ACTA, or the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement was a vile piece of digital dictatorship jotted down into the form of a bill. The thing basically allowed Governments to control the spread of information, as detailed in our original article. Back in May it was mentioned that ACTA was "effectively dead", but today you can consider it "effectively buried.
According to GameIndustry.biz, in a landslide vote by EU parliament...
In total, 478 MEPs voted against the bill, 39 voted in favour, and 165 abstained. It is the first time the European Parliament has rejected an international trade agreement, in accordance with the Lisbon Treaty.
The vote takes into consideration regions such as the USA, Australia, Canada, Japan, Mexico, Morroco, New Zealand, Switzerland and South Korea. Score one for the good guys.
Basically, this means that you don't have to worry about douche bag corporations, copyright holders or the RIAA or MPAA infringing on your rights to gather, peruse, view and share information on the interwebs.
The main idea is that intrusive bills such as PIPA, SOPA, CISPA and ACTA work to control media information insofar that people are restricted to what kind of info users have access to. So how does this help copyright holders? Well, it means that you're forced to purchase the information from the original copyright holder if you want it. For example, you watch a trailer on your favorite website and the studio who distributed the trailer can shutdown the website and force everyone to visit the studio's own site in order for people to view the trailer. Condense and control information flow, that's the purpose.
Regardless, ACTA won't be put into effect and the bill is dead and buried, which is the best anyone who values some form of digital freedom could have asked for. With more than 2 million people signing a petition and countless others stepping up to the plate to denounce the bill, it at least shows that some individuals still do value their freedoms.
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