From rms ansol.org Mon Nov 3 14:00:15 2008 From: rms ansol.org (Rui Miguel Silva Seabra) Date: Mon Nov 3 14:02:27 2008 Subject: [ANSOL] Fw: [ffii] FFII opposes stealth legislation, demands ACTA documents Message-ID: <20081103140015.GB24246@roque.1407.org> Sumário executivo: A Fundação para uma Infraestrutura de Informação Livre alerta para uma tentativa de criar secretamente uma legislação extremamente punitiva para para as PMEs europeias. Tradução não oficial para Português disponível em: http://blog.softwarelivre.sapo.pt/2008/11/03/ffii-opoese-a-legislacao-secreta-exige-documentacao-da-acta/ ----- Forwarded message from Ante ----- Date: Mon, 3 Nov 2008 10:36:49 +0100 From: Ante To: news@ffii.org Subject: [ffii] FFII opposes stealth legislation, demands ACTA documents Reply-To: ante@ffii.org PRESS RELEASE -- [ Europe / Economy / Innovation ] =======================================================================         FFII opposes stealth legislation, demands ACTA documents ======================================================================= Brussels, 3rd November 2008 - The Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII) has requested 12 secret Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) documents from the EU Council. Behind closed doors, the EU, US, Japan and other countries are negotiating ACTA. The negotiating parties plan on making the ACTA text public only after the parties have agreed to it. Based on leaked information, the FFII is deeply concerned that ACTA may give patent trolls the means to extort companies, lead to monitoring all citizens' Internet communications and criminalize peer-to-peer electronic file sharing. Parliaments and the public are in the dark about ACTA. Stakeholders, experts and public interest organisations can not scrutinize ACTA documents. Both the European Parliament and the member states of the EU have vetoes on aspects of ACTA. FFII analyst Ante Wessels says: "Parliaments cannot build an informed opinion about ACTA and therefore will not be well prepared to use their power." On its website, the European Commission calls ACTA "path breaking". The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee expressed concerns that ACTA will prescribe rules for protection so specifically that it could impede Congress's ability to make constructive policy changes in the future. In September more than 100 public interest organizations called on officials from the countries negotiating ACTA to publish immediately the draft text of the agreement. Ante Wessels: "With the Computer Implemented Inventions directive, we could finally convince people it was actually about software patents. This time the Commission and Council keep all texts secret. We believe there is no room for stealth legislation in the EU." The FFII finds support in a recent European Court of Justice judgment. In the Turco case, the Court stressed the importance of access to preparatory legislative texts: "Openness in that respect contributes to strengthening democracy by allowing citizens to scrutinize all the information which has formed the basis of a legislative act. The possibility for citizens to find out the considerations underpinning legislative action is a precondition for the effective exercise of their democratic rights." ======================================================================= Requested documents ======================================================================= The FFII requested the following documents in full, without any deletions. As the quantity and detailed titles of the documents demonstrate, negotiations are already in an advanced state. Recommendation from the Commission to the Council to authorise the Commission to open negotiations of a plurilateral anti-counterfeiting trade agreement 26-03-2008 7759/08 Recommendation from the Commission to the Council to authorise the Commission to open negotiations of a plurilateral anti-counterfeiting trade agreement       20-06-2008 7095/08 Recommendation from the Commission to the Council to authorise the Commission to open negotiations of a plurilateral anti-counterfeiting trade agreement       24-07-2008 15486/07 Recommendation from the Commission to the Council to authorise the Commission to open negotiations of a plurilateral anti-counterfeiting trade