European Parliament
A7-0204/2012
David Campbell Bannerman  (ECR ).
– Mr President, the ACTA agreement is one I wish I could champion. I very much agree we need measures to counter piracy and protect intellectual property, which is vital to business, but I cannot support this ACTA. It is not acceptable in its current form. It is too catch-all. Whilst the thrust of the agreement is worthy, the devil is in the detail. In the detail, we find that Internet service providers will be forced to spy on all their customers, Chinese-state style, becoming legally responsible for pirated files. Search engines could be closed for aiding and abetting.
In this ACTA, we have what I call ‘pre-crime’, as in the movie
Minority Report
, where you can have your PCCs on the mere suspicion of infringement. You have a loose definition of commercial scale, which could see many law-abiding citizens prosecuted for very low-key usage. You have customs officers able to go through your files at airports, and we have this unaccountable ACTA committee which has the power to make changes without referring back to this Parliament or others.
In conclusion, I support the aim but I do not support the detail of ACTA.
(The speaker agreed to take a blue-card question under Rule 149(8))

