On February 11 tens of thousands Bulgarians will protest against the controversial plurilateral Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). The level of dissatisfaction increases exponentially not only in this country, but also abroad. Protests of the same kind will take place on the same day in almost the whole Europe. Many opponents of the agreement will march in the streets of Belgium, France, Sweden, Slovenia, Poland and other countries.
What is ACTA and what are the fears?
ACTA /Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement/ is an international trade agreement for the purpose of establishing international standards for intellectual property rights enforcement. The main idea of the document is the fight with smuggling and distribution of fake products. The discontent comes as a result from the fears that the boundaries between law violations and sharing of files online are blurred. The general tone of the texts hides the danger of prosecution not only against pirate materials, but also against their Internet providers. In other words, Internet providers will monitor everything that we do online, including social networks, and not only surfing activities. There are also fears about the tracking of online correspondence. Even major international companies joined this wave of discontent. According to the agreement Internet piracy will be incriminated. Thus downloading of free movies for instance may be punished with imprisoning. The ACTA agreement was signed on January 26 in Tokyo by 22 EU member-states, Bulgaria among them. Switzerland, Morocco, the USA, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Korea, Mexico, Singapore and Japan have joined the agreement so far.
What are the reactions in Bulgaria?
Bulgarian Internet users were unpleasantly surprised by the fact that their state had signed the agreement. There was no official information and that was why protests were organized across the entire country. Some activists said that the document came as a consequence from the scandalous American laws SOPA and PIPA that attempt to restrict the freedom of speech and information online. Moreover, no public debate has existed so far in Bulgaria, regarding this matter and the news was heard by the Internet community via foreign media. Many citizens of this country fear that the ACTA agreement will restrict the rights of Internet users, tracking every single action and the e-mails too, thus violating their private space online.
What do the authorities say?
“The document was signed with invisible ink. If we do not re-sign it with some real ink till 2013, it won’t enter into force,” Bulgarian Minister of Economy, Energy and Tourism Traicho Traikov explained in a metaphorical manner in an interview for bTV. Although Bulgaria has signed ACTA, the document has to be ratified by its parliament. A public debate will take place before that. Experts from the ministry claim that the agreement wouldn’t impose any changes in both Bulgarian and EU legislation, concerning intellectual property. “Storm in a glass of water” – that was what the Head of Cyber Crime Dept. at Fighting with Organized Crime Chief Directorate Yavor Kolev said. In his words the agreement targets mainly websites, offering counterfeit goods and not the average users. Mr. Kolev thinks that the protest wave has been inspired by major telecommunication companies that defend certain interests.
What is the position of the EU?
Even before the signing of the agreement, 27 leading scientists and experts from UK, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands etc. voiced their stand that the document didn’t respond fully to the legal standards of the EU. The recent protests made the EC post a material, containing 10 myths about ACTA. Meanwhile the main rapporteur on the subject at the EU withdrew. Furthermore, hackers attacked the website of the EP exactly on the day of the signing. In the meantime civic organizations in the EU gathered over 1 mln. signatures, calling on MEPs not to adopt ACTA. The webpage remains open for the moment and is about to be filled in with debates, protests, meetings, opinions, official and unofficial positions.
English version: Zhivko Stanchev
