According to various reports, Germany will not be signing the controversial treaty, at least not anytime soon. Perhaps the Germany is waiting for the EU parliament to issue its vote of consent, but that won’t happen until later this year, sometime in the summer.

According to a Google translation of an article appearing in Spiegel.de, German government officials offered the following response for their ACTA delay:

The minister, Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger (FDP), has now made ​​it clear that in Germany first before a decision is to decide the EU Parliament. “It is good that the public debate about ACTA, both on and offline so committed is done,” the justice minister said on Thursday. “The EU must now decide whether it needs ACTA and wants,” said Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger. “This must be approved by the European Parliament only once. All controversial issues are being discussed at European level and must now be answered.”

While the translation is responsible for the broken English-like response, it appears as if Germany’s government officials won’t act until the controversy surrounding the bill is addressed. Conversely, it also seems as if the German government is waiting on the EU parliament to weigh in before their vote is offered.

While that may indeed be the case, the fact German officials are acknowledging the controversy surrounding ACTA and other Internet regulatory treaties and laws, which indicates the protests are indeed being noticed. With that in mind, if the following Hatebreed masterpiece isn’t the theme song of the anti-ACTA movement, something needs to change:

Loudly.

Tomorrow (February 11), is being set aside as a day of global protest against ACTA and perhaps the newest enemy of the Internet, TPP. While these protests are largely focused in Europe, this is not just a problem facing citizens of the European Union. Keep in mind, U.S. citizens, that President Obama has shown outward support for ACTA, even as his cabinet derided SOPA/PIPA.

Much like the massive anti-SOPA movement, the web, especially social media, is helping facilitate these protests. Over at KillACTA.org, the folks who run FightForTheFuture.org have set up something of a protest meet up utility, complete with a Google Map showing where various protests are occurring.

There’s also a “Write Your Official” widget, which spells out the anti-ACTA manifesto quite clearly:

I urge you to vote no on ACTA and to communicate its severe problems to your colleagues. ACTA’s vague language locks us into obsolete copyright and patent laws, preventing democracies from updating their laws to unlock new economic and social opportunities.

It criminalizes harmless remixes by ordinary users if they achieve “a commercial scale” (art 2.14.1) which many amateur videos do on sites like Youtube. And it criminalizes legitimate websites by making them responsible for user behavior (“aiding and abetting” art 2.14.4).

Worse, it permanently bypasses the democratic process by empowering the “ACTA Committee” to “propose amendments to [ACTA]” without your approval. (art 6.4) In other words, it’s impossible to know what you’re voting for.

The global movement against the US law SOPA showed that internet freedom is a crucial issue which belongs in the legislative process of each country. You should view ACTA as an attempt by a handful of companies to circumvent the democratic process, and you should vote against it.

Thank you. Please reply if you have any questions.

KillACTA.org also features embeddable widgets for sites that want to join the protest on Saturday. As indicated, the embeddable map shows where the fun will be had, especially if you’re against ACTA:

Facebook is also playing a major role in relation to organizing these anti-ACTA protests. Over at the STOP ACTA! page, there is a list of events going on all over Europe, and it’s clear our European Union neighbors, at least the citizens thereof, are not going to simply accept ACTA without a fighting back.

In Germany and France, for instance, there will be protests in multiple cities:

