Friday, August 3, 2012

ACTA Now an Issue in French Presidential Election

by Thomas O'Toole

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Over the past weekend the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement became an issue in the French presidential election. Francois Hollande, the Socialist candidate, published a message on his campaign website declaring that ACTA threatens internet access and free speech rights. Hollande complained that ACTA had been surreptitiously hijacked from its original purpose of combating commercial counterfeiting. His message called on the European Parliament to reject the treaty.

The French presidential election will take place April 22. Pre-election polling indicates that Hollande leads incumbent President Nicolas Sarkozy, a champion of stronger copyright protections and supporter of ACTA. France signed ACTA Jan. 26. That same day Kader Arif, another French Socialist party member, resigned his role as the European Parliament’s lead negotiator for ACTA, calling the treaty “a masquerade.”

Sarkozy and French Socialists previously butted heads over France’s HADOPI “three strikes” copyright enforcement measure, legislation that was ushered into law by the Sarkozy government in 2009.

In France, an estimated 7,000 persons participated in street protests Feb. 11 against ACTA and the still-unpopular HADOPI law.

By Thomas O'Toole

Follow this blogger on Twitter at @bnatechlaw.

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