EU To Sign ACTA Later This Month

rysiek writes "At a meeting of Polish Government officials with Polish NGOs and business representatives it was confirmed that the European Union is poised to sign the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement as soon as January 26th. But all is not lost. The Treaty still needs to be ratified by the Euro Parliament and member states individually. The ratification vote is important, as it is an either-or vote — if not ratified there, ACTA gets rejected in its entirety. The Ministry of Administration and Digitization is not amused and has asked the Prime Minister (who promised this May to hold ACTA adoption until the kinks are worked out) to cancel the signing authorization for the time being."

Blackout?

[bfandreas]

Will Wikipedia, Google and TotalBiscuit black out for us?
No?
Damn, we're screwed.

Picketing the EU Parliament won't work because most representatives don't show up anyway

:(

Explain this to an American programmer

[MrEricSir]

These types of EU processes seem very convoluted to an outsider, as lawmaking processes often do. Can somebody give me a flow chart or a UML diagram? Or even pseudocode is fine.

Re:Blackout?

[Seumas]

Of course they won't. People blew their wad on SOPA. They didn't give a fuck about the initial ACTA. They didn't give a fuck about NDAA. Hell, they didn't give a fuck about the PATRIOT Act. The flurry of activity against SOPA was an aberration.

Well, this one is kind of lost...

[blind biker]

Unfortunately, the "rich cocksuckers" (just citing Carlin) are influential, and have been projecting their influence all around the world. An EU politician isn't any better than any US politician - in both cases, corporate psychopaths tend to percolate up the chain of power, and therefore, have no quibbles being bribed and acting in their own interest vs. the interest of everyone.

This *could* be stopped if there were a concerted action like the one resisting SOPA/PIPA, but there isn't. There is no time even to mount a half-buttocked campaign, at this point.

I would love to be proven wrong.

Re:Politicians we elected? You must be new here.

[the_arrow]

There are also a few good ones, and I admit I'm a little surprised things have gotten this far with Neelie Kroes (who is normally well-informed and a voice of reason) currently serving as Commissioner for the Digital Agenda.

That might be because most of the ACTA stuff has apparently been handled by the EU fishery department.

Re:Politicians we elected? You must be new here.

[TheRaven64]

The MEP that I voted for campaigns for the FFII and she is part of a coalition that opposes ACTA. Unfortunately, this is being pushed through without the approval of the Parliament.