FRENCH:
Aix en Provence : https://www.facebook.com/events/244421288966558/
Ajaccio : https://www.facebook.com/events/133197000134763/
Albi : https://www.facebook.com/events/168765856565763/
Amiens : https://www.facebook.com/events/100287056765109/
Angers : https://www.facebook.com/events/199634866800799/
Annecy : http://www.facebook.com/events/257782500958741/
Avignon : http://www.facebook.com/events/205603019536597/
Bayonne : https://www.facebook.com/events/170881226348001/
Besançon : http://www.facebook.com/events/350055058338859/
Bordeaux : http://www.facebook.com/events/362717853754753/
Brest : https://www.facebook.com/events/115942121861376/
Caen : https://www.facebook.com/events/228618757227112/
Chambery : https://www.facebook.com/events/288493647877788/
Clermont-Ferrand : http://www.facebook.com/events/326849087360202/
Corte : https://www.facebook.com/events/185750778193305/
Dijon : https://www.facebook.com/events/274825002587428/
Douai : https://www.facebook.com/events/102456923212099/
Dunkerque : https://www.facebook.com/events/120665031389535/
Grenoble : https://www.facebook.com/events/291033160951733/
Limoges : http://www.facebook.com/events/321440564560770/
Lille : http://www.facebook.com/events/199934440105717/
Lorient : http://www.facebook.com/events/231912796892759/
Lyon : https://www.facebook.com/events/227033324049150/
Marseille : https://www.facebook.com/events/371810592833698/
Metz : https://www.facebook.com/events/223962574358248/
Montpellier : https://www.facebook.com/events/308322049214315/
Nancy : https://www.facebook.com/events/297319746990736/
Nantes : https://www.facebook.com/events/336368539718367/
Nevers : http://www.facebook.com/events/257478177653829/
Nice : http://www.facebook.com/events/226142050807952/
Nîmes : https://www.facebook.com/events/284365168292336/
Orléans : https://www.facebook.com/events/144336802350023/
Paris : https://www.facebook.com/events/261953107207192/
Perpignan : https://www.facebook.com/events/335195069845376/
Poitiers : https://www.facebook.com/events/335663953135037/
Porto-Vecchio : https://www.facebook.com/events/270343909700151/
Quimper : http://www.facebook.com/events/175748819198384/
Reims : https://www.facebook.com/events/261712197231360/
Rennes : https://www.facebook.com/events/284421551613274/
Saint Brieuc : https://www.facebook.com/events/355899707762027/
Saint Denis (Ile de la Réunion) : http://www.facebook.com/events/355272381151834/
Strasbourg : https://www.facebook.com/events/317988148239037/
Tarbes : https://www.facebook.com/events/336009553098334/
Toulouse : https://www.facebook.com/events/312007895501972/
Tours : http://www.facebook.com/events/282746828454027/
Troyes : http://www.facebook.com/events/322202587818097/

GERMANY:
Berlin: https://www.facebook.com/events/338799346153966/
Bremerhaven: https://www.facebook.com/events/212489055513027/
Dortmund: https://www.facebook.com/events/292927114099000/
Dresden: http://www.facebook.com/events/155805177868102/
Dusseldorf: http://www.facebook.com/events/228942327190942/
Erfurt - http://www.facebook.com/events/204041156361455/
Frankfurt/Main: https://www.facebook.com/events/129547730499332/
Freiburg: https://www.facebook.com/events/313894588647456/
Hamburg: http://www.facebook.com/events/159557767491881/
Hanover: https://www.facebook.com/events/360437973983925/
Köln: https://www.facebook.com/events/207644835998103/
Leipzig: https://www.facebook.com/events/316277768408479/
Mainz: http://www.facebook.com/events/169154469860540/
Mannheim: http://www.facebook.com/events/267555573314186/
Minden: https://www.facebook.com/events/310027772381359/
Munich: https://www.facebook.com/events/117215651734097/
Nordenham: http://www.facebook.com/events/182942588474388/
Nürnberg: https://www.facebook.com/events/244916202249229/
Potsdam: https://www.facebook.com/events/350079258349898/
Regensburg: http://www.akv-r.de/2012/01/30/demoaufruf-acta-ad-acta/
Saarbruecken: https://www.facebook.com/events/337811569584831/
Stuttgart: https://www.facebook.com/events/144489442335635/
Überall : http://www.facebook.com/events/182716005161256/

The question is, will this anti-ACTA outcry fall on deaf ears? Considering the Polish government have already tried to pacify their citizens with more “ACTA isn’t as bad as you think” dismissives. Of course, if people took the apathetic approach and ignore their right to speak out, there’s no telling what state the Internet would be in. At least these protests bring light to the issue at hand.

While the case of Kader Arif stands out — Arif resigned his position in order to offer his protestations against ACTA — but, by and large, most European Union members, or, at least the governments were on board with the controversial legislation. Now, however, there appears to be some push back. First, we have news of Poland suspending the bill until further discussions concerning ACTA takes place.

