[A2k] ACTA: A Global Threat to Freedoms (Open Letter)

Thu Dec 10 08:41:01 2009

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Please help spreading this ACTA open letter (and signing it if it isn't
done yet!).

As a signatory you could also do a press release to explain your views
on the draft agreement, the motives for your signature, etc.

j

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La Quadrature du Net - For immediate release

Permanent link:
http://www.laquadrature.net/en/acta-a-global-threat-to-freedoms-open-letter

ACTA: A Global Threat to Freedoms (Open Letter)

*** Paris, December 10th 2009 - A worldwide coalition of
Non-Governmental Organizations, consumers unions and online service
providers associations publish an open letter to the European
institutions regarding the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA)
currently under negotiation. They call on the European Parliament and
the EU negotiators to oppose any provision int the multilateral
agreement that would undermine the fundamental rights and freedoms of
citizens in Europe and across the world. ***

By December 17th, 2009, European negotiators will submit their position
regarding the proposal put forward by the U.S Trade Representative for
the Internet chapter of the ACTA. It is now time for the European Union
to firmly oppose the dangerous measures secretly being negotiated. They
cover not only "three strikes" schemes, but also include Internet
service providers liability that would result in Internet filtering, and
dispositions undermining interoperability and usability of digitial
music and films.

The first signatories of the open letter include: Consumers
International (world federation of 220 consumer groups in 115
countries), EDRi (27 European civil rights and privacy NGOs), the Free
Software Foundation (FSF), the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF),
ASIC (French trade association for web2.0 companies), and civil
liberties organizations from all around Europe (9 Member States so
far...).

The letter is open for signature by other organizations:
http://www.laquadrature.net/en/acta-a-global-threat-to-freedoms-open-letter=
#signatory-form

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  ACTA: A Global Threat to Freedoms
  open letter

  The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) is a broad
intergovernmental agreement under negotiation ranging from the key
social issue of access to medicine [1] to criminal Internet regulation.
We fear it could seriously hinder European innovation in the digital
single market while undermining fundamental rights and democracy at large.

  The negotiation process itself raises important questions of
transparency and due democratic process, given that the content of the
draft agreement has been kept secret for more than 18 months, although
some details about the proposals recently leaked to the public. More
worrying still, while the European Parliament has been denied access to
the documents, US industry has been granted access to them, albeit only
after signing non-disclosure agreements.

  A recent analysis by the European Commission of the ACTA Internet
chapter [2] proves that the topics under discussion go far beyond the
current body of EU law. Most importantly, the Commission's analysis
confirms that the current draft of ACTA would profoundly restrict the
fundamental rights and freedoms of European citizens, most notably the
freedom of expression and communication privacy. These are very much at
risk, since the current draft pushes for the implementation of
three-strikes schemes and content filtering policies by seeking to
impose civil and criminal liability on technical intermediaries such as
internet service providers. The text would also radically erode the
exercise of interoperability that is essential for both consumer rights
and competitiveness.

  Consequently, we urge the Parliament to call on European negotiators
to establish transparency in the negotiation process and publish the
draft agreement, and not to accept any proposal which would undermine
citizens' rights and freedoms. Furthermore, we urge the Parliament to
make an unequivocal statement to the Commission and Council that any
agreement which does not respect these core principles would force the
Parliament to reject the entire text.

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The first signatories of this letter are (in alphabetical order):

AK DATEN E.V. 	      	        Germany
April	 		        France
ASIC			        France
Asociación de Internautas       Spain
Bits of Freedom 	        The Netherlands
Chaos Computer Club (CCC)       Germany
Constant vzw   	    	        Belgium
Consumers International         International
dyne.org  		        Intenational
EDRi 			        Europe
Electronic Frontier Finland     Finland
Electronic Frontier Foundation  International
Exgae 	   	    	        Spain
Free Knowledge Institute        Europe
Free Software Foundation        International
Gleducar      		        Argentina
Hacktivistas		        Spain
Knowledge Ecology International	International
La Quadrature du Net 		France
netzpolitik.org  		Germany
Open Rights Group 		United Kingdom
Opendata Network 		Germany
Scambio Etico 			Italy
The Julia Group (Juliagruppen) 	Sweden
The WeReBuild clusters 		Europe
U.S. PIRG     			USA

* Références *

1. See:
http://www.oxfam.org/en/pressroom/pressrelease/2009-07-15/criminalize-gener=
ic-medicines-hurt-poor-countries

2. See:
http://sharemydoc.org/files/philip/ec_analysis_of_acta_internet_chapter.pdf

** Press contact and press room **

Jérémie Zimmermann, jz@laquadrature.net, +33 (0)615 940 675

http://www.laquadrature.net/en/press-room

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