ACTA up (original) (raw)
Protests across Europe may kill an anti-piracy treaty
NO SOONER was the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) signed than Kader Arif, the European Union's chief negotiator, called it a “masquerade” and resigned. Slovenia's envoy, who signed the deal at a powwow in Japan, called her own behaviour an act of “civic carelessness”. Romania's prime minister (now resigned) admitted he couldn't say why his country had signed it. In Poland, where lawmakers protested by wearing Guy Fawkes masks associated with the Anonymous hacker-activist collective, the prime minister said he would suspend ratification. The Czech Republic and Slovakia (which has not signed it) later did the same.
This article appeared in the International section of the print edition under the headline “ACTA up”
From the February 11th 2012 edition
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