Europeans: EU to vote on ACTA, get informed and involved!

ACTA, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, is a punishing, secretly negotiated copyright treaty that could send ordinary people to jail for copyright infringement. The EU will soon vote on it. Here's a video for Europeans who want to learn more before their representatives vote to criminalize them, their children and their neighbours.

On the occasion of the Free Culture Forum in Barcelona, La Quadrature du Net releases three films to inform citizens and urge them to take action against ACTA, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement.
ACTA is a threat to Internet users' fundamental freedoms and to EU Internet companies' competitiveness and free competition. The European Parliament will soon decide whether to give its consent to ACTA, or to reject it once and for all.
Every citizen can help defeat ACTA by spreading this video across the Internet, urging their fellow citizens to mobilize, and contacting their elected representatives.

[video] ACTA: Get Informed & Take Action!

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

MORE: acta • Copyfight • corporatism • eu • video

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MadRat

Did anyone notice that ACTA got signed by the US about a month ago on October 1st? We were told it was to bring the US in line with international law. Of course what they failed to say was that the US wrote that international law.
Michiel Top

Didn’t the EU Parliament already kill this in march?

http://www.publicknowledge.org/node/2946
Dan Devine

Just like every slasher or zombie movie, you can never be sure that a bill like this will not re-animate and attack you once again.

Like a boa-constrictor, the interests behind this bill will wait patiently for you to lose focus and exhale at which time they will take up the slack and prevent your next breath.

When you discredit and unmask their greed and over-reaching, and they will shift the argument to other demons like child pornography or international terrorism, with calls to “… think of the children…”.

I’ve been following this for a number of years, both on this site and others. Consider the articles here detailing the pressure they’ve been placing on Canada and other hold-outs to ratify this.It really does need to be defeated once and for all, otherwise the internet will be neutered into a pipe for Disney movie delivery. Recommended reading: “The Master Switch” by Tim Wu
Astro Turfer

Democracy is dead, especially in the EU. I can’t wait for the…. (better not mention it here, free speech is dead too).
andi atkinson

Astro Turfer, I can say it, come the revolution. When we will overturn all these oppressive regulations and make the internet into a truly democratic society.

I am still fighting for freedom of speech and freedom of expression, as are many others.
http://twitter.com/Caroldanon Caroline

Be aware that we soon will have to encrypt our messages, so at least we can speak freely to at least each other.
Mechanisms are there (e.g. GPG), take care that you have the software available.
Ryan Lane

David Cameron won’t call a referendum because he knows the outcome.