Three heavyweight committees in the European Parliament gave their voting recommendations on ACTA today. All three gave the same recommendation: reject ACTA. This means that today, the European Parliament issued three very hard strikes against ACTA.
What happened today was the first steps in a long chain that ends with the final vote in all of the European Parliament, which is the vote where ACTA ultimately lives or dies. If it is defeated on the floor of the European Parliament, then it’s a permakill. Boom, headshot. But on the way to that vote, a number of specialized committees will say what they think from their perspective.
The committee that “owns” the issue of ACTA, the so-called INTA committee (International Trade), is the committee giving the final recommendation to the European Parliament as a whole. But as input to the INTA recommendation, four other committees will say what they think. Three of those – ITRE (Industry, Research, Energy), JURI (Legal affairs), and LIBE (Civil Liberties) – voted today.
They all voted to recommend rejection of ACTA, and therefore, effectively recommend that the European Parliament kill it dead. But this all happened with very narrow margins, defying an onslaught of procedural tricks and attempts of delaying, so the game is far from over.
Still, it is a sign of changing times. Rather than reciting amendments, political detailed minutiae and vote counts, I’d like to look at the bigger picture.
Perhaps the strongest indication of just how much times are changing is the fact that the monopoly maximalists – those politicians who are firmly planted in corporativist rule – have always had their way, especially in the committee of Legal Affairs which is full of lawyerspeak. At the same time, Pirate has been a dirty word, almost synonymous with criminal. Compare the first two votes today, in the Industry and Legal Affairs committees, and the Members of the European Parliament who were responsible for drafting the opinions of those committees:
Classic and infamous copyright maximalist.
Opinion Defeated.
Opinion Carried.
To see a Pirate Representative get her opinion (“reject ACTA”) voted through to the next step, whereas the copyright maximalist gets her opinion (“accept, embrace, and love ACTA”) shot down in the Legal Affairs committee, is a complete breach of a crucial tipping point.
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. I just wanted to highlight how symbolic it is that leglislative text written by pirates is now carried.
Today, we had three important victories in individual skirmishes.
Next, the DEVE committee – (Third World) Development – votes on ACTA on June 4. The INTA committee’s vote, the final step before the main vote, happens on June 21. Then, the European Parliament as a whole votes early July – presumably 2nd, 3rd, 4th, or 5th. That’s the end-of-level boss fight.
We’re winning, but only because we’re fighting hard to win. This is not over.
See also Christian Engström’s article about today’s events. (Christian is the other Pirate MEP.)
[…] "CRITEO-300×250", 300, 250); 1 meneos 3 comisiones del Parlamento Europeo votan rechazar ACTA [ENG] falkvinge.net/2012/05/31/three-strikes-against-acta-in-eu… por Zopokx hace […]
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The tides are turning my friends.
Congratulations are in order for Amelia Andersdotter, who is doing a fantastic job. Actually, all the Pirates are. Thank you for all you are doing to protect the internet and the freedom of speech.
I’ve been spreading your last post around and have taken advantage of those three mailing lists. Very handy. If we keep the pressure on, we can win this.
Particularly encouraging is the lead the Dutch Parliament is taking on IPR in general. Did you see that Bits of Freedom post where they not only called for the rejection of ACTA but wanted to get started on IPR reform? Here it is: https://www.bof.nl/2012/05/29/translations-of-dutch-parliamentary-resolutions-against-acta
Although the fight is not over yet, our chances of winning have definitely improved. And we have you and the Pirates to thank for it.
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I’m not familiar with the exact impact this will have on the treaty. Would you be willing to give those of us from outside Europe an idea of what this means, Rick?
Specifically I’m interested to see what influence this will have on other international affairs in the information industry side of legislation.
Basically, if the EU doesn’t join ACTA, it is dead. A “free-trade” agreement between the USA and Japan, where the US refuses to change anything to accommodate it, is not going to change the world for the worse.
Further, it is a very important signal that there’s no more free admission for Hollywood to the legislative floors.
I appreciate your response. Thanks.
I can only tks this blog and your twitters that alerted Me and make me, as many i hope and believe, react and flood with mails against this attempt to the legacy Europe should give to all the World:
Freedom of speech is priceless!
[…] http://falkvinge.net/2012/05/31/three-strikes-against-acta-in-european-parliament-today/ […]
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While I’m at it, I also want to credit the Swedish Pirate Party’s other rep in the European Parliament, Christian Engström. He was the tie-breaker in the JURI vote; if he had not been there and voted no, the JURI vote would not have been won (assuming a different person would have voted for ACTA in his stead).
