Criminal

Smoking gun on ACTA Criminal Sanctions

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We discovered a smoking gun on the criminal sanctions aspect of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). A declassified document reveals that the Commission made proposals and fundamentally steered the negotiations on criminal sanctions in ACTA for which no corresponding EU harmonisation exists. There is no “Acquis” element on criminal enforcement of intellectual property rights, yet. Criminal sanctions in ACTA were formally negotiated by the Council “Presidency” on behalf of the EU member states. The findings reveal that the European Commission was much stronger involved than it previously admitted.

FFII

Poland is not lost – could challenge ACTA at the ECJ

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Brussels, 26 January 2012 — Today the European Union and member states signed the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) in Tokyo, Japan. Signing is a first step to enable later ratification of the controversial agreement. The United States already announced they would not ratify it and their legislature would not be bound by it. According to the FFII signing is only the very start of the actual debate in Europe. “Our representatives in the European Parliament still have to decide whether to consent.

EU

Why DG Trade wants ACTA

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Pedro Velasco-Martins (EU-Commission DG Trade) explains the preconceptions and activism around the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA):

EU

“No impact assessment” is the new impact assessment

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ACTA would be considered by the European Parliament. Now a simple fact gets openly admitted:

“IMPACT ASSESSMENT: no impact assessment was carried out.” and further the Commission claims without any evidence:

“At the same time, ACTA is a balanced agreement, because it fully respects the rights of citizens and the concerns of important stakeholders such as consumers, internet providers and partners in developing countries.” Don’t you agree that is contradictory? Either you assess the impact or you don’t.

FFII

Share your operating system bundling tales with the EU

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Berlin / Paris, April 14th 2011 — FFII and AFUL ask consumers affected by operating system bundling or businesses involved in bundling to provide their evidence to the European Competition authority. “My choice is Debian GNU/Linux”, explains FFII Vice president Rene Mages. “Why have I been compelled to pay and erase Windows 7 at purchase time?” The European Commission admits it was aware of the difficulties encountered by consumers who want to purchase a PC with a non-Microsoft operating system or without any operating system at all. But they also say they lack evidence suggesting that this is the result of practices in violation of EU competition rules.

EU

No fair use in ACTA

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When the European Parliament adopted its position on the proposed EU draft directive on criminal sanctions they also included the following safeguards, a fair use provision. Member States shall ensure that the fair use of a protected work, including such use by reproduction in copies or audio or by any other means, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship or research, does not constitute a criminal offence. The MEPs also amended the proposal from the Commission on the matter of parallel importation:
Criminal sanctions shall not be applied in cases of parallel importation of original goods which have been marketed with the agreement of the right-holder in a country outside the European Union. As announced in Official Journal C 252 of 18 September 2010 the European Commission decided to withdraw their proposal for a Directive on the criminal enforcement of intellectual property rights because member states didn’t want to adopt it. In particular the Dutch parliament notified the Commissioner Frattini that the EU lacks competence to adopt these measures.

Criminal

Closing the criminal legislation gap of the European Union

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EU level Criminal law is a very delicate issue. In the European Parliament a new document from the Commission would be examined: “Towards an EU Criminal Policy: Ensuring the effective implementation of EU policies through criminal law”. Criminal law measures comprise intrusive rules, which can result in deprivation of liberty. This is why the Charter of Fundamental Rights – made legally binding by the Lisbon Treaty – provides important limits for EU action in this field. The Charter, being the compass of all EU policies, provides for a binding core of rules that protects citizens.

EU

ACTA is at peak snake oil

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The recent European Commission IPR strategy paper also mentions ACTA. It is quite odd how they highlight an unsubstantiated claim that the ACTA text was in line with the acquis despite evidence of the contrary. The EU should also be in a position to ratify the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) once it has been signed by the contracting parties in the course of 2011. ACTA, which is fully in line with the EU acquis, is an important step in improving the international fight against IPR infringements, in cooperation with countries sharing the same concerns and views. The Commission will table its proposal for an EU decision to sign the agreement in the coming weeks.

EU

Spanish anger movement against ACTA

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The Spanish anger movement against the effects of the financial crisis also includes opposition to the ACTA Treaty among its demands. No al control de internet. Abolición de la Ley Sinde. No a ACTA.

EU

Rightsholders afraid of ECJ verdict

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Some US rightsholder associations and industry players do not want the European Parliament to ask the European Court of Justice (ECJ) about the inconsistencies of the ACTA treaty with the European treaties. The letter is directed to Polish MEP Jerzy Buzek who is the President of our European Parliament and a member of the European Peoples Party (EPP) group. ACTA Trade Mark Lobby(function() { var scribd = document.createElement(“script”); scribd.type = “text/javascript”; scribd.async = true; scribd.src = “http://www.scribd.com/javascripts/embed_code/inject.js”; var s = document.getElementsByTagName(“script”)[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(scribd, s); })();