European Parliament unites against 3 strikes, ACTA secrecy; Ars Technica, 3/9/10

Nate Anderson, Ars Technica; European Parliament unites against 3 strikes, ACTA secrecy:

"The European Parliament is fed up with the secrecy surrounding the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). Today, representatives from all the major parliamentary coalitions introduced a resolution demanding that the European Commission release all negotiating texts, inform Parliament about the negotiating process, and absolutely refuse to countenance any sort of "three strikes" Internet disconnection penalty for online copyright infringement.

The measure comes up for a vote tomorrow and looks set to pass—it has the support of all the important groups in Parliament, including the EPP, S&D, ALDE, and the Greens/EFA. One notable supporter: Christian Engström, the Pirate Party's lone MEP in Parliament, who aligns with the Greens/EFA group.

The resolution doesn't take long to get to the point. Parliament wishes to "express its concern over the lack of a transparent process in the conduct of the ACTA negotiations" and complains that "no parliamentary approval has been asked for the mandate [to negotiate the agreement]." Parliament wants immediate access to all documents and demands that it be "immediately and fully informed at all stages of the negotiations." If not, the resolution threatens legal action against the European Commission.

The resolution specifically demands that European negotiators not assent to "any so called 'three strikes' procedures" given the European Parliament's long dislike for such practices.

The resolution does not call for ACTA to scrapped, however. Instead, negotiations should center only on more effective "counterfeiting" enforcement. As Engström put it in a blog post on the new resolution, "If there is to be an ACTA agreement, the parliament wants it to be about combating goods counterfeiting (i.e., fake Rolexes and hand bags, fake Viagra on the net, fake cigarettes that are even more harmful that proper ones, etc.). It should not be about restricting our fundamental civil liberties on the net... Today is a day when it feels good to be a Pirate in the European Parliament."

Parliament has called for such information before; as long ago as March 2009 it asked the Commission to turn over all documents related to ACTA. Nothing happened. But the resolution claims that, thanks to the Treaty of Lisbon coming into force on December 1 2009, Parliament will have to approve ACTA before it comes into force. If the Commission refuses to involve Parliament, a "no" vote might be the eventual result of two years of negotiating work."

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/03/european-parliament-unites-against-3-strikes-acta-secrecy.ars