ACTA Passage Prompts European Parliament Rapporteur to Quit

A special rapporteur with the European Parliament quit on Friday in protest over the multinational Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) that was signed by 22 European Union nations a day earlier.

The controversial bill has been likened to the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA) currently stalled in the U.S. Congress. Wikipedia, Reddit, Craigslist, and other websites blacked out on Jan. 16 to protest the U.S. two bills, which they said would limit free speech, damage the architecture of the Internet, and amount to nothing more than corporate-mandated censorship.

“Everyone knows the ACTA agreement is problematic, whether it is its impact on civil liberties, the way it makes Internet access providers liable, its consequences on generic drugs manufacturing, or how little protection it gives to our geographical indications,” Special Rapporteur Kader Arif said in a statement.

ACTA is a trade agreement that is being considered by Japan, the EU, the United States, Canada, South Korea, Australia, and other countries. Like SOPA and PIPA, the treaty seeks to enforce copyright infringement laws and curtail the sale of counterfeited goods.

Arif added that while the treaty could have major consequences on citizens’ lives, “everything is being done to prevent the European Parliament from having its say in this matter.”

“I want to send a strong signal and alert the public opinion about this unacceptable situation. I will not take part in this masquerade,” he said.

The treaty has not been agreed upon by the European Parliament, meaning that is it not yet enacted. A debate is slated to take place in June.

Thousands of protesters took to the streets in Poland on Thursday to decry the bill and more demonstrated after the agreement was passed. 

Critics of the agreement say that one of its main problems is secrecy among nations considering it. “Leaked documents show that one of the major goal of the treaty is to force signatory countries into implementing anti file-sharing policies under the form of three-strikes schemes and net filtering practice,” according to StopACTA.info.

Proponents of the bill, including Britain’s Intellectual Property Office, said the measure is important in tackling piracy around the world.

The Office, in a statement reported by the BBC, said ACTA “will set an international standard for tackling large-scale infringements … through the creation of common enforcement standards and more effective international cooperation.”