The EU signs up to ACTA, but French MEP quits in protest | Hacker News Reader

The EU signs up to ACTA, but French MEP quits in protest

wired.co.uk

61 pointsmajmun16 comments

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meanwhile in Poland

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:ACTA_protest_by_members_of...

http://m.onet.pl/_m/97f16e62164319581cc1a44fd071c744,9,1.jpg

http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?act=url&#...

http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=pl&tl=en&js...

It bears repeating: ACTA as a treaty has been ratified, but the legislative part of ACTA has not been ratified.

You can:

1. Donate to the EFF - https://supporters.eff.org/donate

2. Write to your MP and MEP - the Wired story has a lot of good points that can be used in a message. Remember paper beats email, but email still counts. Google "find your mep" for many services

3. Link to the Wired story.

     ACTA as a treaty has been ratified, but the 
     legislative part of ACTA has not been ratified

Could you please explain the difference?

> ACTA as a treaty has been ratified

hg clone acta

> the legislative part of ACTA has not been ratified

chmod +x acta/acta.sh

A treaty is an agreement that happens because diplomats acting on behalf of governments have reached agreement. So for ACTA, the treaty has been drawn up and agreed by various diplomats including those representing the EU.

But these diplomats cannot legislate. The treaty only comes into force when the various parliaments pass laws committing their countries to the treaty's provisions.

But did this treaty get passed the EU Parliament?

not yet, and there's a chance it won't because certain points violate EU's charter of fundamental rights

So I don't get this - who authorizes a diplomat to go forth and sign the treaty?

The country's government? So this issue was discussed in all 22 countries that signed it? When?

ACTA was discussed and developed almost entirely in secret over the last couple of years.

I would like to add a fourth: There are protests in pretty much all capitals (and elsewhere), be there!

There is power in numbers.

EDIT: I think that my conclusion in this message is wrong.

----------------

[PDF / page 8] http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&#...

PES http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Party_of_European_Socialists and The Green Party http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Green_Party voted for ACTA.

EPP http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_People%27s_Party voted against ACTA.

... and people call the right wing "evil fascists who eat babies".

I'm a left-winger and I support this message. Post-WWII political categories are getting increasingly meaningless.

According to the text in the votewatch report you linked, the European Peope party voted against the proposition from the left in order to get their version to pass : "However, to win on this issue, the EPP and ECR first had to reject the joint Motion for Resolution proposed by the centre-left. The EPP and ECR managed to win thanks to 11 defections from ALDE and 13 from S&D members (the entire British Labour delegation)."

I think you might be right. Anyway, my distrust for ALL politicians still remains.

The left-wing's MO is "think of the children" while the right-wing's is "we must fight terrorism". But in the end they all have the same goal.

Seriously? Maybe this is a European thing, but conservatives pull "TEH CHILDREN" just as much as anyone else.

You're misreading this. The motion that was defeated against the votes of the center-left was this:

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=MOTION...

It is a resolution that is critical of ACTA and asks for necessary clarifications and improvements. It is pretty much the exact opposite of "voting for ACTA".

The center-right parties then succeeded in getting a motion of resolution approved for the following text:

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=MOTION...

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