ACTAs future in danger due to protests in many European cities

Last Saturday, thousands of people protested against the Anti-counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) in many European cities. For example in Amsterdam and London, 200 people went to the streets to protest against ACTA. Also, there were protest actions against the treaty in more than 50 cities in Germany

ACTA is a controversial agreement. The goal of the treaty is to set op international standards to protect intellectual property. The scope of ACTA includes fighting against counterfeit products such as clothing and medicine and illegal copying of software, games and music. The European Commission states that ACTA will tackle intellectual property violations more effectively than the current cross-border legal framework. However the treaty is received with much criticism.

For example, Martin Schulz, the European Parliament’s president, criticized ACTA arguing that it lacks sufficient balance between copyright protection and the individual rights of Internet users. Also this month, the German government announced that it would not sign ACTA. Critics say that ACTA’s strict approach to online enforcement of IP rights could amount to limitation of freedom of expression and a threat to online privacy and internet freedom.
 
On 26 January 2012, the EU and 22 of its Member States signed ACTA. However, the EU Member States Cyprus, Estonia, Germany, the Netherlands and Slovakia, have so far declined to sign the document. Furthermore, ACTA has to be ratified by all EU Member States and the European Parliament before it may enter into force. Ratification has been halted in the Czech Republic, Poland and Latvia. The European Parliament still has to vote about the treaty. We’ll have to wait for its statement.

For more information about ACTA click here

Read more about ACTA on FutureOfCopyright.com:

• Dutch Minister Verhagen is free to discuss signing ACTA
• ACTA does not entail obligatory implementation of "Three Strikes"
• EU, Switzerland and Mexico will not sign ACTA yet

References: ZDnet.co.uk , Tweakers.net, Free.pl.info, OSNews.com, The Register

By: Deniece Teterissa