Germany Refuses To Sign ACTA Amid Protests

H

HardOCP News

[H] News
Joined
Dec 31, 1969
Messages
0
Way to go Germany! All it takes is one country to block ratification of ACTA and, as it sits right now, it looks like that country is Germany. :cool:

In a potentially fatal blow to the Anti-Counterfeit Trade Agreement (ACTA), Germany’s Foreign Office announced today that it will not sign the contentious treaty as protests heat up in 200 cities across Europe. Germany, which has the largest economy in the European Union, follows in the footsteps of Latvia, Poland and the Czech Republic, which signed ACTA, but later said they would block ratification of the treaty.
Click to expand...
 
Good on them. If only our government would repeal our signature..
 
At first I thought it said Genmay refuses to sign ACTA. And I was like WtF?
 
Well, then there is Slovakia, which didn't even sign ACTA yet, and most parties are against it, so ACTA has a very low possibility of actually making through EU (signing by government, ratification by national parliaments, ratification by EU parliament, implementation to local law system of every country). From these steps, it got stuck in 1st or 2nd step in many countries. Some of those who signed it have stopped the ratification process, and some of those who didn't sign it yet doesn't even want to sign it. And it is enough for one EU country not to sign or ratify ACTA and ACTA can wave goodbye to whole EU.
 
Naturally the USA signed on to it back in September and ne'er a peep of coverage from the 4th branch of government.
 
jeremyshaw said:
You mean pressure the Germans to bend over?
Click to expand...

Angela Merkel is an extremely stubborn person. When she makes a decision, she usually stick with it and tell the world to fuck off. Good luck pressuring the Germans. They're fiercely independent and proud.

Alles in ordnung!
 
I so hope this bullshit doesn't get passed. I don't want to have to move to germany or something.
 
Between this and trying to get Greece to get their finances in order, Germany seems like one of the few countries left in the EU that is run by sane people.

Sehr gut Duetschland!
 
Azhar said:
Angela Merkel is an extremely stubborn person. When she makes a decision, she usually stick with it and tell the world to fuck off. Good luck pressuring the Germans. They're fiercely independent and proud.

Alles in ordnung!
Click to expand...
What this shows is Corporations don't control the governments in Europe, they can Lobby(payoff), Wiesel, influence, untill their caught, then back away, they will regroup and try again. The American Government (corporations) are so corrupt, they don't hide it any more, main reason is the internet, thats why their so gung ho in controlling as much as it can through SOPA, PIPA, ACTA, all in the name of Piracy. What the Corporations do is no way even close to what Piracy does to the bottom line.
Piracy=unknown amount of lost sales.
Corporations taxpayers debt= 14 trillion and rising
and not a peep in how the Corporations are going to reign in their free spending ways with the taxpayers hard working contribution. Its amazing that the money the corporation are borrowing is being backed by taxpayers future pension fund, social security because they haven't enough equity in their own assets to borrow from. They want the rest of the world to continue on their bankrupt ideas. Oh well its all coming to a head.
 
jctusmc03 said:
I so hope this bullshit doesn't get passed. I don't want to have to move to germany or something.
Click to expand...

The USA already ratified it...though whether the executive can legally do that according to the Constitution is a problem.
 
Steve for president, he'll get rid of ACTA/SOPA/PIPA, make fun of Apple, AND he'll ensure that everyone lives a [H]ard life. :cool:
 
So in the fight for freedom, and repression from a monoculture we rely on Germany... irony does come in funny shapes :D
 
Deutschland, Deutschland über alles,
Über alles in der Welt,
Wenn es stets zu Schutz und Trutze
Brüderlich zusammenhält.
 
sfsuphysics said:
So in the fight for freedom, and repression from a monoculture we rely on Germany... irony does come in funny shapes :D
Click to expand...

Not really. Germany learned a hard lesson that totalitarian government doesn't work and vowed never to make the same mistakes again.

I think the United States government is getting a bit big for their britches and needs a lesson of it's own.

Can you imagine other world power invading the US to stop fascism and after winning, divide the US into partitions and blocs? Spain gets Florida. England gets the original colonies. The French get the Louisiana Purchase..
 
