ACTA Signed By 22 EU Countries 138
First time accepted submitter azrael29a writes "22 EU members signed the controversial ACTA treaty today in Tokyo. However, the signatures of the EU member states and the EU itself will count for nothing unless the European Parliament gives its approval to ACTA in June."
Re:French MEP calls it a 'charade' (Score:5, Interesting)
Funny.
Yesterday people were asking "How can I move from the US to the EU?" in praise of the EU's anti-corporate actions. But today the EU demonstrated it's really no different..... the bureaucrats/politicians are bought and sold by the corporate elite in the same fashion.
"Yeah... they want to control the internet. They can't wait to silence freedom of speech and yank websites." - Ron Paul.
BTW they are already doing this in Russia. Any website that dares to challenge Putin or his party are accused of "using copyright-infringing software" and their computers immediately seized. The end. Copyright is being used to control the People and silence dissent.
It is simple (Score:2, Interesting)
It can be used as a form of population control.
Like someone else already pointed out here, in Russia, if you are anti-Putin, you are claimed to be against copyright and your computers will be seized.
The same things will take place elsewhere, too.
All these, ACTA, SOPA, PIPA, whatever, they aim for only one purpose: cement the current ruling class and elite into place. This is done by getting tools with which to fight any incumbents.
Currently the tools must be hidden with "helps copyright", "thinks of children", and such lies. Later, when any opposition can just be thrown to jail, these lies will not be needed. Reading the news and history books on your iPad will not show a trace of these people or their ideology.
Re:There's your answer. (Score:3, Interesting)
For our American and Canadian readers; in Germany (and most other European countries) every vote counts. This means that your % of popular vote more or less directly translates into % of seats. This is called "equal representation".
For our European friends; in the US and Canada not every vote counts. Take for instance Canada. For Federal/National elections, the country is being cut in 388 little areas, called "ridings". The best way to explain is that, aside from a "national election" with "national candidates" being fought in the media, there's actually at the same time some sort of municipal election going on. The actual voting is riding-based (you don't vote for the "party leader", you vote for -if you win- some backbencher that happens to live in your neighbourhood).
Let's assume that in all ridings, the party "AA-Friends" gets 40% of the vote, the party "Neutral" gets 31% and the Pirate Party of Canada wins 29%. In that case, all ridings are won by the AA-Friends and they rule with a 100% majority, while Neutral and PPoC get no seats at all, even though together they hold 60% of the popular vote. In reality of course, the ridings are not all won by the same party, but the truth is that with less than 40% of the popular vote the Conservatives do hold a majority in parliament.
So while Canada and the US won't see any threat by "independent" candidates, in Germany it's a very, very real danger. Luckily for us, this also extends to the European Parliament where IPR-related matters are decided.