http://youtu.be/gzieTzart5s
I tried to follow the European Parliament’s open workshop on ACTA at their site, however I never managed to get their videos to work so I gave up trying to access the live stream. Fortunately, Cory Doctorow forwarded this talk by Michael Geist, a Canadian law professor with extensive expertise on IP, who was one of the experts called in for testimony. Here’s a link to his site where you can read his entire testimony at your leisure, as he covered a ton of incredibly important factors that make ACTA dangerous.
“This report concludes that ACTA’s harm greatly exceeds its potential benefits. Given ACTA’s corrosive effect on transparency in international negotiations, the damage to international intellectual property institutions, the exclusion of the majority of the developing world from the ambit of the agreement, the potentially dangerous substantive provisions, and the uncertain benefits in countering counterfeiting, there are ample reasons for the public and politicians to reject the agreement in its current form. In doing so, governments would help restore confidence in the global intellectual property system and open the door to a new round of negotiations premised on transparency, inclusion, and evidence-based policy-making.”
And read EDRI’s latest, The Plans To Bring ACTA Back To Life. It’s becoming glaringly clear that many of our international governments seem to have little intention of dealing with the public concerns in a legitimate manner. And once again, all for their tunnel-visioned focus is on flawed economics that have been so tainted by the IP industry, specifically the copyright segment (though patents are now also a legal fiasco). The three steps are 1) Talking the momentum out of the ACTA protests, 2) Building towards “conditional consent”, and 3) Wait for the court, then vote. Our governments think that we’re not in this for the long hall. We need to show them that we’re not going anywhere, nor are we going to stay quiet.
p.s. Here’s some more from Techdirt and Senator Ron Wyden
