Voting No to ACTA
The European Parliament just voted to reject the ACTA treaty.
The treaty was rejected with 39 votes in favour, 478 votes against, and 165 abstentions.
Before the vote on the ACTA treaty itself, the Conservative groups EPP and ECR tried to postpone the decision until after the European Court of Justice has delivered its verdict on the treaty. The motion to delay the process was defeated with 255 votes in favour, 420 votes against, and 9 abstentions.
This is the end of a dossier that the Pirates and the Green group in the European Parliament have been working hard on ever since we got elected three years ago, and it is a great victory.
The victory belongs to all activists who have been bloging, demonstrating, and contacting members of the European Parliament to persuade them to vote no. It was only thanks to the pressure from the outside, from ordinary citizens deciding to make a stand for freedom, that we were able to win this.
Together we have proved that under the right circumstances, and with a lot of hard work, committed citizens can make their voice heard in the European Union.
This is a very valuable lesson for the future.
Thank you, everybody who helped!
…………
Picture by Christian Engström, free for publication CC0
You can check how individual MEPs voted at Votewatch.eu
Christian Engström, former Member of the European Parliament 2009-2014 for Piratpartiet, Sweden
Christian Engström, Pirat 
More days like this would be great to have. ACTA is crushed in a humiliating way. The Higgs boson is with high probability discovered.
Good and bad things usually come in threes, what’s the next good thing on today’s agenda?
Kommentar av Daniel — 4 juli 2012 @ 12:48
This… is… the end of a long struggle. And this time it was a happy ending :). Im sure ACTA will come back in the future in other forms and shapes though! We have to be ever vigilant! but for now… lets celebrate!!!
Kommentar av Ken Rabelius — 4 juli 2012 @ 13:04
[…] Läs mer: Falkvinge, Hax, SR, DN, Miljöpartiets pressmeddelande, SVD, Aftonbladet, GP, Engström […]
Pingback av ACTA-bloggen » ACTA-avtalet besegrat! — 4 juli 2012 @ 13:16
Lets wait which will be the next step of the European Commission. Acta was thrown out of the door, lets guard the windows, chimneys and sewage. I guess that’s where they will try to pass soon with some form of renamed ACTA treaty, as we have seen with other stuff in the past, e.g. software patents.
Kommentar av J. — 4 juli 2012 @ 13:23
@J
”I guess that’s where they will try to pass soon with some form of renamed ACTA treaty, as we have seen with other stuff in the past, e.g. software patents.”
Indeed. provisions similar to the ones in ACTA will appear slipped into otherwise harmless legislation. Just as in your example with software patents, a bureaucracy doesn’t just ”quit”. Not until every avenue of appeal has been exhausted.
And given the scandalous circus acts in bureaucratic prestidigitation which were attempted in order to both obfuscate ACTA’s drafts and push them forward against massive opposition, it’s a given that we’ll see bits and pieces of ACTA haunting proposed bills for many years to come. That much is unavoidable given how many commissioners have staked the last few years of their careers pushing for it.
However…it is highly dubious any multinational treaty will be able to survive tabling containing anything like the ACTA provisions regarding immaterial property. And this is indeed a MASSIVE win in that regard.
Kommentar av Scary Devil Monastery — 4 juli 2012 @ 14:34
Congratulations, and a very big thank you to PP and the green group for the work. This is a day, 4th of July, is truly an independence day for the european people. However, the work is not finished. In the end we all must monitor the pro-ACTA side. We’ve already heard the arguments: the majority was mislead, the people were fooled, we will loose out 100,000+ jobs in Europe and so on. This is completely false, and must be rebutted everywhere, every time. Winning the war is only the first part. We must now win the peace (if there is such a thing).
Kommentar av Johan Tjäder — 4 juli 2012 @ 14:52
Tummen upp! so far…
Kommentar av Nils Ivar Tenmann — 4 juli 2012 @ 15:36
”ACTA” is dead for now, but be aware this is not the end…it is the beginning!
Look here:
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/07/us-proposes-new-copyright-provision-in-major-international-treaty/
”For first time ever, US seeking international limits on copyright
Trans-Pacific Partnership proposal overturns years of precedent.”
Kommentar av Anonym — 4 juli 2012 @ 15:43
I guess that there are lists that show how each individual MEP voted. Does anyone know where those lists can be found?
Kommentar av Kung CG — 4 juli 2012 @ 21:48
@Kung CG,
You can always check how individual members voted at Votewatch.eu
This is a good question, so I updated the blog post with the link.
You can see how the Swedish members voted on ACTA at Europaportalen
Kommentar av Christian Engström — 4 juli 2012 @ 22:20
EU röstade ner ACTA…
Tidigare idag höll EU-parlamentet omröstningen gällande det hårt kritiserade ACTA-avtalet. Med stor majoritet valde ledamöterna att rösta emot att införa avtalet. 478 röstade emot, 39 för och 165 ledamöter bemödade sig inte rösta över huvud taget. När …
Trackback av TkJ.se - Sveriges ledande IT-blogg — 4 juli 2012 @ 23:04
Thanks, Christian!
…and keep up the good work!
Kommentar av Kung CG — 5 juli 2012 @ 7:00
Tack för länken till votewatch. Var det måhända svenska moderaterna som röstade ja till acta.
Kommentar av Esau — 5 juli 2012 @ 9:14
Nej, ingen svensk ledamot röstade för ACTA i huvudomröstningen. Alla följde partilinjen strikt.
Kommentar av Johan Tjäder — 5 juli 2012 @ 12:33
@Johan Tjäder,
Utom Marit Paulsen (FP), som avstod istället för att följa partilinjen att rösta emot.
Kommentar av Christian Engström — 5 juli 2012 @ 17:50
Marit Paulsen, se där ja. Kan ha varit en feltryckning?
Kommentar av Johan Tjäder — 6 juli 2012 @ 9:32
[…] EU-parlamentet ner det omtvistade handelsavtalet ACTA. Det känns oerhört skönt. Det är en oerhört stor seger. Det är dock viktigt att komma ihåg att det här inte är en lättköpt […]
Pingback av Free and thinking » Stort tack till alla som hjälpte till att sänka ACTA! - IDG.se - Störst på IT, dagliga IT-nyheter, tester, forum, guider och nyhetsbrev mm — 12 juli 2012 @ 7:49
[…] EU-parlamentet röstade nej till ACTA-avtalet den 4 juli 2012 var den en riktigt stor seger. Vad var det vi gjorde rätt, och hur kan vi göra […]
Pingback av Hur vi vann ACTA « Christian Engström, Pirate MEP — 8 augusti 2012 @ 16:23