Germany refuses to sign ACTA (for now)
panarmenian.net
highler quality sources in German Language:
http://www.welt.de/politik/deutschland/article13861529/Berlin-verweigert-Unterzeichnung-von-Acta-Abkommen.html
panarmenian.net
As Germany is one of the most infuencial countries in the EU, we should also show solidarity to the people in other countries and help overturn this treaty entirely.
Where are you getting that from? It's standard practice, try reading some alternative media (fefe!) sometime. I have no matching links handy, but you can read about it pretty frequently if you look in the right places (e.g. during the Fukushima event).
The "alternative media" is what conspiracy theorists use to convince themselves that 9/11 was an inside job.
If by alternative you mean a place like HN where stories are being commented on then I agree but you will hardly find one sided support for that kind of claims here.
Which is why HN for all the bad trends we see here is still one of the best places to get our apriori views invalidated.
You can observe strong tendencies in viewpoints for both web/startup/tech related things as well as political issues, and especially for the latter you won't find the full "political spectrum" covered around here (not confining its meaning to notions like left/right wing here).
That's why you should use several different sources/media.
But well, of course, it's way better than most other pseudo-democracys.
This can now be stopped at the EU level, which will not be easy, but is doable.
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See this German link: http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Bundesregierung-sieht...
So I can understand her somewhat. If ACTA would've been yet another EU regulation passed without much fuss and recognition, it would've been better to focus on actual laws, where Leutheuser-Schnarrenberger still has to fight basically the rest of the government over data retention (I really dread the next government's actions here).
It's probably better this way, though. Any show that the public actually cares matters a lot.
Actually the ISP umbrella organizations published statements that they think ACTA bypasses democratic processes, and puts them into the position of police and judge all in one, and much more...
One basic problem with something like ACTA is that mostly it's "encouraging" countries to think and debate about "appropriate" measures and laws. A lot of the language is about "might" "should endeavor to" etc. – and it probably has to, or you might just clash with national legal concepts. So just signing it might imply a response from "Will do sir! Let's get the jackboots out!" to "Yeah, yeah, sure, we'll all have a nice chat about it…".
Still, signing it is a bad show of intent, a truly worrying symptom of current politics. It opens doors better left closed…
However there is a petition by law professors against ACTA coordinated by Prof. Metzger of the University of Hanover and signed by practically all leading German professors in the field of IT law. (See: http://www.iri.uni-hannover.de/acta-1668.html)
Amnesty international asks EU not to sign ACTA.
I wish British politicians weren't useless, spineless, back stabbing, lying arseholes. They signed without blinking an eye.
> They signed without blinking an eye.
So would German big-party politicians. But... next year we have elections, and the Pirate party is already too popular to be ignored. Fear of greens and pirates is the one and only reason why this wasnt signed now. Maybe it will in a year, when the elections are over. Until then, the anti-internet parties are tryin to keep a low profile with repect to internet censorship.
Given what what was happening in the Czech Republic and Poland (and also the protests in Germany itself), it's not that surprising. Let's hope other EU countries follow.