version, H.R. 25, ranked second in popularity and the Senate version, S. 13, ranking ninth (both with 80% support.)

H.R. 2306 to end the federal prohibition of marijuana, H.R. 3 to prevent taxpayer funding of abortion, and H.R. 2, to repeal health reform, took third, fourth, and fifth places respectively. The much-discussed "Stop Online Piracy Act" (SOPA), H.R. 3261, ranked sixth in number of people who sent a message to Congress using POPVOX....

To view a list of the Top 50 bills and a slide show of the Top 10, ◼ visit POPVOX: www.popvox.com/blog/2011/what-congress-heard-in-2011/

“Congress has proven it does not understand the Internet. Perhaps they will understand brute strength against them at the ballot box. If members of Congress do not pull their name from co-sponsorship of SOPA, the left and right should pledge to defeat each and every one of them.”

◼ SOPA is the end of us, say bloggers - Politico

The conservative and liberal blogospheres are unifying behind opposition to Congress’s Stop Online Piracy Act, with right-leaning bloggers arguing their very existence could be wiped out if the anti-piracy bill passes.

“If either the U.S. Senate’s Protect IP Act (PIPA) & the U.S. House’s Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) become law, political blogs such as Red Mass Group [conservative] & Blue Mass Group [liberal] will cease to exist,” wrote a blogger at Red Mass Group.

...“Some good news on the SOPA front: Its corporate base of supporters is starting to crumble,” David Dayden wrote at Firedoglake. “GoDaddy is not alone. Scores of law firms are requesting their names be removed from the Judiciary Committee’s official list of SOPA supporters.”

In the blogosphere, the trajectory of the bill seemed set — that it is destined for failure if the pressure of the online community is kept up.