agreement       24-07-2008 12875/08 Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement - Draft EU reaction to Japan/U.S. Joint Proposal on Civil Enforcement 10-09-2008 15486/07 REV 1 Recommendation from the Commission to the Council to authorise the Commission to open negotiations of a plurilateral anti-counterfeiting trade agreement 10-09-2008 7095/08 REV 1 Recommendation from the Commission to the Council to authorise the Commission to open negotiations of a plurilateral anti-counterfeiting trade agreement       11-09-2008 13448/08 Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement - Revised draft EU reaction to Japan/U.S. Joint Proposal on Civil Enforcement 24-09-2008 13382/08 Plurilateral Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) ? Civil law measures     23-09-2008 13637/08 Plurilateral Anti-counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) 3rd negotiating session 8-10 October 2008, Tokyo, Japan Chapter 2 :Draft Criminal provisions Japan-USA Joint proposal, dated 12 September 2008 29-09-2008 13750/08 Anti-Counterfeiting trade Agreement (ACTA) - Compilation of all comments provided by ACTA partners on the civil enforcement chapter 02-10-2008 13949/08 Plurilateral Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) 3rd negotiating session, 8-10 October 2008, Tokyo - Civil law measures 08-10-2008 ======================================================================= Links =======================================================================  * ACTA documents on the Council website: http://register.consilium.europa.eu/servlet/driver?page=Result&lang=EN&typ=Advanced&cmsid=639&ff_COTE_DOCUMENT=&ff_COTE_DOSSIER_INST=&ff_TITRE=anti-counterfeiting+trade+agreement&ff_FT_TEXT=&ff_SOUS_COTE_MATIERE=&dd_DATE_DOCUMENT=&dd_DATE_REUNION=&dd_FT_DATE=&fc=REGAISEN&srm=25&md=100&ssf=  * Electronic form on the Council website to request documents: http://register.consilium.europa.eu/servlet/jsp/MailAccessPrivacy.jsp?&lang=EN&cmsid=928  * FFII ACTA analysis: http://action.ffii.org/acta/Analysis  * U.S. Senate letter: http://ip-watch.org/files/acta_letter.pdf  * Open letter by more than 100 public interest organizations: http://www.essentialaction.org/access/index.php?/archives/173-Secret-Counterfeiting-Treaty-Public-Must-be-Made-Public,-Global-Organizations-Say.html  * ECJ Turco case: http://curia.europa.eu/jurisp/cgi-bin/form.pl?lang=en&newform=newform&Submit=Submit&alljur=alljur&jurcdj=jurcdj&jurtpi=jurtpi&jurtfp=jurtfp&alldocrec=alldocrec&docj=docj&docor=docor&docop=docop&docav=docav&docsom=docsom&docinf=docinf&alldocnorec=alldocnorec&docnoj=docnoj&docnoor=docnoor&typeord=ALLTYP&docnodecision=docnodecision&allcommjo=allcommjo&affint=affint&affclose=affclose&numaff=&ddatefs=&mdatefs=&ydatefs=&ddatefe=&mdatefe=&ydatefe=&nomusuel=&domaine=&mots=turco&resmax=100 * Permanent link to this press release: http://press.ffii.org/Press_releases/FFII_opposes_stealth_legislation%2C_demands_ACTA_documents ======================================================================= Contact ======================================================================= Benjamin Henrion FFII Brussels +32-2-414 84 03 +32-484-566109 bhenrion@ffii.org (French/English) Ante Wessels + 31 6 100 99 063 ante@ffii.org (Dutch/English) ======================================================================= About the FFII ======================================================================= The FFII is a not-for-profit association active in over fifty countries, dedicated to the development of information goods for the public benefit, based on copyright, free competition, and open standards. More than 850 members, 3,500 companies and 100,000 supporters have entrusted the FFII to act as their voice in public policy questions concerning exclusion rights (intellectual property) in data processing. _______________________________________________ FFII Press Releases. (un)subscribe via https://lists.ffii.org/mailman/listinfo/news, or contact media@ffii.org for more information. ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Frink! Today is Boomtime, the 15th day of The Aftermath in the YOLD 3174 + No matter how much you do, you never do enough -- unknown + Whatever you do will be insignificant, | but it is very important that you do it -- Gandhi + So let's do it...?