Stop ACTA!

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Stop ACTA!

The European Commission suspended its efforts to ratify the Anti-Counterfeit Trade Agreement, also called ACTA, and referred it to the European Court of Justice to find out if it violates any European Union recognized rights. EU Trade Commissioner Karel de Gucht on Thursday said that the opinion of the European Court of Justice would clear any misunderstanding referring to the provisions of the ACTA.
The European Commission and the European Council have already approved ACTA and the debate in the European Parliament is scheduled for June. De Gucht said that the debate on the ACTA must be based on facts not on “rumors and misinformation” that dominated “social media sites and blogs” in recent weeks. The decision made by the European Commission reflects the concern in the countries of Europe, where ACTA was seen as a means to restrict the freedom of speech, and as a threat to the privacy of the internet users.
The European Court of Justice will have to say whether the new document preserves the freedom of the internet, the freedom of expression, the protection of personal data, and also to right of intellectual property. ACTA is designed to clap down on counterfeited goods and on infringements of copyright.
People all over Europe protested in about 150 cities the signing by their countries of the ACTA in Tokyo, at the end of January. The most vivid such protests occurred in Poland, where tens of thousands took it to the streets demanding the government to take back the signature from Tokyo.
At first the government said it would not give in to the “ACTA blackmail,” but then the parliament postponed the discussion about the document.
In Bulgaria, thousands of people protested, prompting the government to say that Bulgaria would wait until other countries have ratified it before approving it. Bulgarians expressed their concern over the possibility that the internet users could be spied if the law became operational.
In the Netherlands, the parliament wanted to know that ACTA does not offer the internet providers the possibility to release data about users without a proper judicial warrant.
The decision to take the document to the European Court of Justice was praised by the Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament, whose spokesman David Martin said that the ruling of the commission would be a “good guarantee” for the impact on fundamental rights.
De Gucht said that ACTA will not censor the Internet, nor will it shut down websites, it will not hinder freedom of the internet or freedom of speech. The opponents of ACTA said that the fact that the European Commission asked for the opinion of the European Court of Justice does not change the fact that ACTA does not have any legitimacy.
The Trade Commissioner’s office did not say how much must the European Commission wait for the answer of the highest court of justice. The move to request the opinion of the ECJ is not unprecedented, as similar advises were asked in the past.

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