Via our friends at La Quadrature du Net:

The context:

“”Non-Governmental Organizations, consumers unions and online service providers associations publish an open letter to the EuropeaN institutions regarding the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA)
currently under negotiation. They call on the European Parliament and
the EU negotiators to oppose provisions of the draft multilateral agreement that would profoundly undermine the fundamental rights and freedoms of citizens in Europe and across the world.

By December 17th, 2009, European negotiators will submit their position regarding the proposal put forward by the U.S Trade Representative for the Internet chapter of the ACTA. It is now time for the European Union to firmly oppose the dangerous measures secretly being negotiated, such as “three strikes” schemes and content filtering on the Internet.

The first signatories of the open letter include: Consumers International (world federation of 220 consumer groups in 115 countries), EDRi (27 European civil rights and privacy NGOs), the Free
Software Foundation (FSF), the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF),
ASIC (French trade association for web2.0 companies), and civil
liberties organizations from all around Europe (9 Member States so
far…).Your organization can sign too!

The text of the open letter:

The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) is a broad
intergovernmental agreement under negotiation ranging from the key
social issue of access to medicine [1] to criminal Internet regulation.
We fear it could seriously hinder European innovation in the digital
single market while undermining fundamental rights and democracy at large.

The negotiation process itself raises important questions of
transparency and due democratic process, given that the content of the draft agreement has been kept secret for more than 18 months, although some details about the proposals recently leaked to the public. More worrying still, while the European Parliament has been denied access to the documents, US industry has been granted access to them, albeit only after signing non-disclosure agreements.

A recent analysis by the European Commission of the ACTA Internet
chapter [2] proves that the topics under discussion go far beyond the
current body of EU law. Most importantly, the Commission’s analysis
confirms that the current draft of ACTA would profoundly restrict the
fundamental rights and freedoms of European citizens, most notably the freedom of expression and communication privacy. These are very much at risk, since the current draft pushes for the implementation of
three-strikes schemes and content filtering policies by seeking to
impose civil and criminal liability on technical intermediaries such as
internet service providers. The text would also radically erode the
exercise of interoperability that is essential for both consumer rights
and competitiveness.

Consequently, we urge the Parliament to call on European negotiators
to establish transparency in the negotiation process and publish the
draft agreement, and not to accept any proposal which would undermine citizens’ rights and freedoms. Furthermore, we urge the Parliament to make an unequivocal statement to the Commission and Council that any agreement which does not respect these core principles would force the Parliament to reject the entire text.”

References:

1. See:
http://www.oxfam.org/en/pressroom/pressrelease/2009-07-15/criminalize-generic-medicines-hurt-poor-countries

2. See:

More Information:

Jérémie Zimmermann, [email protected], +33 (0)615 940 675

URL = http://www.laquadrature.net/en/press-room