The anti-ACTA sentiment that spilled out of Poland deserves credit here, undoubtedly. Now we have word of a prominent European Parliament member speaking out not just against ACTA, but the copyright industry as a whole. Using TorrentFreak as a platform, Marietje Schaake, who is a member of the European Parliament, recently discussed the issue of copyright in relation to ACTA, and from Schaake’s point of view, the issue of piracy would be much better addressed with copyright reform, as opposed to sweeping laws/treaties like ACTA and SOPA.

In her own words. Any emphasis added is ours:

Regrettably, concerns by businesses, NGO’s and politicians have not led to a better result. This is partly due to the intransparant way in which ACTA has been established and negotiated. As a democratically elected representative, I believe it is not the role of government to protect outdated business models, and I do believe it is our job to ensure democratic oversight.

Schaake continues:

Yet there is a big push towards enforcing outdated legal structures of copyright by the entertainment industry. ACTA will lock any signatory country into a system of copyright enforcement, leaving the democratic process disadvantaged to enact necessary reform of our laws to suit the digital age… Copyright and E-Commerce need to suit the needs of the advanced information society we now live in. To enable a flourishing Digital Single Market in Europe, we need to analyse case-law of the last 12 years regarding the internet, hear from creators, innovators and consumers. If we want to serve consumers, artists and businesses well, we need to find a new balance in copyright. Every aspect of copyright needs to be discussed: the exclusive rights, limitations and exceptions, collective management, enforcement, etc. Only then should we discuss how to enforce the new found balance on the international arena, such as with ACTA.

As an aside, if Schaake ever decided to run for office in the United States, she’d be a fantastic alternative to the Lamar Smiths of the world. She addresses copyright with an intelligent approach, as opposed to the “we must protect our money for as long as time lasts” approach of the RIAA, MPAA, et al, an approach that, thanks to incessant lobbying, is prevalent in the houses of government in the United States.

Because it’s unlikely Schaake would “play ball” with these copyright-protecting entities, her electable in the United States is in doubt. Furthermore, considering the backlash from institutions like the MPAA concerning the anti-SOPA movement that swept the Internet a few weeks ago, the “reform copyright” fight is a long, long way from happening. At least in the United States.

H/t to Reddit for the lead image.

The investigation seems to stem from Samsung’s ongoing legal battle with Apple over patent infringement. Though Apple is never mentioned by name – and is apparently not a target of the investigation – the statement notes that in 2011 Samsung “sought injunctive relief… against competing mobile device manufacturers” on the grounds of patent infringement. The focus of the Commission’s investigation will be whether Samsung’s suits violated the company’s 1998 agreement with the European Telecommunications Standards Institute to license essential patents on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms.

Samsung filed suit against Apple for infringement of several mobile device patents last year. In response to a suit filed in the U.S. by Apple to block sales of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1, Samsung initiated legal action in several countries. At the time Samsung’s suits were seen by many as retaliatory. It looks like the European Commission may agree. It is unclear what implications this will have, if any, on the law suits still working their way through several European courts.

In case you are wondering why ACTA is getting so much negative attention from our European brethren, look no further than the video that’s leading this article. Uploaded by La Quadrature du Net, perhaps the epicenter of the anti-ACTA movement, the video does a fantastic job of very clearly pointing out why ACTA is such a potentially destructive piece of worldwide legislation.

An example, courtesy of the video:

“ACTA would give large corporations the power to stop generic drugs before they reach the people who need them.”

Considering we are all aware of how important a for-profit health system is, all way down to the prescription drug market, it’s easy to see why generic prescriptions are such a threat, isn’t that right Pfizer?

Sarcasm aside, perhaps a look at La Quadrature du Net position on ACTA will provide some additional insight:

ACTA is one more offensive against the sharing of culture on the Internet. ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement) is an agreement secretly negotiated by a small “club” of like-minded countries (39 countries, including the 27 of the European Union, the United States, Japan, etc)… ACTA, a blueprint for laws such as SOPA and PIPA, would impose new criminal sanctions forcing Internet actors to monitor and censor online communications. It is thus a major threat to freedom of expression online and creates legal uncertainty for Internet companies. In the name of trademarks and patents, it would also hamper access to generic medicines in poor countries.

