Awful ACTA Treaty Just Will Not Die

ACTA is the international version of SOPA and PIPA, developed in secret, and attempted to be rammed through without any input from those pesky consumers. It would create a separate body to enforce intellectual property rights, because what intellectual property lawsuits need are international reach and zero supervision from any government body whatsoever.

Nonetheless, the US, the EU, and others signed the treaty — and then just kind of stood around awkwardly, because nobody actually wanted to, er, ratify it and actually put it into effect.

the European Union’s International Trade Committee (INTA) is now set to meet this Thursday in Brussels to give its recommendation to the European Parliament as a whole. This vote is the most significant in the run-up to what will eventually be the full vote before the European Parliament … This, of course, is after the fact that four parliamentary committees have already rejected ratification of the international treaty. The controversial intellectual property treaty does not enter into force until six signatories have ratified it. So far, none have.

So, in other words, even though multiple countries have said repeatedly they’re not going to follow it, the EU might try to ratify it anyway. Needless to say, this vote will be secret. Because, really, why should the people being affected by this vote know how it went?

(Image courtesy Candida.Perfoma on Flickr)

×