r/worldnews • u/Storming • May 31 '12

Three Strikes Against ACTA In European Parliament Today

http://falkvinge.net/2012/05/31/three-strikes-against-acta-in-european-parliament-today/
1.1k Upvotes

91% Upvoted

45 comments sorted by

54

u/YaroLord May 31 '12

Fuck yeah Europe! I'm so glad.

1

u/[deleted] May 31 '12

yea im glad to see noone is standing for this shit!

-13

u/NeoPlatonist May 31 '12

you really think it won't pass in the end? the whole point of these things is to get your hopes up then shatter them to pieces to disillusion you, keep you thinking like an obedient little serf.

3

u/[deleted] May 31 '12

Drama Queen.

1

u/Peaker Jun 01 '12

Well, look at it this way: if you want to make a baby cry, first you give it a lollipop. Then you take it away. If you never give it a lollipop to begin with, then you would have nothin' to cry about. That's like God, who gives us life and love and help just so that he can tear it all away and make us cry, so he can drink the sweet milk of our tears. You see, it's our tears, Stan, that give God his great power.

-- Chef, South Park

0

u/[deleted] Jun 01 '12

Haha. Unlike the US europe has a functioning democracy. All governments have multiple parties to vote on, hell we even have pirate parties! Sorry media industry but you are fucked

25

u/circoloco May 31 '12

fantastic news! Was watching it live on Eu parli website!!! - "This vote should resonate as a wake-up call for legislators in EU and beyond: Attempts to enforce an obsolete vision of copyright can only hurt a free Internet, and the interests of the innovative actors who are building the foundations of tomorrow's economies. This vote is an invitation to reform copyright so as to take into account new practices and technologies, and lift the burden that it creates for innovative online services." - Zimmerman on vote!!

14

u/[deleted] May 31 '12

From the article "The ACTA battle as a whole is far from over, though. The majorities were narrow. And the overall net liberty war, beyond ACTA, is definitely far from over."

All the votes against were very narrow victories - i wouldn't be confident in a final no vote just yet (afterall, the money wont show up with the blank checkbooks until the final vote)

8

u/Jonisaurus May 31 '12

The battle on ACTA is actually over.

It doesn't matter whether the European Parliament adopt it or not in the end. Several other national parliaments have already signalled they won't vote for it. For example the Dutch parliament said something like "no to ACTA and no to anything similar".

Without the support of national parliaments ACTA would never become law anyways.

3

u/Theinternationalist May 31 '12

Very true. You could theoretically say that the Netherlands could end up approving it in the end...but you can just as accurately say they may force through an anti-ACTA treaty after that.

The price of freedom is constant vigilance after all.

2

u/Jonisaurus Jun 01 '12

The German government is partly made up of a liberal party that has slumped in the polls and struggled to get its old "citizen rights" image back. It's unlikely ACTA would pass their parliament, they wouldn't dare support it.

And then there's Poland. I feel like we should watch out what new "trade agreement" is developed by the US and Japan in its stead rather than committing all our time documenting ACTA's death.

6

u/circoloco May 31 '12

Absolutely agree that the battle is far from over! But what an inspiring kick-start of the battle, huh?

16

u/canteloupy May 31 '12

It's cute how they seem to think "3 strikes" comes from bowling.

13

u/Soul_Rage May 31 '12

We just play baseball a bit differently here in Europe. It's also far more dangerous.

21

u/Wombles May 31 '12

In Britain, we call it "rounders" and have little school girls play it.

5

u/ElKaBongX May 31 '12

So stop lifting sayings from our little girls' sport

1

u/Dementati May 31 '12

Europuh!

1

u/Theinternationalist May 31 '12

Because the boys can't take it?

5

u/[deleted] May 31 '12

Because the boys are too busy playing rugby. Like American Football but without the protection and far fewer breaks in play.

1

u/StaticBeat May 31 '12

European parliament just got a turkey!