Apparently, access to generic medicine is a big deal to our European neighbors, but since it’s more important to force the sick to line the pockets of the non-generic prescription drug companies, it’s easy to see why ACTA is such an essential set of rules for the world to follow.

The European Union parliament, according to The Guardian, is scheduled to debate ACTA (pdf) this summer.

Procedural processes aside, it’s clear there’s the treaty has a coalition of support as international governments race to apparently rescue the downtrodden entertainment industry, masked in a treaty of intellectual property protection. Speaking of masks, there has been some push-back from EU citizens in a number of areas, including Poland and France.

Polish citizens took to the streets to express their displeasure with the treaty, which some fear is even more dangerous than the recently-buried SOPA/PIPA bills. The protests, however, weren’t just on a citizen level either. Kader Arif resigned his position as primary ACTA rapporteur, and left the following biting statement in his native French, which was translated by La Quadrature Du Net:

“I want to denounce in the strongest possible manner the entire process that led to the signature of this agreement: no inclusion of civil society organisations, a lack of transparency from the start of the negotiations, repeated postponing of the signature of the text without an explanation being ever given, exclusion of the EU Parliament’s demands that were expressed on several occasions in our assembly.

As rapporteur of this text, I have faced never-before-seen manoeuvres from the right wing of this Parliament to impose a rushed calendar before public opinion could be alerted, thus depriving the Parliament of its right to expression and of the tools at its disposal to convey citizens’ legitimate demands.

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.

This agreement might have major consequences on citizens’ lives, and still, everything is being done to prevent the European Parliament from having its say in this matter. That is why today, as I release this report for which I was in charge, I want to send a strong signal and alert the public opinion about this unacceptable situation. I will not take part in this masquerade.”

As an aside, it would be nice if other politicians were this forthcoming. Concerning the aforementioned citizen protests, as indicated, Poland was a noted hot spot of ACTA disagreement, something the lead image indicates quite well.

There’s also some video of the protestations:

It’s highly likely Time Warner would be considered an ACTA supporter.

On his Web site, Kader Arif posted a statement titled, “ACTA: A masquerade I will not attend.” The original statement was in French and there is no official English translation yet so please forgive any errors presented in Google Translate.

I want to denounce as the greatest of all the process that led to the signing of this agreement: no association of civil society, lack of transparency from the beginning of negotiations, successive postponements of the signing of the text without any explanation being given, setting aside the claims of the European Parliament, however, expressed in several resolutions of our Assembly.

He then goes on to say that the right-winged members of parliament imposed an accelerated schedule to ACTA to pass the agreement as fast as possible before the public was alerted.

He then lists the many problems with ACTA: the impact on civil liberties, responsibilities it imposes on ISPs, impact on the manufacture of generic drugs and the lack of protection it offers to GIs.

He then says that he will be resigning his post in what he calls a “charade.”

This agreement may have a major impact on the lives of our citizens, and yet everything is done for the European Parliament to have no say. So today, in submitting this report in my charge, I would send a strong signal and alert the public about this unacceptable situation. I will not participate in this charade.

ACTA is now in the public sphere of debate and it’s causing an uproar. Expect more stories like this and more protests from various groups. We’ll keep you up to date on any changes.

ACTA, for those who don’t know, is kind of like SOPA’s big brother. It’s a multi-national trade agreement that seeks to protect copyright through a brutish censorship regime just like SOPA and PIPA. The European Digital Rights Group (EDRI) details their beef with the agreement:

The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) is a plurilateral international agreement which wants to set a “gold standard” for the enforcement of intellectual property rights. The Agreement will have major implications for freedom of expression, access to culture and privacy. It will also harm international trade and stifle innovation.

The EU and 22 member states signed the agreement today according to Wired. The only five member states who have yet to sign the agreement are Cyprus, Germany, Estonia, Netherlands and Slovakia. They are expected to sign it soon though.

