In days, the European Commission will try a last ditch attempt to revive ACTA. But we can shine a light on their dirty trick and foil their plans.
Governments are turning their back on ACTA one by one, so the EC is asking their Court of Justice to give the treaty the greenlight and renew its momentum -- but they plan to manipulate the process by giving the court only a narrow, uncontroversial question to consider, hoping it will lead to a positive outcome.
We can push the court to see though the EC's ploy and look at all the legal implications of this censorship treaty on our freedoms -- forcing a negative decision that kills ACTA for good. Click below to sign the call:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/acta_time_to_win//?vl
The European Commission spent five years negotiating ACTA in secret with corporations, but in the last five weeks we've blown the ACTA debate into the open. Now the Commission is fighting to keep ACTA alive by getting the blessing of the EU’s highest court. Unless we step in now the Commission, well-versed in bureaucratic dodges, may only present the court with a narrow question, preventing it from assessing ACTA's impacts on our freedom of expression, privacy and democracy.
We’ve forced governments in Poland, Germany, Bulgaria and other countries to freeze ratification. And now, if we win this battle in the European Commission, we can stop ACTA for good. If the EU does not ratify, ACTA will never become a global agreement and negotiators will have to go back to the drawing board to produce a treaty that stops genuine abuses but protects our rights.
Let's urgently call on the Commission and Court to give ACTA a full and fair hearing, and make sure the whole truth about this threat to our fundamental freedoms is revealed. Sign now and send this to everyone:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/acta_time_to_win//?vl
Millions of us joined together to fight for Internet freedom and stop the US censorship laws. We won, but now this threat is back on a global scale with ACTA. We've done what no one thought we could and stopped the treaty's march to ratification. Let's finish what we started and beat back ACTA, for good!
With hope and determination,
Alex, Pascal, Laura, Alice, Ricken, Dalia, Diego and the whole Avaaz team
PS. Check out the media coverage of our 2.4 million strong petition delivery to the European Parliament on Tuesday -- we caused quite a stir!
Activists present anti-ACTA petition to EU (Associated Press)
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5goN98YMyvwPqQiW31gBs8U-xnvIg?docId=7afd9eef4f6b44acbb43b1029820bc87
Anti ACTA petition hits European Parliament (The Inquirer)
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2155775/anti-acta-petition-hits-european-parliament
ACTA opponents present 2 million petition to EU (Washington Post)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/opponents-of-acta-anti-counterfeiting-treaty-present-petition-with-2-million-names-to-eu/2012/02/28/gIQAmHCsfR_story.html
More Information
ACTA approval stalled by European commission (Guardian):
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/feb/22/acta-stalled-european-commission?newsfeed=true
ACTA: EU court to rule on anti-piracy agreement (BBC)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-17125469
EU suspends ACTA ratification (Euractiv):
http://www.euractiv.com/infosociety/eu-suspends-acta-ratification-news-511054
EU To Refer ACTA To Top Court (Wall St Journal):
http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20120222-715091.html
FAQ on Commission Referral of ACTA to the CJEU (Access Now):
https://www.accessnow.org/policy-activism/press-blog/faq-on-commission-referral-of-acta-to-the-cjeu
What makes ACTA so controversial (EDRI):
http://www.edri.org/files/acta-bklt-p2s.pdf
