Europaudvalget 2010-11 (1. samling)
EUU Alm.del Bilag 411
Offentligt
-----Oprindelig meddelelse-----
Fra: Ante Wessels [mailto:[email protected]]
Sendt: 24. maj 2011 09:32
Til: Signe Riis Andersen
Emne: FFII calls upon European Parliament to resolve uncertainties
regarding ACTA
Dear Members of Cosac,
Dear Permanent Representatives,
Please find below the FFII's letter to the Members of the European
Parliament on
ACTA.
--
Dear Members of the European Parliament,
We are writing to express our concerns with ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting
Trade
Agreement). Whether the Parliament will ratify or reject ACTA, it will be
a
landmark decision. Yet, ACTA is still surrounded by uncertainties. We
call upon you
to decisively resolve these uncertainties. We urge the Parliament to seek
an
opinion of the European Court of Justice on the compatibility of ACTA
with the EU
Treaties, and to commission independent assessments of the effects ACTA
will have
on access to medicine, diffusion of green technologies needed to fight
climate
change, fundamental rights within and outside the Union, innovation,
small and
medium sized companies and a fair balance of interests.
Prior to ratifying the 1994 WTO TRIPS agreement (Agreement on Trade-
Related Aspects
of Intellectual Property Rights), the Commission asked the European Court
of
Justice whether TRIPS complied with the Treaties. The Court decided that
the
Community was not competent to ratify the criminal measures.
A few years later, the AIDS epidemic took millions of lives in Africa.
Protected by
TRIPS, pharmaceutical companies sold AIDS medicine in Africa for prices
higher than
in the US. They only served a very small part of the market. The death
toll was
very high. This was an unforeseen effect of TRIPS. A what-if question
comes to
mind: if it would have been possible to foresee this effect, would the
Community
have ratified TRIPS?
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We now know the devastating effects that IP ("intellectual property")
enforcement
may have on societies. With trial and error, the world learns to deal
with TRIPS
(for instance, the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public
Health, and
the WIPO Development Agenda). At this point, ACTA is proposed.
How to proceed? The "Hargreaves Review"
the UK government-commissioned
study on
the relationship between intellectual property and growth, indicates the
direction.
The Review urges the UK Government to ensure that in future, policy on
Intellectual
Property issues is constructed on the basis of evidence, rather than
weight of
lobbying. "On copyright issues, lobbying on behalf of rights owners has
been more
persuasive to Ministers than economic impact assessments." [1] We urge
the EU to
base its IP policy on evidence as well.
Regarding piracy, the Hargreaves Review refers to the MPEE (Media Piracy
in
Emerging Economies) report. Relative to local incomes in Brazil, Russia,
or South
Africa, the MPEE report shows, the price of a CD, DVD, or copy of
Microsoft Office
is five to ten times higher than in the United States or Europe. Licit
media goods
are luxury items in most parts of the world, and licit media markets are
correspondingly tiny. [2]
We see the same pattern as in the 1990s in Africa, multinationals only
serving a
small part of the market. Some 90% of the people in emerging markets can
only turn
to illegal media copies. Under such circumstances, stronger enforcement
can not
solve the piracy problem. Yet, ACTA criminalises these people.
Multinational media
companies have asked the Parliament not to seek the opinion of the
European Court
of Justice on the compatibility of ACTA with the EU Treaties. For a
marginal gain,
the multinational media companies are willing to compromise the EU's
fundamental
principles and to exclude and criminalise some 90% of the people in
emerging
markets. The consequences of this aggressive approach are far-reaching,
both within
and outside the EU.
Lobbying on behalf of rights owners has been persuasive to the Commission
as well.
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The Commission refused to commission independent assessments of the
effects ACTA
will have on access to medicine and the diffusion of green technologies
needed to
fight climate change. Could ACTA be just as detrimental as TRIPS, or even
worse?
The Commission does not want to know.
Regarding patents, the Hargreaves Review observes that given the pace of
change in
the digital world and the strongly sequential nature of innovation in
computer
programs, the problems arising from patent thickets in this environment
are
particularly severe and it is essential that changes do not worsen the
situation.
We fully agree, FFII members often report that patent minefields are an
increasingly severe problem, especially in the software sector. Our
analysis shows
ACTA's heightened measures against patent infringements will make things
worse. [3]
In January 2011, prominent European academics issued an "Opinion of
European
Academics on ACTA". The academics invite the European institutions, in
particular
the European Parliament, and the national legislators and governments to
withhold
consent of ACTA, "as long as significant deviations from the EU acquis or
serious
concerns on fundamental rights, data protection, and a fair balance of
interests
are not properly addressed".
In April 2011, the European Commission s services put on-line comments to
the
European Academics Opinion on ACTA. The Commission denies that ACTA is
incompatible with EU law. It appears the Commission does not have any
reasonable
objections against the academics' Opinion. Even a partial scrutiny of the
Commission's comments shows the Commission misrepresents ACTA, does not
address
points raised by the academics and even uses nonsensical reasoning.
Regarding the
border measures, an issue with consequences on access to medicine, the
Commission
actually agrees with the academics, while denying that. We invite you to
take note
of our analysis. [4]
The Commission refused to commission independent assessments and gave a
very weak
response to the European Academics Opinion on ACTA. It never provided
proof ACTA's
criminal measures are essential. We believe the European Parliament now
has to take
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responsibility.
We urge the Parliament to seek
Justice on the
compatibility of ACTA with the
wait with
this, according to ECJ Opinion
will clarify
whether ACTA complies with the
an opinion of the European Court of
EU Treaties. Parliament does not have to
1/09. This is an essential step, as it
EU's fundamental principles.
We also urge Parliament to commission independent assessments of the
effects ACTA
will have on access to medicine, diffusion of green technologies needed
to fight
climate change, fundamental rights within and outside the Union,
innovation, small
and medium sized companies and a fair balance of interests.
Yours sincerely,
Ante Wessels
Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure
[1] http://www.ipo.gov.uk/ipreview-finalreport.pdf
[2] http://piracy.ssrc.org/about-the-report/
[3] http://action.ffii.org/acta/Analysis
[4] http://acta.ffii.org/?p=598