[Air-L] La Quadrature du Net - ACTA

[Mathieu ONeil]

 	<!-- 		@page { margin: 2cm } 		P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm } 	--> 	 Thought some people might be interested in this.

cheers
m

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La Quadrature du Net - For immediate release

Permanent link:
http://www.laquadrature.net/en/acta-attacks-internet-lets-attack-acta



ACTA Attacks Internet! Let's Attack ACTA!


*** Paris, Jan 25th 2009 - Negotiations on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade
Agreement (ACTA) [1] will take place from January 26th to January 29th
in Mexico. ACTA aims at controlling the Internet, while conveniently
circumventing democratic processes. Unelected negotiators - carrying out
the orders of the entertainment industries - are attacking the very
essence of the Internet. Let's attack ACTA! Let's expose its negotiators
so they face their responsibilities! ***

- From Jan 26th to Jan 29th, representatives of a handful of countries
(including the EU represented by the Commission) will meet in Mexico to
decide the future of the Internet and other issues such as access to
medicine. With no supervision from international organizations and no
democratic oversight, conditions are ideal for entertainment lobbies to
dictate their dream: enforcing a fundamentally unadapted copyright
regime in order to control the Internet and access to knowledge. More
than 80 NGOs from all over the world (including Consumers International,
Reporters without Borders, the Free Software Foundation and the
Electronic Frontier Foundation) already signed an open letter strongly
opposing ACTA [2].

The last leaked analysis of the European Commission [3] unmasks the
global intent of the text: imposing extra-judicial "voluntary"
agreements between Internet service providers and rights holders to
combat copyright infringements through "three strikes" schemes or
automated content filtering or removal. To force Internet operators into
accepting such access restrictions, ACTA will make them liable for the
copyright infringements done by their users.

"By creating legal uncertainty for the Internet operators, ACTA will
force them to bend under the pressure of entertainment industries. ACTA
will compell Internet service providers to filter and remove content and
services, turning them into private police and justice auxiliaries. We
cannot tolerate that restrictions to fundamental rights and freedoms be
imposed by private actors. Such a modification of criminal law by
governments themselves, in total opacity, shows how much the people
behind ACTA hate democracy." analyzes J?r?mie Zimmermann, spokesperson
for the citizen advocacy group La Quadrature du Net.

La Quadrature du Net calls on every citizen to participate in raising
awareness on the dangers of ACTA (see policy brief [4]) and to expose
its negotiators in order to make them accountable. A dedicated
participative campaign page [5] is provided for this purpose:
http://www.laquadrature.net/wiki/Attack_ACTA

"Obeying to the music and movie industries, unelected negotiators are
deciding the future of the Internet. We must make them accountable and
make sure they face the consequences of their decisions." concludes
Zimmermann.



* Reerences *


1. See our web-dossier about ACTA: http://lqdn.fr/ACTA

2. ACTA: A Global Threat to Freedoms - open letter:
http://www.laquadrature.net/en/acta-a-global-threat-to-freedoms-open-letter

3.
http://sharemydoc.org/files/philip/ec_analysis_of_acta_internet_chapter.pdf

4.
http://www.laquadrature.net/files/LaQuadratureduNet-20100124_Policy_Brief-Shedding_the_Light_on_ACTA.pdf

5. Campaign page "Attack ACTA" on La Quadrature's wiki:
http://www.laquadrature.net/wiki/Attack_ACTA



** About la Quadrature du Net **


La Quadrature du Net is an advocacy group that promotes the rights and
freedoms of citizens on the Internet. More specifically, it advocates
for the adaptation of French and European legislations to respect the
founding principles of the Internet, most notably the free circulation
of knowledge.

As such, La Quadrature du Net engages in public-policy debates
concerning, for instance, freedom of speech, copyright, regulation of
telecommunications and online privacy.

In addition to its advocacy work, the group also aims to foster a better
understanding of legislative processes among citizens. Through specific
and pertinent information and tools, La Quadrature du Net hopes to
encourage citizens' participation in the public debate on rights and
freedoms in the digital age.

La Quadrature du Net is supported by French, European and international
NGOs including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Open Society
Institute and Privacy International.

List of supporting organisations :
http://www.laquadrature.net/en/they-support-squaring-net-la-quadrature-du-net


** Press contact and press room **

Jeremie Zimmermann, jz at laquadrature.net, +33 (0)615 940 675

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

****