So both Pirate MEPs, Andersdotter and Engström, were instrumental in today’s victory.
I’d just like to note that today is the 6th anniversary of the raid on The Pirate Bay. Without that, the Pirate Party might never have grown as large as it has today. It might never have entered the European parliament. And without pirates in parliament, there might not have been as much noise about and attention on ACTA inside the actual parliament. And maybe, just maybe, it would have passed a long time ago, instead of facing these rather humiliating defeats.
In your face, copyright industry!
[…] Falkvinge: Three strikes against ACTA in European Parliament Today […]
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[…] (som igår uppmanade folk att mejla parlamentarikerna inför dagens omröstningar) har också skrivit väl om hur dagens beslut innebär viktiga delsegrar – men att allt vad gäller ACTA hänger på hur EU-parlamentet som helhet röstar i början […]
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Mr Falkvinge, I read on ZDnet.co.uk, whose David Meyer had been informed of this by an e-mail from the European Commission, that the EU can only ratify ACTA if all member states have ratified. Given the Dutch total rejection, this means that the EU cannot ratify ACTA at all, even if the EP should vote for ACTA. The e-mail also says that no individual member states will ratify ACTA if the EU will not ratify it; that would mean that the Dutch rejection prevents all other member states from individually ratifying ACTA. So the battle seems to be over. What is your take on this?
“That really is what the European Commission is telling me. To give a precise quote: if a member state turns down the agreement, “ACTA will stay a valid international agreement but the EU and its member states will not deposit their instrument of ratification until all member states and the European Parliament have ratified it”. If you don’t deposit your instrument of ratification, the rules say, you don’t play.” — David Meyer 6 February, 2012 08:08
http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/intellectual-property/2012/02/03/actas-eu-future-in-doubt-after-polish-pause-40094978/#comments
This is formally true, but eurocrats have already started looking for ways to formally circumvent this. I’ll follow up on that in an article shortly.
Oh really? That’s awful. I will be interested to read about this. Who are the driving force behind ACTA in Europe anyway? The whole EC, or just some commissioners?
I’ve just posted a response to this (the mid-battle analysis post).
Cheers,
Rick
Another link confirming that the Netherlands has the power to veto ratification of ACTA by the EU, and has thereby destroyed it for the foreseeable future:
http://acta.ffii.org/?p=1122
[…] The first three key votes (from three specific committees) happened today, and while it was close, all three came out with recommendations to reject ACTA. As Rick Falkvinge points out, one telling point is if you look at the votes on the Committee on […]
[…] The first three key votes (from three specific committees) happened today, and while it was close, all three came out with recommendations to reject ACTA. As Rick Falkvinge points out, one telling point is if you look at the votes on the Committee on […]
“Pirate has been a dirty word, almost synonymous with criminal.” … well, can’t blame them for that, after all a pirate is by definition a criminal … 🙂
[…] Falvinge y Christian Engström lo cuentan en Three Strikes Against ACTA In European Parliament Today y Third EU Parliament Committee Also Recommends […]
[…] Falvinge y Christian Engström lo cuentan en Three Strikes Against ACTA In European Parliament Today y Third EU Parliament Committee Also Recommends […]
[…] Falvinge y Christian Engström lo cuentan en Three Strikes Against ACTA In European Parliament Today y Third EU Parliament Committee Also Recommends […]
[…] Falvinge y Christian Engström lo cuentan en Three Strikes Against ACTA In European Parliament Today y Third EU Parliament Committee Also Recommends […]
[…] to a blog post by Rick Falkvinge, founder of the Pirate Party, who says he won’t celebrate until ACTA is defeated by the European Parliament as a whole: They all voted to recommend rejection of ACTA, and therefore, effectively recommend that the […]
[…] Falvinge y Christian Engström lo cuentan en Three Strikes Against ACTA In European Parliament Today y Third EU Parliament Committee Also Recommends […]
I’m glad to hear that things are finally moving towards better. I will see my fellow protesters on the 9th of June. Information is our freedom!
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[…] week ended well with three key committees recommending that the European Parliament reject ACTA as a whole. There […]
[…] week ended well with three key committees recommending that the European Parliament reject ACTA as a whole. There […]
[…] week ended well with three key committees recommending that the European Parliament reject ACTA as a whole. There […]
What’s up mates, how is the whole thing, and what you would like to say concerning this piece of writing, in my view its in fact awesome in support of me.
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