A controversial global treaty – The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement or ACTA for short – which has the agreement of 22 European nations, has spurred protesters to declare 11 February 2012 a day of action, with protests happening in the US and all over Europe.
The agreement is designed to fight the trade of counterfeit goods, including pharmaceuticals, but it contains tough measures, including ‘three strikes’ remedies as a way to fight illegal downloading. The treaty is being considered as being more dangerous than the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), which was railroaded in the US after widespread online protest.
Under ACTA, ISPs and websites will be given more power to track what we do online, while forcing them to turn over our information and reporting our activity to the authorities — all in the name of copyright protection! While we respect the rights of creators, ACTA’s ill-conceived provisions will have chilling effects on free speech everywhere.
The European Parliament still has to approve ACTA for it to go into effect around the world. If they vote NO, then ACTA will be effectively dismantled — even in countries that have already signed it. We helped bring down SOPA and PIPA, now let’s turn the fight to ACTA. Call on the EU Parliament to take a stand and vote “NO” on ACTA!
A new organisation called Access, which has the tagline ‘Mobilising for Global Digital Freedom’, says protests are being organised all over the world to urge the European Parliament to reject ACTA. So far, protests are taking place in Austria, Belgium, Britain, the UK, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Scotland, Sweden and Switzerland.
Sign The Just Say ‘No’ to ACTA Petition ‘HERE‘ And Show Your Support NOW!
At Time Of Posting 333,155 names have signed including yours truly, let’s get to 500,000 or better 1,000,000.
If you would like to be more informed and understand just what makes ACTA so controversial, then open or download this PDF file called – ‘ACTA – IS Controversial‘ – produced by the AccessNow.org group, in conjunction with European Digital Rights and Trans Atlantic Consumer dialogue.
“Make our voices heard, United in the fight to keep the internet and freedom of speech a reality, sign the petition today”.
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