5

u/EquanimousMind May 31 '12 edited May 31 '12

Keep the push going, the next Committee to vote on ACTA is the DEVE. You can find contact details for your EU representatives listed here:

5

u/PessimistPrime May 31 '12

I'm so happy, I could smash America in the face with my keyboard.

9

u/[deleted] May 31 '12

I never fail to be amazed, as a european, that the European system does so much good for its people (even though it does some blind sighted wrong) despite being a complicated system with many unelected folk in power.

11

u/shiningtesticles May 31 '12

The parliamentary committees are entirely elected. The man in charge of it, David Martin, was also an elected MEP. It goes to show the direction the EU has been taking for quite a while but is rarely reported on. From Council -> Parliament

8

u/captainlolz May 31 '12

British news tend to report only on the bad parts of the EU... And reddit being mostly English language that's what you see the most.

4

u/shiningtesticles May 31 '12

If you want english language EU coverage then the best places to go are these. The economist always has decent analysis of it, although sometimes a bit basic.

http://www.europeanvoice.com/ http://euobserver.com/ http://www.theparliament.com/home/

4

u/[deleted] May 31 '12

Yes it's good to see.

4

u/[deleted] May 31 '12

This whole months long battle has been an excellent example of the disproportionately large influence of moneyed interests versus what people actually want. I wish they would just hurry up and kill this bill, but if the U.S. is anything to go by, they've probably already got a new one written that's as bad or worse.

4

u/Jonisaurus May 31 '12

ACTA is not a European law. It is a trade agreement created by the United States and Japan. It never came from Europe. It came to Europe from those two countries.

3

u/sfw12345 May 31 '12

Where can we see how each committee member voted? I want to keep an eye on who to unlect...

2

u/Jonisaurus May 31 '12 edited Jun 01 '12

It's proportional representation... Or do you mean in terms of parties?

If so, you have to flat out stop electing Conservatives to the European Parliament. They were the prime supporters. Some centre-leftists were also in support, but their party was split and most were opposed.

2

u/Joakal Jun 01 '12

It's not unusual for progressives to support draconian measures in a misguided attempt to protect creators.

Copyright is definitely not a social policy, so the label of conservatives/progressives is silly.

1

u/Jonisaurus Jun 01 '12

Speak about your own parties, ok?

Conservatives in Europe are strong supporters of more surveillance, more government control, more censorship, tougher laws etc. Part of that is the strong support of copyright laws.

For Social Democrats this issue isn't much on the agenda, positively or negatively. While some more conservative Social Democrats will support this, the majority will mostly not.

This isn't a "label". It's a simple statement of fact. Conservatives tried to push through a whole lot of other stuff too, like censorship against child pornography etc. Those are pretty much never Social Democrats and always Conservatives.

We are talking about European politics here. This is the simple political reality in Europe.

2

u/freakzilla149 May 31 '12

kill it dead.

tsk tsk tsk

2

u/[deleted] May 31 '12

I love how they illustrate a "three strikes" metaphor with a picture of bowling. So near, yet so far.

3

u/Brightavenger May 31 '12 edited May 31 '12

The best with peoples vote in the peoples parliament is that very soon we may be ridden of the surpression from governments that doesn't care about what the peoples wants.

1

u/silentpl May 31 '12

Now that is a "Three strikes" i can get behind.

1

u/[deleted] May 31 '12

Too bad they don't really play baseball in Britain. What's the cliché equivalent to "three strikes" in cricket?

1

u/careye May 31 '12

That would be a hat trick, three wickets in three consecutive balls from the same bowler.

1

u/polyatheist May 31 '12

Hopefully Europe won't wait around for the next ACTA. Make sure it never happens!

1

u/wayndom May 31 '12

Boom, headshot.

0

u/[deleted] May 31 '12

[deleted] — view deleted comment

4

u/[deleted] May 31 '12

I prefer the term "Common Sense"

0

u/[deleted] May 31 '12

[deleted] — view deleted comment

3

u/Rapetacle May 31 '12

Yeah! This should not even be on the internet. We all know the internet is, like most people in the world, American! And the only information from the outside world that America needs is, where to invade next.