Getting rid of the copyright’s aspect in ACTA as Mrs Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger (German Federal minister of justice) suggested would fail to solve ACTA’s inherent problems.

The following is a non-exhaustive list of issues that will not be solved by political sleight of hand.

A fair balance between protecting intellectual property rights and preserving fundamental rights would still not be achieved. As confirmed by the European Economic and Social Committee, ACTA's approach is aimed at further strengthening the position of rights holders vis-à-vis the "public".

For decades, committed pro-European politicians and academics have wished for a number of ingredients that would be necessary for the credibility of the European institutional framework. They wanted an effective, representative and democratic European Parliament. They wanted a European Parliament that was not just theoretically an equal player in the institutional framework in Brussels, but a Parliament that was a genuine counterweight to the Council (the Member States) and the European Commission. Finally, and most difficult to create, pro-European thinkers dreamed of the possibility of pan-European political campaigns driven by pan-European political movements.

After all of the announcements of ACTA's death, one would wonder why anybody would have felt the need to turn up to the anti-ACTA demonstrations today. In April, the European Parliamentarian in charge of the ACTA dossier said that ACTA was dead.[1] In May, the European Commissioner for the Information Society, Neelie Kroes, said that ACTA was dead.[2] Now, in June, four different European Parliament Committees rejected ACTA.[3] Was tumbleweed going to be the only participant at the ACTA demonstrations?

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Deutsch: Netzneutralität: BEREC präsentiert neuste Erkenntnisse

On 29 May 2012, The Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC) published its findings in its joint investigation with the European Commission regarding traffic management and other practices that lead to restrictions to an open Internet in Europe.

This investigation was based on over 400 responses to a questionnaire addressed to European operators in fixed and mobile markets and includes three publications in the context of Net Neutrality (the quality of service guidelines, a report on differenti

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Deutsch: Niederlande schreiben als erstes Land Netzneutralität vor

On 8 May 2012, The Netherlands adopted crucial legislation to safeguard an open and secure internet. It is the first country in Europe to implement net neutrality into its national law. In addition, it adopted provisions protecting users against disconnection and wiretapping by providers. Digital rights movement Bits of Freedom calls on other countries to follow the Dutch example.

The net neutrality law prohibits internet providers from interfering with the traffic of their users.

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Deutsch: Häufig gestellte Fragen zur Vorlage des ACTA-Abkommens beim Europäis...

Following the recent decision of the European Commission to refer the draft Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) to the European Court of Justice, Access and EDRi have prepared this short FAQ to explain this process.

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Deutsch: EDRi's Stellungnahme zur Konsultation über Netzneutralität und Trans...

Net Neutrality is at the centre of the debate in almost every European institution. The European Commission has been looking at this topic for more than a year now and is moving more and more away from its initial position to uphold net neutrality in Europe. In contrast to her own statements in January 2010, Vice-President Neelie Kroes is now advocating a wait-and-see-approach stressing the importance of transparency and the ability to switch operators.

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Deutsch: Abstimmung zur Netzneutralität im Europäischen Parlament

The industry committee (ITRE) of the European Parliament unanimously adopted the resolution on the open Internet and net neutrality on 20 October 2011. All compromise amendments as well as amendments 7, 8, 45, 46, 47, 56, 57 (from the full amendment list, below) have been adopted.

Overall, the result is far better than initially expected and underlines the importance of the principle of net neutrality as crucial for innovation, competition, freedom of expression and the value of the open Internet for society.

In