back to article EU privacy body slams ACTA as 'unacceptable'

The European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) has issued its findings on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) and the results aren't good. The review of the treaty found that the text as it stands poses and "unacceptable" risk to the rights of EU citizens and requires highly intrusive monitoring of internet user's …

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  1. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Flame

    Sould that not read "will" be the death knell for this treaty.

    Because it damm well ought to be.

  2. Da Weezil
    Big Brother

    There's a surprise.. the UK signs up to something that involves intrusive monitoring of our on-line activities.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Unhappy

      What is absolutely bloody outrageous is that they did it in secret knowing full well that when the public found out there would be a backlash.

      I seriously wonder why our government panders to these people? are they secretly getting backhanders or something?

      1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge
        Big Brother

        "The treaty has been negotiated in secret for nearly five years and was ratified by many countries, including the UK"

        It's not even as if we could vote the bastards out since this straddles current and previous Govt. so effectively all parties.

      2. g e
        Childcatcher

        Yes they are.

        Peter Mandelson's blatant IP u-turn following a luxury paid-for holiday with Peter Geffen serves as a near-perfect example of politics bought & paid for.

  3. Jeebus

    But but but but but.

    PAEDOTERRORISTS

    If you don't let the government have their wicked way then you are guilty of funding Al-Qaeda and hate everything in the west, and are a fundamentalist muslim.

    1. hplasm
      Pirate

      re:PAEDOTERRORISTS

      But- I wanted to be a Pirate!

      Yarr!

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      If you don't let the government have their wicked way then you are guilty of funding Al-Qaeda and hate everything in the west, and are a fundamentalist muslim and a kiddie fiddler hence the word paedoterrorist, half of his van has candy, the other half has semtex and spare turbans.

      FTFY

      1. g e
        Big Brother

        Keep the population scared

        and denounce the naysayers as anti-patriotic

        ... to paraphrase Goebels (or was it Goerring?)

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Keep the population scared

          Probably Goebels, since he was propaganda minister.

          1. JimmyPage Silver badge
            Alert

            Re: Keep the population scared

            It's quite chilling to read Nazi statements, and realise how far we have gone down that road.

            Goebbels:

            "Not every item of news should be published. Rather must those who control news policies endeavor to make every item of news serve a certain purpose."

            "The war made possible for us the solution of a whole series of problems that could never have been solved in normal times."

            Goering:

            "Why of course the people don't want war. Why should some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece? Naturally the common people don't want war neither in Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country."

            Hitler:

            "All propaganda must be so popular and on such an intellectual level, that even the most stupid of those toward whom it is directed will understand it... Through clever and constant application of propaganda, people can be made to see paradise as hell, and also the other way around, to consider the most wretched sort of life as paradise."

            "The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to allow the subject races to possess arms. History shows that all conquerors who have allowed the subject races to carry arms have prepared their own downfall by so doing. Indeed, I would go so far as to say that the supply of arms to the underdogs is a sine qua non for the overthrow of any sovereignty."

            "What luck for the rulers that men do not think"

  4. Beau
    Pint

    About bloody time

    "EU privacy body slams ACTA as 'unacceptable"

    About bloody time they did something useful!

    1. Chad H.

      Re: About bloody time

      Geez, the EU really are becoming like the Romans in life of Brian... Besides cheaper imports, visa free European holidays, lower mobile phone costs, putting fundamental human rights like free speech and freedom of thought/religion into UK law and squash ACTA what has the European Union ever done for us?

      1. P. Lee
        Mushroom

        Re: About bloody time

        > What has the European Union ever done for us?

        Taken away our right to self-determination, which is the objective of democracy.

        It isn't that the EU parliament has done anything wrong. It is just that the EU parliament has little power and derives any power it does have from sticking it to the Council of Ministers. Turn the EU parliament into a "proper" one with power and you just end up with a larger, less responsive(!) version of the Commons. You may as well just run an empire from Paris or Berlin or wherever the largest population is.

        What we should be asking is, "Why do we allow our own government to get away with what they do?" If we can't control our own government, what makes you think we'll be able to control one in Brussels? Have we given up making our own laws and have decided we'll let the French and the Germans do it for us? They do outnumber us and therefore will outvote us in a democracy.

        Given that our own House of Lords has been the bulwark of defense against the abuses of power initiated by the Commons, we should be both (a) unsurprised and (b) outraged that the Commons is trying to make the Lords more like itself by introducing an election process. We have an elected house, we don't need another one. It appears that the Lords are a little too effective in questioning the Commons and must be made to toe a party line.

        And don't forget, we aren't just talking about the "EU." We are talking about one part of the EU trying to undo the damage that another part of the EU is doing.

        1. g e
          Unhappy

          Re: About bloody time

          'Lord' Mandelson needs a stout kick in *&^$%&, then, if he's part of our last line of defence from the self-interested, self-funding NIMBY's in the Commons.

        2. John H Woods Silver badge

          Re: About bloody time

          Self determination my arse. The reason why it looks that way to us in the UK is that power is massively centralised. What we have in the UK is 'London Determination' and that is why we all fear that the EU merely replaces that with 'Brussels Determination'.

          In other EU contries, local government has REAL power which is why they don't fear the EU so much.

          Apart from that, I completely agree with you.

