Chief EU ACTA sponsor quits in disgust at lack of democratic fundamentals in global copyright treaty

Kader Arif, the EU "rapporteur" for ACTA (a copyright treaty negotiated in secret, which contains all the worst elements of SOPA, and which is coming to a vote in the EU) has turned in his report and resigned from his job role, delivering a scathing rebuke to the EU negotiators and parliamentarians, and the global corporations who are pushing this through:

I want to denounce in the strongest possible manner the entire process that led to the signature of this agreement: no inclusion of civil society organisations, a lack of transparency from the start of the negotiations, repeated postponing of the signature of the text without an explanation being ever given, exclusion of the EU Parliament's demands that were expressed on several occasions in our assembly.

As rapporteur of this text, I have faced never-before-seen manoeuvres from the right wing of this Parliament to impose a rushed calendar before public opinion could be alerted, thus depriving the Parliament of its right to expression and of the tools at its disposal to convey citizens' legitimate demands.”

Everyone knows the ACTA agreement is problematic, whether it is its impact on civil liberties, the way it makes Internet access providers liable, its consequences on generic drugs manufacturing, or how little protection it gives to our geographical indications.

This agreement might have major consequences on citizens' lives, and still, everything is being done to prevent the European Parliament from having its say in this matter. That is why today, as I release this report for which I was in charge, I want to send a strong signal and alert the public opinion about this unacceptable situation. I will not take part in this masquerade.

European Parliament Official In Charge Of ACTA Quits, And Denounces The 'Masquerade' Behind ACTA (Thanks, David!)

• [RyonRyon]

  see? its all made up of individuals, I commend you for standing up, sir.

• [Alisdair Cameron]

  What a splendid, principled, action. Such candour is rare at the highest levels, and for him to resign too, on a matter of principle. Good work,sir.

• [SoItBegins]

  Huzzah!

• [ultranaut]

  I miss the European Dream.

• [Ipo]

  I feel like Kader Arif is showing that he has what it takes to be given higher responsibility duties by us, the peoples.

  • [DewiMorgan]

    Ayup. I would vote for Mr Arif for pretty much any elected position.

    But what will *happen* is that we never see him in public service again, as he’ll become a pariah.

    I hope I’m wrong.

• [Andrew Singleton]

  That metal on metal clanging sound you’re hearing? That’s just this guy’s balls hitting eachother while walking away from this mess.

  Bravo Sir.

• [IronEdithKidd]

  Hope this goes some distance to encourage EU parliamentarians to loudly condemn this treaty and collectively vote against it.
   
  Unless they, too, hate free speech.

• [stumo]

  I want to write to my MEP to complain about ACTA, in the hope of getting something done. I’ve found it difficult to find good sources for arguments – what specifically should I be complaining about & where can I link to to back up my assertions. A lot of the stuff seems to be over a year old, and so I’m worried may no longer be (or come across as) current.  Does anyone have any good starting points? It would be great to find similar quality counter arguments as were found for SOPA etc.

• [Paul Renault]

  Direct link to the blog post where he announces that he refuses to participate in this masquerade:
  http://www.kader-arif.fr/actualites.php?actualite_id=147

• [Joost De Cock]

  This is Greta news, but I’d like to point out some things that are rather unclear in the article.
  Mr. Arid is not a Eurocrat, or an official in charge of ACTA as stated in the article.
  Mr. Arid is the rapporteur on this matter. A rapporteur is the member of the European Parliament that is looking over a specific piece of legislation and steers it through parliament. Every legislation has its rapporteur. Think of it as a ‘sponsor’.

  So, Mr. Arid did not quit his job. He stays a member of the European parliament, but he just said ‘sorry, this is unacceptable and I don’t want any part of it’ to the legislation he was supposed to help pass.
  This is amazing news, and shows that the best hope for stopping ACTA lies at the European parliament.

  Full disclosure: unlike Mr. Arid I am a Eurocrat (an official of the European parliament) and I spent the last day trying to keep the parliament running under the onslaught of the anonymous ddos. There are really better ways to fight ACTA.