Voir la source de Kroes and "the world without ACTA"

05/05/2012. Commissionner Neelie Kroes has recently [http://commentneelie.eu/sentence.php?s=2743 stated] at the Re:publica conference in a speech on Internet freedoms that : 
<blockquote>"'''''We are now likely to be in a world without SOPA and without ACTA'''''."</blockquote>

According to many observers and journalists, like people at the [http://blogs.wsj.com/tech-europe/2012/05/04/kroes-throws-in-towel-on-acta Wall Street Journal], this means that:
<blockquote>"''ACTA is effectively dead, the European Commissioner for the Digital Agenda admitted Friday. An official spokesman said the “political reality” was the fight was over.''"</blockquote>

But ACTA is not dead. Not yet anyway. And even if ACTA is eventually rejected by the EU Parliament this summer, it will likely be born again under a new name, under a new form.

==Kroes defended ACTA==
However, one should recall that Neelie Kroes has been a fierce defender of ACTA. In January, she was still pretending that ACTA does not affect fundamental rights.
[[File:KroesForACTA.png]]

==Kroes and the "battle against piracy"==
In the [ec.europa.eu/transparency/regdoc/rep/10061/2012/EN/10061-2012-1991-EN-F-0.Pdf minutes] of a EU Commission college meeting, she is also reported to have stated the following:

"'''Ms KROES emphasised her battle against Internet piracy''' and recalled her wish, expressed during the preparation of ACTA and reflected in the final text, that the Community acquis in this area should not be affected in any way by the new agreement, so as to retain as much leeway as possible for a debate within the EU on the revision of the Directive on intellectual property rights.''

''While she was in favour of referring the matter to the Court of Justice, she stressed that, given the time taken for it to respond, the Commission should already decide on the best course of action for the interim. '''She was in favour of Commission action demonstrating clearly that it was committed to enforcing intellectual property rights''', but that it also supported legal distribution, which was the most effective way to combat piracy.(...)''

''As regards the planned revision of the 2004 Directive on enforcement of intellectual property rights, the Commission needed to adopt a prudent and balanced approach to this politically delicate exercise, and take account of existing texts on the protection of data and privacy in the areas of telecoms and fundamental rights.''

''She concluded by stressing the need for appropriate communication on the agreement, without waiting for the Court’s opinion, targeted particularly at the various stakeholders involved and social networks. The Commission '''urgently needed to table the expected legislative proposals on intellectual property and copyright'''.''" (our emphasis)

==Kroes still a far cry from moving away from copyright repression==
Mrs. Kroes might hold more balanced views than her colleague responsible for ACTA, Karel De Gucht, but she is by no means proposing a sweeping reform of copyright that would adapt in to new technical and social realities:
* She has yet to recognise the [http://www.laquadrature.net/en/sharing-is-legitimate legitimacy] and importance of culture sharing. 
* Like all other Commissioners, she has failed to acknowledge the growing number of [http://www.laquadrature.net/wiki/Studies_on_file_sharing studies] that make clear that the not-for-profit sharing ''is not'' detrimental to the cultural economy, which should call for a new approach to online copyright policy.
* Although she mentions the [http://www.laquadrature.net/en/anti-sharing-directive-ipred IPRED directive], she fails to call for limiting these repressive policies to commercial, for-profit infringement.

==Only a sustained mobilization will lead to a meaningful copyright reform==
More importantly, the comments surrounding Mrs. Kroes' speech tend to suggest that the fight against ACTA, or a a new incarnation of the decade-long war on sharing, is over. It is not the case. Not until lawmakers engage in a meaningful reform of copyright and stop introducing one after the other bills increasing repression and control the Internet, in the name of enforcing an outdated legal regime and protecting incumbent media industries.

'''These comments risk demobilizing citizens who have protesting against ACTA, when only the sustained democratic participation of all will eventually exert enough pressure on "representative institutions" and make them understand what the Internet and culture sharing is about, and what needs to be done on the legislative side to solve copyright legitimacy's crisis and protect freedoms online.'''

''Don't let them fool ya!''

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[[Category:ACTA]]
[[Category:IPRED]]