ACTA approved by EU Parliament (or not)

KyussBishop

Where did this come from? Had not heard anything about a vote, until I just read on Slashdot that it's been passed.

After 11 rounds of international negotiations, the final text of the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) has overcome its biggest hurdle yet when it was welcomed as a step in the right direction by the European Parliament, which voted 331-294, with 11 members abstaining, to approve the measure.

Although the Parliament has called for some reassurances from the European Commission, the vote means that in principle the final legal text can now be agreed to by the Commission at a meeting in Sydney from Nov. 30 to Dec. 3. Under the Lisbon Treaty, Members of the European Parliament were required to give their consent to the measure and there were fears right up until the vote that they might halt the deal altogether.

...

The ACTA agreement has been mired in controversy from the beginning due to secrecy imposed by the U.S. and to worries that it may not uphold E.U. data privacy rules. The deal seeks to enforce intellectual property rights and combat online piracy and illegal software.

The most controversial paragraph in the final text leaves the door open for countries to introduce the so-called three-strikes rule. This would cut Internet users off if they download copyright material as national authorities would be able to order ISPs to disclose personal information about customers.

http://www.itworld.com/legal/128754/eu-parliament-approves-once-secret-acta-copyright-treaty

So, even though I'm not sure what the final text of this will look like, this could lead to a rollout of the three strikes laws across Europe.

Last I remember reading up on ACTA, it didn't seem like it had any chance of passing in Europe; this is very surprising.
Also probably a notable distraction (intentional?) from current events with European economies.

Amhran Nua

Christian Engström, Pirate Party MEP, says its not approved as such, only the "hard work" done by negotiators so far has been approved, the resolution has no effective meaning. Still, as a card carrying member of the FFII, I am not a happy bunny right now.

KyussBishop

Ah that's odd, wonder why there is such a disparity between these two reports? (teach me for giving Slashdot much credence, heh)

Trevor451

I wonder how much money the MPs got paid by the record labels to vote in favour of this treaty?

Scofflaw

KyussBishop wrote: »

Ah that's odd, wonder why there is such a disparity between these two reports? (teach me for giving Slashdot much credence, heh)

Looks like a fairly standard misinterpretation of the EU legislative process. The Parliament was voting on its opinion of what the Commission proposed, not on the legislation itself. Instead of voting that the Commission needed to put further work clarifying and assessing in before drafting, they voted to welcome what the Commission had done so far without immediate requirements for further work - the choice was between the Parliament demanding more information and not doing so, not between accepting the deal and not doing so.

The close vote on that opinion suggests, though, that if the Commission comes back to the Parliament for the final vote without any clarification or assessment, there's a good chance of it being defeated.

cordially,
Scofflaw