Australia, Canada, South Korea, Japan, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore and the U.S. signed the agreement back in October 2011.

As we previously reported, the U.S. signing of the agreement is in direction violation of the constitution as it requires any trade agreements, which ACTA is, to be approved by Congress before being signed by the president.

The EU signed it, but it’s still not international law just yet. The vote must go before the European Parliament first before becoming law. The EDRI says that ACTA will presented before the International Trade Committee in March and is expected to be voted on by parliament in May.

There are numerous protests and attempts at stopping ACTA at the European Parliament. Many of them are similar to the actions taken against SOPA last Wednesday but on a global scale.

Anonymous has a hand in the fight against it too announcing a World War Web. They are using the hashtag #ActAgainstACTA to drive up support on Twitter.

They hit a hiccup earlier this morning, however, when members of the group wrongly attacked the EU Parliament, but those attacks have stopped.

This story will likely continue to develop throughout the week and the months leading up to the vote in the EU Parliament. We’ll keep you updated on any changes.

If you want to know more about ACTA and what you as a citizen can do, here’s a great Wiki page with plenty of tips.

The BBC is reporting that a new law is going to be proposed to the EU on Wednesday. It would include the provision for a “right to be forgotten” that would require all data on a person retained by social networks, etc to be deleted unless there are “legitimate” grounds to retain it.

This new “right to be forgotten” proposal is part of an overhaul to the 1995 Data Protection Directive.

Details of the revised law were revealed by the Justice Commissioner, Viviane Reding, at the Digital Life Design conference in Munich.

A spokesman for the commissioner clarified to the BBC that the revision was mostly for teenagers and young adults.

“These rules are particularly aimed at young people as they are not always as aware as they could be about the consequence of putting photos and other information on social network websites, or about the various privacy settings available,” said the spokesman.

He said that currently teenagers and young adults have no way of deleting embarrassing information when they apply for jobs. This new bill, however, would not allow people to erase their police or medical records.

Other measures in the bill include a requirement for all firms to notify users and the authorities of any possible data loss within 24 hours.

It would also force firms to explicitly seek permission to use a person’s personal data. Internet users must also be notified when their data is being collected, what it’s being collected for and how long it’s going to be stored.

People, under the bill, must be able to easily access their personal data and move it to another firm, or delete it, if they so wish

There are some circumstances which this new right would not apply though. Commissioner Reding told DLD delegates that “the right to be forgotten cannot amount to a right of the total erasure of history.”

If passed, the law would create a new set of data privacy rules in the EU for the first time. The rules would also apply to overseas companies active in the EU, even if their servers were based in other parts of the world.

The commissioner suggested that it would simplify regulations and save firms around $3 billion a year.

Microsoft and Facebook both voiced concerns over the scope of the bill and how much data users would be allowed to control. Facebook, however, said in a statement that they agree regulation such as this should “encourage job creation and economic growth” and that they look forward to seeing how the EU Data Protection Directive develops.

Firms that fail to abide by the proposed rules could be fined as much as one percent of their global revenues.

The new rules need to be approved by the EU’s member states and ratified by the European parliament though, so any changes won’t be happening for at least a few years.

I guess no news is good news for Google in this case.

According to Bloomberg, the formal complaint that may or may not happen would be related to alleged anticompetitive practice, as regulators investigate claims from competitors (including Microsoft of course) that Google has gone so far as to stop some sites from accepting rival ads.

The investigation appears to be about much more than just search results, though that is a big part of it. Some have even alleged that Google’s famous (or infamous, depending on how you look at it) Panda update has been used anti-competitively.

Newspaper publishers in Europe are complaining about Google’s use of news content…an age old complaint really.

Antitrust complaints about Google in general have also included complaints about reviews and travel information.

The company’s acquisition of ITA Software has been one of the biggest catalysts to such scrutiny, with travel sites, led by the FairSearch Coalition going on a huge campaign to push for regulation of Google’s ways.

As Google continues to acquire companies and get into more spaces, the complaints are likely to continue piling up.

In Europe, it’s still possible that Google could face a massive fine.