For those who have followed the SOPA debate, when opponents to the legislation successfully got the bill shelved, major players in the corporate sector said that opponent based their arguments on misconceptions of the bill – even the people who read the bill and cried foul. Now, the MPA and other organizations seem to be playing from a very similar playbook on ACTA.
When it comes to the ACTA debate, it seems as though the MPA (Motion Picture Association) views people in the debate as being in one of two camps – those who support the agreement and those that don’t understand it. Now that ACTA is on the receiving end of world-wide protests and is now seemingly on the ropes and quite likely on the verge of a major defeat in Europe, representatives from major multi-national corporations are at the point of resorting to begging politicians to approve the agreement. From EuroPolitics:
The industry considers this international treaty for the creation of a preliminary global framework to fight intellectual property breaches and the counterfeiting of numerous products to be necessary for European growth. Thus, Chris Marcich, president and managing director of MPA Europe, adds: “If there are doubts [mainly on the compatibility of the ACTA with the fundamental rights], clarifications and reassurances should be obtained. But the agreement itself should not be rejected prematurely on the basis of false arguments”.
The rapporteur at the European Parliament’s Committee on International trade (INTA) – which is responsible for the content of the dossier – David Martin (S&D, UK) recommends categorically rejecting the agreement. A decision will be reached (approval or rejection of the agreement) at the July plenary session. While everything points to MEPs burying the ACTA, divergences remain within certain political groups.
What’s actually interesting in an amusing way is that major corporate entities still view the sinking ship of ACTA as a boat worth saving at this point. At this point, it is so far gone, it’s almost a fools errand to try and rescue the agreement now. It’s like the only thing that is still visible of the ACTA ship are the tops of the sails which are quickly sinking into the sea and the MPA is on a life boat with an arm stretched out towards it screaming, “No, we can still save it!”
Unless some kind of surprise last minute deal goes on behind the scenes with a number of politicians, ACTA will soon be a distant bad memory.
Have a tip? Want to contact the author? You can do so by sending a PM via the forums or via e-mail at [email protected].
Drew Wilson is perhaps one of the more well-known file-sharing and technology news writers around. A journalist in the field since 2005, his work has had semi-regular appearances on social news websites and even occasional appearances on major news outlets as well. Drew founded freezenet.ca and still contributes to ZeroPaid. Twitter | Google Plus
