In victory for online free expression, European Parliament rejects ACTA

Reporters Without Borders hails the European Parliament’s rejection of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) today by 478 votes to 39. This is a victory for freedom of information and Net neutrality. ----- 02.07.12 - Down with ACTA! The EU must protect our commons Joint press release by 53 European and International organisations to invite Members of European Parliament to reject ACTA, and beyond, engage in a positive reform of copyright and patents. ACTA threatens fundamental freedoms online, Net neutrality, innovation, access to and sharing of free/libre/open technologies, education, culture, essential medicines and seeds. On Wednesday July 4, the European Parliament will have an historic occasion to reject ACTA as a whole, burying it politically once and for all. Members of the European Parliament of all political groups must follow the advice of the five parliamentary committees that issued opinions, all of which urge rejection of ACTA. A definitive rejection of ACTA would represent a tremendous victory for citizens all around the globe, and for European democracy and citizenship. Such a vote must also resonate with policy makers across Europe, acting as a wake-up call, urging them to break away from an endless cycle of repressive policies. It is time to reform copyright and patent regimes in favour of citizens and contributors to culture and innovation. Access to and sharing of knowledge and culture are essential for building open and democratic societies. We call on European lawmakers to look beyond the rejection of ACTA and to work towards a new framework that nurtures our practices rather than destroying them, a framework fit for the digital age. Signatories:

• ABUL (France) http://www.abul.org
• Access (International) https://www.AccessNow.org
• Act Up-Paris (France) http://www.actupparis.org
• AFUL (France) http://aful.org
• April (France, Europe) http://april.org
• Atlatszo.hu (Hungary) http://www.atlatszo.hu/
• Article 19 (International) http://www.article19.org
• Asociatia pentru Tehnologie si Internet (Romania) - http://www.apti.ro
• Association L'Ange Bleu (France) http://www.ange-bleu.com
• Bits of Freedom (Netherlands) http://bof.nl/
• CLX (France) http://clx.asso.fr
• Constant, association for Arts and Media (Belgium) http://www.constantvzw.org
• Digitale Gesellschaft e.V. (Germany) https://digitalegesellschaft.de
• DFRI (Sweden) https://dfri.se
• Electronic Frontier Finland (Finland) http://www.effi.org/
• Electronic Frontier Foundation (USA) http://www.eff.org
• Electronic Frontier Norway (Norway) http://efn.no/
• European Digital Rights (EU) http:http://www.edri.org
• Fédération FDN (France) http://ffdn.org
• Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (EU) http://www.ffii.org/
• Foundation for Information Policy Research (UK, EU) http://www.fipr.org/
• Framasoft (France) http://www.framasoft.org
• Free and Open Source Software Foundation (Poland) http://fwioo.pl/
• Free Culture Forum (Spain) http://fcforum.net
• Free Hardware Foundation (Italy, Europe) http://fhf.it
• Free Knowledge Institute (Netherlands, Europe) http://freeknowledge.eu
• FriBit (Norway) http://www.fribit.no
• Fundacja Projekt: Polska (Poland) http://projektpolska.pl/
• GreenNet (United Kingdom) http://www.gn.apc.org/
• Hungarian Autonomous Center for Knowledge (Hungary) http://hsbp.org
• International Association of IT Lawyers (International) http://www.iaitl.org
• International Federation for Human Rights (International) http://www.fidh.org
• Internet Society Poland (Poland) http://isoc.org.pl
• IT-Political Association of Denmark (Denmark) http://itpol.dk
• Iuridicum Remedium (Czech Republic) http://www.iure.org
• Julia Group (Sweden) http://www.juliagruppen.se
• La Quadrature du Net (France, Europe) http://laquadrature.net
• L'Autre Net (France) http://lautre.net
• Linux Club Italia (Italy) http://linux-club.org
• Modern Poland Foundation (Poland) http://nowoczesnapolska.org.pl/
• MOGiS e.V. (Germany, Europe) http://mogis-verein.de
• Net Users' Rights Protection Association (Belgium) http://nurpa.be
• Norwegian Unix Users Group (Norway), http://www.nuug.no/
• Open Rights Group (United Kingdom) http://www.openrightsgroup.org/
• Panoptykon Foundation (Poland) http://panoptykon.org/
• Reporters Without Borders (International) http://fbpqwhtvgo.oedi.net
• Société européenne de l'Internet (France, Europe) http://www.ies-france.eu
• Telecomix (International) http://telecomix.org
• TransAtlantic Consumer Dialogue (International) http://www.tacd.org/
• Ubuntu-fr (France) http://ubuntu-fr.org
• UFC Que Choisir (France) http://www.quechoisir.org
• Utopia Cinemas (France) http://www.cinemas-utopia.org
• Vrijschrift (NL) https://www.vrijschrift.org/
• X.net (Spain) http://whois--x.net

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