EU Privacy Chief Says ACTA Violates European Law 136
An anonymous reader writes "Peter Hustinx, the European Data Protection Supervisor, has issued a 20-page opinion expressing concern about ACTA (PDF). Michael Geist's summary of the opinion notes that it concludes that the prospect of a three-strikes and you're out system may violate European privacy law, that the possibility of cross-border enforcement raises serious privacy issues, and that ACTA transparency is needed now."
Re:I Think I Know Why They Left Him Out (Score:3, Informative)
Ah, whatever the majority wants. Wanna lynch a few pesky minorities too, while you're at it?
I could care less about what the majority wants. Simply put ACTA is a political scam, like everything else politics, and he damn well has every right to be dead-set against whatever they're doing because it sure as hell isn't going to be good. The fact that it's behind closed doors should tell you that much.
Re:Secret laws are illegal anyway (Score:3, Informative)
I'm sure it will be available for the public to read - but only after it has been signed into law. ACTA is still being negotiated, you know.
Re:Secret laws are illegal anyway (Score:5, Informative)
Its not law yet. Its a proposed international treaty. Once it is signed, then each individual country that signs (an ratifies) it is then obligated to pass laws to implement the treaty. Those laws of course will be public.
The problem with secret negotiations, is that the public is then presented with a fait d'accompli, which must be implemented in law, thus depriving them of any input. In some countries, the ratification process provides some measure of input, but it is binary, either yes or no. Once ratified, the politicians can then say, "we have to pass this law, we are obligated by the treaty" and ignore any opposition from the public.
Re:Seems fairly intelligent... (Score:2, Informative)
[quote]What I'm surprised he did not address is the violation of the Right to a trial by your peers (jury).[/quote]
That is because such a (ridiculous) thing does not exist in most European countries. See the Wikipedia entry on Civil Law [wikipedia.org].
Keeping proposed legislation secret (Score:5, Informative)
I have to disagree with you in this:
People have all sorts of different reasons for keeping legislation secret until it is proposed ranging from strategically hiding it from your opposition thereby reducing their reaction time to simply not having a solid foundation built yet. If you've got a shaky idea of what all the players want out of this deal, you shouldn't be publishing the initial draft of the documentation. This leads to confusion and gives opponents fodder. Let's say the countries that came to the table eventually reject the international three strikes rule but later have problems passing a better version of ACTA that actually tries to achieve a solution without invading privacy.
That's exacty what corrupts democracy from an open discussion of ideas towards a power game more akin to chess playing. Entertaining, but missing the point.
One of the pieces of US legislation I'm most envious of, as an European is FOIA (the time span should be considerably shorter, but over here, governments are free to keep things secret forever).
Keep politics and admin honest by making known as much as possible as early as possible.
Re:I Think I Know Why They Left Him Out (Score:3, Informative)
It is article 33 which forbids collective punishments:
So, who are "protected persons"? Article 4 gives the answer:
So, unless the US invades a country in order to impose ACTA there by force, victims of "three strikes" cannot consider themselves to be protected by the Geneva convention, and so article 33 would not apply.
Re:Seems fairly intelligent... (Score:3, Informative)
That should get you started. If you want more information, I suggest using Google and improving your Google-Fu friend. The intrawebz are your friend
*: I am making the assumption that you are a United States citizen. This, of course, is based on absolutely no facts, as you have revealed nothing regarding your nationality. If you are not from the US, you can still probably use Google and Wikipedia to do your own search regarding your ACTA representatives. Say what you will that such an assumption is based on hedonism and/or nationalism, but I have nothing better to go off as you have revealed no information regarding the country of your residence/origin.
Re:I Think I Know Why They Left Him Out (Score:1, Informative)
It's not about the record companies and the end of their business model. Its about more important things like patents on the DNA of food and the pollen blowing in the wind. Companies like Monsanto and ADM are huge players in IP and have the resources to crush competitors in other markets with secret laws like this being passed. They've already done it here (US) and would love to expand to other markets and ACTA is the means to do it.