ACTA review scrapped - vote coming, Irish gov supports

What has happened:
The EU was going to refer ACTA to the European Court of Justice, which could have delayed adoption of ACTA for up to two years, but instead it is carrying on with negotiating it in the EU now:
https://torrentfreak.com/acta-battle-nears-climax-in-europe-120328/

This could result in a vote on ACTA in June (as originally planned), which is not altogether a bad thing because the ECJ delay could have allowed it to slip under the radar 2 years later.


Description of ACTA:
ACTA is an international copyright treaty, to be signed by the EU, which was written undemocratically and in complete secret by governments and lobby groups.
It obligates every country that signs it (including Ireland), to implement new copyright laws based upon the treaty, but the treaty has very dangerously broad/generalized definitions of these laws.

The definition of laws in ACTA could be used as a basis to cut people off from the internet on accusation alone of copyright infringement, to create a system of blocking websites accused of copyright infringement but with no due process in court, and in general to slowly build a system of increasing censorship on the internet.

Even the EU's Rapporteur for ACTA has resigned in protest against this treaty, denouncing it and saying there was:
"no inclusion of civil society organizations, a lack of transparency from the start of the negotiations, repeated postponing of the signature of the text without an explanation being ever given, [and] exclusion of the EU Parliament's demands that were expressed on several occasions in [the] assembly"


What to do about it:
EDIT: Correction, contacting local TD's/politicians isn't useful, the Irish MEP's (Members of the European Parliament) need to be contacted instead:
www.europarl.ie/view/en/Your_MEPs.html

This needs discussion now because it is probably going to vote in June, and from past emails I've had, Ireland definitely supports it.

Like the recent website injunction law, people need to contact Irish MEP's, find what their point of view is on ACTA and get them to oppose it.
The difficult thing about this, is that ACTA is so broad and ill-defined, it is hard to explain specific issues with it; it also pays lip-service in the text to fundamental rights etc. (despite providing no actual safeguards), which allows a quick way for politicians to dismiss your concerns.

One of the most fundamental points of contention though, is that it was negotiated completely in secret, with no democratic oversight or inclusion of the public in decision making, and the ACTA Committee can push for introduction of new undemocratic laws at any time as a part of the ACTA agreement.

It is basically an abuse of the process of writing up laws, using international treaties, so that the people and most of government in a country have no say, and then the treaty is signed and they are obligated to introduce laws matching the treaty. It is a completely inappropriate abuse of international treaties, that basically amounts to 'policy laundering'.



Other detailed aspects of ACTA:
The treaty sets up an international 'ACTA Comittee', which is not a part of existing international diplomatic institutions, and which will direct the future implementation of ACTA, possibly without any oversight or democracy. Basically, future copyright laws everywhere, could be written up and decided by this undemocratic organization, without any input from the people of a country, and without any oversight.

Other specific points of contention in the treaty, are that ACTA allows excessively broad charges for copyright infringement, e.g. possibly fines in tens of thousands for a single song;
it also potentially criminalizes generic drugs (a previously patented drug that is no longer patented), making many drugs more expensive and harming the public health of developing countries, as countries under ACTA could be prevented from shipping them to developing countries.


List of Irish MEP's and contact info:

• Emer Costello
  Email: emer.costello@europarl.europa.eu
  
• Gay Mitchell
  Phone: 01 4961940
  Email: gay.mitchell@europarl.europa.eu
  
• Paul Murphy
  Phone: 01 679 5030
  Email: paul.murphy@europarl.europa.eu
  
• Liam Aylward
  Phone: 056 776 8703
  Email: liam.aylward@europarl.europa.eu
  
• Nessa Childers
  Phone: 01 296 2263
  Email: nessa.childers@europarl.europa.eu
  
• Mairead McGuinness
  Phone: 041 685 4633
  Email: mairead.mcguinness@europarl.europa.eu
  
• Brian Crowley
  Phone: 021 489 6433
  Email: brian.crowley@europarl.europa.eu
  
• Seán Kelly
  Phone: 061 468788
  Email: seankellymep@gmail.com
  
• Phil Prendergast
  Phone: 052 612 4380
  Email: phil.prendergast@europarl.europa.eu
  
• Pat the Cope Gallagher
  Phone: 074 9521276
  Email: patthecope.gallagher@europarl.europa.eu
  
• Marian Harkin
  Phone: 071 914 5890
  Email: marian.harkin@europarl.europa.eu
  
• Jim Higgins
  Phone: 094 936 7323
  Email: jim.higgins@europarl.europa.eu