      2. g e
        Thumb Up

        Re: About bloody time

        Trained most of the world's top chefs, too ... they all do a stint in Paris, mostly.

        So add 'tasty food' to that, too :oD

  5. Tom 35

    So...

    Time to change the name, add a few more buzz words, and try again?

    What you think the people who believe the only reason their sales don't double every year is the internet are going to give up?

  6. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
    Holmes

    Hah!

    I'm sure some El Reg contributors will be in touch to explain that it actually isn't that bad and all watered down. It will also save creative typsers.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    a point of view from a decade ago

    from a Statewatch document (http://www.statewatch.org/news/2001/may/ENFO38.PDF)

    'They' hate privacy

    ..."It is also imperative that a solution be found to the problems raised by the various forms of anonymity on the World Wide Web"...

    but 'they' do love the certificated packet-signing system in IPv6

    ..."At a technical level, it would be necessary to encourage the industry to speed up the establishment of version 6 of the Internet protocol (IPv6) having regard to the new safeguards proposed to achieve a considerable reduction in piracy via the Internet."...

    wtf?

  8. Pascal Monett Silver badge

    "ACTA has not been fully successful in this respect"

    What a brilliant understatement !

    Why does that remind of Yes Minister ?

    I wonder.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    A bit hypocrite...

    "The review of the treaty found that the text as it stands poses and "unacceptable" risk to the rights of EU citizens and requires highly intrusive monitoring of internet user's habits for the sake of protecting intellectual property."

    Of course; handing the US government /everything/ they wish to know about EU citizens merely because said citizen wants to travel to the US is absolutely no problem at all. Worse: if a relative or family member of an EU citizen travels to the US then it might be essential to look into their records "just to be sure".

    Don't get me wrong: its not that I disagree about ACTA but it seems to me as if they hold double standards where privacy is concerned.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Piracy will never be legal

    They may need to tiddy up the language but no one is going to legalize priacy.

    1. annodomini2
      Pirate

      Re: Piracy will never be legal

      Either my sarcasm detector is malfunctioning or you need to check your history?

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Piracy will never be legal

      Piracy?! On our Iddernets?!

      DAMN those Somalis!

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Piracy will never be legal

      Yes, hijacking ships should always be illegal..

      Copyright infringement on the other hand should stay a civil offence, all the government is doing is pandering to the media companies, when they should be telling them to move with technology and make media available at a reasonable price and as easy as it is to download..

      That is the problem, while it is easier & more flexible to download than buy media, then the media companies will loose sales!

      But every downloader does not mean a lost sale...

      The media companies are good at lobbying, and politicians are not able to understand reality over hype.

      1. P. Lee

        Re: Piracy will never be legal

        > The media companies are good at lobbying, and politicians are not able to understand reality over hype.

        The reality is that the best-funded candidate usually wins. Politicians understand reality well enough, they just have rather different objectives to those of the populace.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Piracy will never be legal

        No to a slap on the wrist. History has demonstrated that if you leave piracy as a civil offense then people will continue to pirate. If you make piracy a felony with mandatory jail time, at least some of the scum will be away from computers and will think twice before pirating again because a second offense should be a mandatory 5 years in the pen. If you are dumb enough to pirate you belong in prison not out on the streets.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Piracy will never be legal

          So you consider sharing a tape, book, DVD etc with a friend a felony deserving of 5 years jail time?

          Worse than a mugging, worse than burglary, worse than arson?

          Copyright infringement is a breach of contract, and should be treated as such.

          You don't go to prison if you fail to pay your rent, and that is a much greater sun of money than almost all copyright works.

        2. Crisp

          Re: Piracy will never be legal

          If you locked up everyone that has ever violated copyright then you'd have more prisoners than guards.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Piracy will never be legal

            Hint: There is already more prisoners than guards in every prison. ;)

            Since only a small portion of society pirates, we can create good jobs building new prisons and housing the degenerates who can't live within the laws of society. It's a win-win situation by getting slime off the streets and creating permanent new jobs.

        3. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Piracy will never be legal

          No, it will mean that more and more will avoid detection if it ever came a criminal offense, they wouldn't stop, just 'cos some media company bosses are so obsessed with illusionary lost sales.

    4. annodomini2

      Re: Piracy will never be legal

      http://www.royalnavalmuseum.org/info_sheets_piracy.htm

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "...and the results aren't good" WTF? Excellent Result

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    everybody knows ACTA is MILITARY GRADE bullshit

    there once was a girl called goldylocks who got her jaw broke when some ACTA guys in suits kerb stomped her. unfortunately this kind of thing happens a lot in downtown shitstownville USA where everybody who voted for ACTA is a peadophile. IT WAS ONLY A MATTER OF TIME. first you let them look at your nipples. and this is super high res kit folks so it can also see the area around your nipples, and your balls, and all up your ass crack. just because you wanted to get on a plane. so yeah, now they're going to take your freedom on the internet too. sorry.

  13. Philip Hands
    Mushroom

    Nice TED talk exposing the utter tosh used to try to justify ACTA & Co.

    http://www.ted.com/talks/rob_reid_the_8_billion_ipod.html

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Want some cheese with that Whine?

    Thankfully whining does not change law. It's time to grow up and act like a respectable adult.

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