Zarathustra[H];1038369640 said:
Isn't that verse illegal these days? (At least in Germany?)
Click to expand...

No, but only the third verse is used as the current anthem. The whole thing predates the Nazis by a long time.
 
Zarathustra[H];1038369640 said:
Isn't that verse illegal these days? (At least in Germany?)
Click to expand...

Not really, its a song, doesn't promote Nazi-ism.now if you take the US national anthem. with lines like
"And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,"
"Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just" This ones good.
Please don't rag on me I'm just quoting some lines.
 
Actually guys protests against ACTA are already well spread over Europe tomorrow there will be a huge coordinated protest all over the EU.

So far most of my sysadmin coworkers plan to attend. Yes there will be a huge mass of angry IT guys(cue the nerd jokes).

It looks like ACTA will get its ass handed in Europe :D

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16906086
 
Monkey God said:
Between this and trying to get Greece to get their finances in order, Germany seems like one of the few countries left in the EU that is run by sane people.

Sehr gut Duetschland!
Click to expand...

Get their finances in order? What exactly do you expect the Greeks to do? Every call for austerity costs more jobs, and lowers the tax revenue by about as much as they save which only leads to more calls for austerity followed by another decrease in tax revenue. They can't create more jobs because they're tied to the Euro so no matter how desperate they become for jobs they can't devalue their currency to raise exports (ala China). Deflation is the only thing they can do, but along with the decrease in income for everyone would come a decrease in tax revenue while the debt is unaffected by deflation.

In simpler terms it's like owing $300,000 on a mortgage while you only make $20,000 a year. You used to make more, and think you could afford the mortgage but then outside factors caused your pay to get cut to a third. Now you're behind, can you really EVER get your finances in order when you're unable to leave your job and your boss is constantly asking you for more and more work hours while telling you he's going to keep cutting your pay?

You know who did benefit from the Greeks being tied to the Euro? (Obviously somebody did it or wouldn't have been allowed to happen right?) Germany. By tying their money to poorer countries like Greece it's allowed Germany to have much greater exports than they ever could have on their own (on their own their currency would have risen to heights that made German products unprofitable to export, look at Japanese companies and their struggles right now due to Japan's rising currency valuation)
 
Skripka said:
The USA already ratified it...though whether the executive can legally do that according to the Constitution is a problem.
Click to expand...

Hasn't stopped them so far. The Constitution has been shat upon so much in just the last 10 years or so it's made my head spin.

And if our imperial president can't do it, you can get a government agency to get something done, one of the 60 some odd czars to get something done, or some activist judge to get it done or some combination of the above.
 
Q-BZ said:
Hasn't stopped them so far. The Constitution has been shat upon so much in just the last 10 years or so it's made my head spin.

And if our imperial president can't do it, you can get a government agency to get something done, one of the 60 some odd czars to get something done, or some activist judge to get it done or some combination of the above.
Click to expand...

This is different from all those other cases. According to the Constitution A.II S2 The President cannot make treaties without the consent of the Senate...which in this case the Senate wasn't even informed and forget about it being voted upon and ACTA was made "passed" as an executive order.

As such, ACTA will probably go to the Supreme Court and get summarily repealed.
 
Skripka said:
This is different from all those other cases. According to the Constitution A.II S2 The President cannot make treaties without the consent of the Senate...which in this case the Senate wasn't even informed and forget about it being voted upon and ACTA was made "passed" as an executive order.
Click to expand...

Again, what else is new? Have you been paying attention for the last decade or so?

As such, ACTA will probably go to the Supreme Court and get summarily repealed.
Click to expand...

I doubt it.
 
Zarathustra[H];1038368974 said:
As far as Germany goes, there are definitely a lot worse places to have to move to :p

I wouldn't mind Germany at all :p
Click to expand...

Lol, I simply meant in regards to all of my friends or family being here in the U.S.. I love traveling and there are definitely some nice cities over there.
 
ACTA is now over in EU - Poland will not ratify it, and that means stop of ACTA for whole EU.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top