Good news, everyone:
The European Parliament has rejected ACTA today at 12:56 CEST.
There were 478 against, 39 in favour, 165 abstention.
This means that the treaty is effectively dead. In theory, the
remaining countries that are party to the agreement could still
adopt it, but it's unlikely that they'll bother.
It's also a humiliating defeat for the Commission, which is now
facing a more assertive Parliament. MEPs weren't happy at all with
how the EC treated them during the negotiation process.
ACTA also shows that citizens are willing to stand up and be
counted for their digital rights en masse -- that's probably the
best news out of this whole process.
The ideas that ACTA stood for won't go away, and are bound to
return in new guises. There's the Trans-Pacific Partnership
Agreement (TPP) being negotiated by the US, Japan and various
Asian countries. Closer to home, the EC is currently reviewing
IPRED2. And no doubt there will be more treaty drafts, law proposals
and other noxious stuff. (Unitary patent, anyone?)
We'll attend to these things tomorrow. Today, we celebrate.
Best regards,
Karsten
--
Karsten Gerloff [ ] <gerloff(a)fsfeurope.org>
Free Software Foundation Europe [ ][ ][ ] [http://fsfe.org]
President | | +49 176 9690 4298
Your donation powers our work! [http://fsfe.org/donate/]
Free Software Foundation Europe e.V. is a German Verein registered
at the Registergericht Hamburg (VR 17030).
Messed up the address the first time around. Consider including legal@
and discussion@ if you have anything non-sensitive to say about this.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Heiki "Repentinus" Ojasild <repentinus(a)fsfe.org>
Date: 4 July 2012 07:01
Subject: Slashdot reports: First-sale doctrine upheld for software by
the EU Court of Justice
To: discussion(a)fsfeurope.org, legal(a)fsfeurope.org, policy(a)fsfeurope.org
Greetings,
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/12/07/03/1245200/used-software-can-be-sold-sa…
Discuss.
Also, does someone have time to examine the decision? We might want a
press release acclaiming the decision, as such a decision seems to
have strengthened the people's right to share software.
Cheers,
--
Heiki "Repentinus" Ojasild
FSFE Fellow (en) / FSFE ühinglane (et)
<repentinus(a)fsfe.org>
<https://wiki.fsfe.org/Fellows/repentinus>
<http://blogs.fsfe.org/repentinus/>
P.S. I hope all the recipients feel concerned about the decision, and
are the right people to consider the implications.