ACTA was defeated today in the European Parliament, but one British Liberal-Democrat MEP voted for it. Understanding why helps us to understand how the political system needs fixing for the internet age. Please read my long article in ComputerWorldUK to see why.
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Just posted on ComputerWorldUK – why you need to call or write to your MEP now, ahead of Wednesday’s vote on ACTA, and how to do it. By the way, is anyone else concerned that it takes an international call to contact your political representatives for Europe? It ought to be a UK call, surely?
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Now that the US bills SOPA and PIPA have been put on ice, attention has returned to their parent, an international treaty called ACTA. I’ve written extensively about ACTA before, but in summary it is an international treaty that has been secretly negotiated to ensure as little input as possible from the citizens of any […]
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Are the European Commission just trying to provoke us? Having seen the depth of feeling over SOPA and PIPA, you would expect the European Commission to regard ACTA as a hot topic. But not a bit of it – they almost seem to relish the confrontation by getting member states to sign it almost before […]
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Here is a list of MEPs for UK constituencies. As of now, none of these MEPs has signed the Written Declaration on ACTA.It’s entirely possible one of them is representing you – or rather, failing to do so. Since we now only need nine more signatures in the next two days to enact this Written […]
Filed under: ACTA | Tagged: Democracy, European Parliament, MEPs, WriteToThem | 2 Comments »
The Wellington Declaration – PublicACTA I signed the Wellington Declaration on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement and I think you should consider doing so too. Sign today and you can be included in the copy presented to the ACTA negotiators on Tuesday 13th April in New Zealand.
A list of resources for people finding out about ACTA for the first time. Help me keep it up to date.
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Want to get hands-on with Ubuntu for Android? I heard recently from Richard Collins at Canonical that he would like some help with user testing Ubuntu for Android. He tells me they are looking for some folk in or around London who would be willing to visit them in Southwark and help them with end-user testing. […]
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Each time I am told I should unreservedly respect decisions made by authorities in secret, I remember this song by Chris Wood. I always cry when I play it. In case you don’t recognise the story, it’s about Jean Charles de Menezes and his killing by British police whose certainty he was an Islamic terrorist […]
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The Special 301 Report is an annual publication by the US Trade Representative (USTR), fulfilling US legal requirements to identify countries whose copyright, patent, trademark and trade secrets laws and practices are of concern to the USA. You may recall I’ve written unflatteringly about USTR before. The report’s content reflects the input of US trade […]
Filed under: ACTA, Copyright, Issues | Tagged: Special 301 Report, USA | Comments Off
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